Water stains in the north.

azith28

I moved to Cleveland from the south about 12 years ago. Ever since then I've had this wierd issue with doing my dishes. I inevitably end up with white streaks on anything metal or plastic. I pre-rinse, I've tried hand washing/drying, dishwasher heat drying, etc but they always come back and are very difficult to remove, barely coming off with dishsoap. I've mostly switched to using paper plates and cutlery just to avoid the problem as I've ended up throwing out quite a bit of metal flatware because its too much trouble to remove.

I've also moved in this time so its not my dishwasher like I first thought. Any suggestions on how to remove it (I've tried CLR, even that does not remove them so it does not appear to be calcium/lime buildup). Any ideas what is likely the cause?

Wassermelone

Despite the clr it probably is still hard water. Its devilishly annoying to deal with

The best thing my wife and I found while we lived in south cali (which also has very hard water) was Finish Quantum. Its a bit on the expensive side for dish detergent, but I would happily be one of those "It really works!" people vapidly staring at sparkling wine glasses in one of their commercials. Because in my experience its one of the only things that did.

This stuff:

Naphtali

Wassermelone wrote: »

Despite the clr it probably is still hard water. Its devilishly annoying to deal with

The best thing my wife and I found while we lived in south cali (which also has very hard water) was Finish Quantum. Its a bit on the expensive side for dish detergent, but I would happily be one of those "It really works!" people vapidly staring at sparkling wine glasses in one of their commercials. Because in my experience its one of the only things that did.

This stuff:

yeah, I use those (or the step down, there's several levels for those finish tabs) and finish jet dry and with my hard water the dishes come out pretty clean with very little streaking (or none). glasses are usually fine and sometimes I get a bit on utensils but not always.

azith28

Is that more for prevention or removal?
(Or both)

Naphtali

azith28 wrote: »

Is that more for prevention or removal?
(Or both)

Probably more of the former than the latter, but I'd think it would work both ways.

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

That finish stuff really works. We also moved from the South to the North and had crazy problems with streaking.

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

And weirdly enough, I think the cheap brands did not work as well. Which is a rare thing.

spool32

The best and only real solution, the only thing that has saved us from intensely hard lime-infused water, was this: Lemi-shine detergent additive

We throw the cleaning pod in the bottom of the machine, pour that in where you'd pour a detergent powder, and never have a single spot, ever.

If we don't use it, within two loads it looks like I coated every dish and glass with flour.




This is the stuff, dude.

azith28

Hum..Thanks guys , I'll see if i can find that around here or get it from amazon.

bowen

Ultimately the issue, at least with hard water, is that companies were required to remove phosphates from soaps and detergents. You can still find it, if you look, but it's harder to come by because they really ratcheted down on companies that were putting it in everything, and even for people that didn't need it, which was bad for the environment.

Another option is an under-the-sink water filtration/softener. Those will run you about $500-800 for the initial set up. (Edit: assuming your dishwasher uses the sink's water and not its own)

Cambiata

I just have to say I love the title of this thread. "Water Stains in the North" sounds like the title of a sci fi short story. Maybe something about discovering what appears to be water (but it's really something more sinister) on a planet while travelling in an interstellar ark ship.

azith28

Why go interstellar, you can find that in Flint, MI. (spoiler alert, thats not water!)

I'm in a rental townhouse so im not installing things under the sink, its just not really a viable option.

bowen

If the stuff spool linked doesn't work, look for dishwashing detergent with phosphate.

If you can't find any (it's hard), 1/2 teaspoon of trisodium phosphate in your detergent should be enough, which you should be able to pick up at home depot or any home/garden store (usually with the deck/cleaning supplies or Amazon). The phosphates that were the harm to the environment were from fertilizer runoff, not dishwashers. Most of sewage and waste water is treated before released back into the wild, unlike fertilizer.

Grislo

Cambiata wrote: »

I just have to say I love the title of this thread. "Water Stains in the North" sounds like the title of a sci fi short story. Maybe something about discovering what appears to be water (but it's really something more sinister) on a planet while travelling in an interstellar ark ship.

The title made me pretty curious too.

That aside, my advice would be to ask a local. Preferably a friend or someone at work, or whatever, but bonus points if you just grab a stranger and start talking about stains. The general advice here has been good, though, but as someone who lives with a similar sounding problem, some things just seem destined to get stained after a while with certain types of water.

Darkewolfe

The North remembers... to rinse.