Dishwasher recommendation

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82088651#Comment_82088651

According to the manual for our Bosch dishwasher:

The water softening/salt system can be switched off, up to a water hardness of 26E ( medium hard) if using detergent/tablets etc. which include a salt element. Although they do not specifically recommend you switch it off.

Our water is harder than that, so as well as combined tablets, the water softening is set to 3 but that is less than the 5 or 6 if you do not use combined tablets. This means I have to refill the salt less often, and everything still cleans OK.

As you say rinse aid is less critical and you can switch off the function if using combined tablets ( especially the more expensive ones) or at least turn it down so it only uses minimum amounts. This also means less chemicals going down the drain.