Keep your glasses sparkling clean by understanding why they cloud up.
Dishwashers help keep dishes clean and sanitized, saving you the job of scrubbing them until they sparkle. However, some dishes such as glasses come out of the dishwasher with a cloudy and dull appearance. While the glasses are still safe for drinking purposes, the visual appeal simply is not there. This problem is often the result of the water used to clean them and is easily remedied.
Hard Water
All water contains certain amounts of minerals such as calcium and magnesium. These minerals are not harmful and in many cases are necessary for healthy human, animal and plant growth. Water containing high levels of these minerals is known as hard water, which often leaves behind a residue of mineral deposits on any surface it touches. If you have hard water running through your dishwasher, your glasses may appear to be cloudy or dirty-looking no matter how many times you wash them.
Hard Water Test
Hard water is easy to spot if your glasses look cloudy, but there is a way to be certain that hard water is your cloudiness culprit. Simply place a glass into a container of undiluted distilled white vinegar, and allow the glass to soak in the vinegar for 5 minutes. After the soaking period is over, remove the glass and rinse it under clean water. Dry the glass and examine it for cloudiness. If the cloudiness has disappeared, hard water is your problem. If the cloudiness remains on the glass, this is a sign of another problem.
Preventing Cloudiness
A dishwasher with a water softener feature often greatly reduces or eliminates hard water cloudiness on glasses. Water softeners use salt to remove calcium and magnesium ions from water and replaces them with sodium ions, which not only reduces the amount of residue left behind on your glasses but also increases the effectiveness of your dishwasher detergent. If your dishwasher does not have a water softening feature, install a water softener on your household water supply. And use less detergent, whether you use a water softener or not, to reduce the amount of abrasive substances in your wash water that could cloud your glasses.
Another Cause of Cloudiness
The vinegar test does not always remove cloudiness from glasses. If the cloudiness remains, your glasses probably have a problem known as etching, which occurs when too much detergent is used for the level of water hardness in your water supply. The detergent is unable to properly dissolve and acts as an abrasive blast, leaving permanent marks or pitting on your glasses. This condition is not reversible, and the only way to be rid of it is to replace your glasses. Again, proper monitoring of detergent helps prevent etching. Using long cycles, such as those for pots and pans, or pre-rinsing glasses could add to etching on glasses.
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