Why dishwashers need salt & rinse aid to function better

Many factors go into making a dishwasher a high-quality and reliable one. When you go to purchase a brand dishwasher, it may be your first time doing so, and you are not sure where to begin. What qualifications should you look for? What brands? Quickly, you will realise that many factors need to be considered to make sure you purchase a high-quality machine.

To give you a quick background into the most critical factors that make a dishwasher high-quality, you should first look at the cycle options it offers and consider the types of dishes you will be using it for. Do you have a lot of wine glasses? You will want to look for a machine that has a ‘gentle’ cycle. Another thing to look at is the noise level. Dishwashers should have a low noise-level when running, somewhere between 40 dB(decibels) and 50 dBs.

Make sure to choose a Dishwasher with a good filter. The filters help keep the water free of food particles that could end up sticking to your dishes. There are two types of filters: Manual and self-cleaning. If you choose a manual filter, make sure to clean it regularly to avoid odours and mould.

With your new knowledge of what makes a dishwasher high-quality, let’s talk Rinse-aids.

You’ve probably heard the term thrown around, and more than likely, your new dishwasher came with a sample of it…but as far as understanding what it does, you may be unsure. Despite the misleading name, rinse aid doesn’t have anything to do with cleaning dishes. Believe it or not, it helps to remove water from dishes after they’ve gone through the wash cycle. So if we were to give it a more logical name, it would be called a drying aid.

 

How rinse aids work is it lowers the surface tension of water; think Rain-X on your car’s windshield vs. no Rain-X. When dishes in the dishwasher are drying, small droplets of water will form on them, leaving spotty residue on the dishes. However, with a rinse aid, it will help spread the water into thinner sheets that roll off your dishes (just like Rain-X!) It also will help your dishes to dry faster, and who doesn’t love that?

Another way to help your dishwasher stay clean and wash your dishes better is to use a salt rinse(which essentially does the same thing as a rinse-aid.) A salt aid works to reset the built-in water softener that is in every type of dishwasher. There are two compounds in hard water that causes spots and less clean dishes; Magnesium ions and calcium. The salt aid goes in and neutralises those compounds, promoting a clean and spot-free wash. When the water in your dishwasher loses it’s ‘softness,’ you risk your dishes forming hard-water stains and the machine working at a lower level of quality.

Without the use of a rinse-aid or salt aid, watermarks and stains can be a constant problem. Hard water causes them which in turn will cause your detergent and machine to be less effective at thoroughly cleaning your dishes. Since rinse and salt aids work to eliminate the deposits of limescale and compounds in the water, your dishes will come out looking, feeling and smelling cleaner and fresher. Make sure to refill your dishwasher regularly with the rinse or salt aid to help ensure that no matter the water hardness level, your dishes will come out sparkling after every single wash while also protecting your machine from limescale build-up.

Now that you better understand the components of a quality dishwasher as well as why a rinse-aid is essential to let us do the rest for you. At Brisbane Appliance Sales (BAS) We have a selection of slimline dishwashers that help make clean-up easy and affordable. Take the guesswork out of purchasing and upkeep and have one of our friendly staff members answer all of your appliance questions with a vast array of knowledge. You’ll walk away with peace of mind knowing that you are taking home a high-quality appliance that will last for the years to come.

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