Dishwasher Salt or Ordiinary Salt?

Careful_with_that_Axe

Hi
Is it really necessary to use special dishwasher salt?
Am I likely to cause any damage to new tabletop dishwasher if I just use cheap old table salt?

Advice gratefully received.

ariba10

It depends on the hardness of the water.

We live in a soft water area and have never used salt. Our dishwasher is eleven years old.

richardw

A bag of dishwasher salt lasts ages.

loracan1

Only ever bought one bag of salt, back in 1994, soft water area so never bothered again.

sunshine54

i would think dishwasher salt is cheaper than table salt

insider66

Careful_with_that_Axe wrote: »

Hi
Is it really necessary to use special dishwasher salt?
Am I likely to cause any damage to new tabletop dishwasher if I just use cheap old table salt?

Advice gratefully received.

Might be worth reading this
http://www.dishwasher-care.org.uk/best.html#ordinary

also, try checking on your water companies website, you can usually put your post code in to find out about your water quality, if it's soft, you may not need salt

HTH

Careful_with_that_Axe

Thanks for all the replies. I do live in an area with very soft water. I was just tempted to try dishwasher for the first time yesterday, and I had neglected to buy sat for it, but had a big bag of cheap household salt.

loracan1

I don't think I deserve that my dishwasher is still working after reading that!

Never use salt (not even sure where I'd put it now)
The freshener is ancient
I don't scrape off much food - I bought a dishwasher to avoid that chore.
Use the cheapest tabs I can find and break them in half
Never use rinse-aid

Only thing I do on a regular basis is scrub the filters, did remove and clean the arms last week cos they were squeaking.

sunshine54

one thing to never do is put washing up liquid in if you run out of tabs:rotfl:

trust me i won't do it again :mad: cost me a service call

lynzpower

God I go through a bag of DW salt at least one a week! This week Ive needed 2!

It is expensive- its 20p cheaper in tescos than sains though.

Careful_with_that_Axe

sunshine54 wrote: »

one thing to never do is put washing up liquid in if you run out of tabs:rotfl:

trust me i won't do it again :mad: cost me a service call

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :T