It needs to be this because the sodium in dishwasher salt combines with resin balls in your dishwasher’s workings to absorb the hardness. The resin balls have a negative atomic charge and the dishwasher salt has a positive atomic charge. In reality, they should all be the same. All of them will be 100% salt, with no added anti-caking agents.

If you think you're having to refill it too often then you could try lowering the water hardness setting on your dishwasher. As far as I am aware, Finish only make products for dishwashers and that in itself tells you something. And only put salt into the softener unit. The salt you pour in the softener unit never actually touches your dishes; it just stays in the unit itself. If you leave loose salt in the dishwasher, not only will it not work properly, but it may also give you slightly dirty (or salty) dishes.Never put salt into other spots marked for normal detergent, dishwasher cleaner or rinse aid, as this could easily break your appliance. How to use rinse aid It needs to be 100% NaCl, and cooking salts often have anti-caking agents to stop them from clumping together.

The calcium and magnesium swap with the sodium ions, removing the ‘hardness’ and softening the water. So any anti-caking agents or magnesium salts will just defeat the purpose of removing magnesium. To find out how hard the water in your home is, consult your water supplier – you can usually find the information online. You'll be able to find the concentration of calcium and magnesium ions, usually in millimole per litre (mmol/l). If you've done this, then rinsing it with water can help make sure the softener doesn't get clogged with salt. Why is the dishwasher salt reservoir full of water?On the supermarket shelves there will likely be a few options, including Finish and the supermarket own-brand version. After the first time you use it, your softener unit should always have a bit of water in it. You won’t need to refill it. Why does the dishwasher keep asking for salt? You can often adjust the salt setting on your dishwasher to suit the hardness of the water in your area. Hard water can cause glasses to become cloudy over time, as well as clog up the insides of your dishwasher with limescale.

Depending on how many washes you do you might have to fill up the rinse aid every few weeks. When doing so it can sometimes have a maximum fill line, which you should not go over. If the salt you use doesn't have anti-caking agents, such as calcium carbonate or magnesium carbonate, then you can use it. Although there would be little benefit as it would likely be more expensive than regular dishwasher salt. All-in-one tablets will have some salt in to help replenish the water softener, although we still recommend that you top up with dishwasher salt if you want the best results. This is because the salt in the tablet often isn't enough to protect dishes from cloudiness over many washes. Dishwasher salt problems Is there too much salt in my dishwasher? Most dishwashers also now have a salt refill light. If your dishwasher doesn’t have indicator lights, it’s a good idea to refill the salt about once per month. Dishwasher cleaner, salt and rinse aid have the massively important task of cleaning the machine that does the cleaning. Namely, they stop your dishwasher from retaining dirt, passing grime onto your dishes and will enable it to clean your dishes more effectively. Not as elegant a job as the dishwasher itself, perhaps, but still important, nonetheless.If, like me, you use the fast setting mainly on your dishwasher. Make sure that at least once a week, you use the normal setting, as it cleans through the pipes with the hotter water and stops clogging issues. Also, use Finish dishwasher cleaners at least once a month on an empty dishwasher. Normal mode is fine, you don't need to use intensive. This will all help to make sure that your dishwasher lasts you foe years and it will avoid your machine beeping at you, mid cycle because it is gunged up. Only fill up the salt to the water level inside the salt compartment. The amount you put in depends on your dishwasher, so there’s no precise measurement for this process. Whenever you're topping up the salt in your dishwasher you're aiming to make a saltwater brine, so you don't want to fill it up to the point that the water inside is overflowing. On a box of Finish dishwasher salt you’ll see ‘100% better protection’, but if you read further you’ll see this isn’t compared to other dishwasher salts; it’s only compared to not using salt at all.