Expert: Robert Lamb - 8/15/2008

Question
my new drinking glasses have water spots on them after coming out of the dishwasher a couple of times.  Can you suggest anything to clean them?  Thank you.

Answer
Kathy,

What you are describing is hard water - this is an ongoing problem in kitchens and bathrooms every where. It's also the reason car washes offer a spot free rinse. In this case, the rinse water is deionized. Calcium and magnesium found in water are the main reasons for these spots. Spots on glass shower doors appear for the same reason. When water is heated, cooled, or evaporated, minerals in the water leave usually harmless white spots on glasses, coffeepots, and shower heads.

To get rid of the white residue that remains on glasses and see through glass containers, you need a mild acid, such as vinegar or something specifically designed to cut through hard water. Try this easy fix. Stop the dishwasher BEFORE the dry cycle and add about a cup of white vinegar run through entire cycle and presto no white film on the glassware!

Remember, it is important not to use any other cleaning products or soap while using this method. It should work fine and you will find that your dishes looking so much brighter!

Another simple fix is to use a rinse agent. That will probably solve your problem. Rinse agents help water to "sheet" off surfaces. If your glasses are coming out with water spots that can be polished away, these products will help. Some rinse agents you might try are Jet Dry, Cascade Complete or the Electrasol Powerball tabs with the jet dry "powerball" in the middle.

If these easy fixes don't work, you may need a whole house water softener that resides in the basement or garage and uses salts to reduce the metals in the water for the whole house.  Sears, Home Depot, Lowe's all sell them and you can install the unit yourself. If you go this route, you might want to contact a company like Culligan. Here's their web site: www.culligan.com.

The first thing they (or you) will need to do is test your water hardness using a total dissolved solids (TDS) meter and look for a maximum of just a few grains per gallon hardness. Cheap test kits can be found at some hardware store, Sears or your water district. Any more than a few parts per million (ppm) and you are asking for trouble.

You may also want to try a filtration system like this one: http://dishwasherfilter.com/main.sc Of course, you will also need to purchase filters on occasion if you use this system.

Incidentally, this is a good read to clean out your dishwasher: http://www.howtocleanstuff.net/kitchen-and-bath/how-to-clean-dishwashers/

I have run the dishwasher with CLR (Calcium Lime and Rust Remover) to clean it out. Dollar store brand. Worked great!

Let me know how it turns out.

Sincerely,

Robert Lamb
Window Masters
www.robscleaningservice.com