Have hard water laden with minerals.
Always use vinegar in the dishwasher in the rinse cyle. Put vinegar in manually into dishwasher during rinse cycle. (Not in rise container)
One has to be watching when dishwasher is in rise cycle.

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"Well obviously you save more energy money and water by not using dishwashers..."
Actually this is far from true. All objective evidence indicates quite the opposite, for example;

"Scientists at the University of Bonn [pdf] in Germany who studied the issue found that the dishwasher uses only half the energy, one-sixth of the water, and less soap than hand-washing an identical set of dirty dishes...Most dishwashers manufactured since 1994 use seven to 10 gallons of water per cycle..."
- http://environment.about.com/od/greenlivingdesign/a/dishwashers.htm

So please, use the dishwasher when you can! Turn of the dry cycle however, as "The water used in most dishwashers is hot enough, he says, to evaporate quickly if the door is left open after the wash and rinse cycles are complete."

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I mostly prefer wahshing dishes by hand, but the dishwasher works better for some things.

I cook everything from scratch in bulk, and I do a LOT of baking. It's extremely difficult to wash large baking pans that don't fit in the sink by hand, but they do fit in the dishwasher.

I also prefer to use the dishwasher for canning jars when I'm getting ready to can. Jars have to be very, VERY clean, with no residue, and they get much cleaner in the dishwasher. It's impossible to get my hands inside the narrow-mouth jars, and it's hard getting them properly clean with a bottle brush, but they do get clean in the dishwasher.

When you need to clean several dozen jars for canning, into the dishwasher they go!

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Well obviously you save more energy money and water by not using dishwashers, and washing by hand. Pluss you only need to buy one aditive. I believe vinegar will do the job. Right now I am using an enviromentally freindly soap. Haven't tried vinegar yet but will try. It's cheaper and more enviro freindly. You get some extra exersize, and the dishes gets cleaner. :)

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Well obviously you save more energy and money without dishwashers.
I haven't really tried it but i believe clear vinegar would do the job of cleaning dishes in hand. Plus you have to spend money on extra soap, salt...when using the dishwasher.
It also gets cleaner in hand and you get some more exerzise. Alot of the electricitywe use is really in exess, and a waste of money.

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Well obviously you save more energy and money without dishwashers.
I haven't really tried it but i believe clear vinegar would do the job of cleaning dishes in hand. Plus you have to spend money on extra soap, salt...when using the dishwasher.
It also gets cleaner in hand and you get some more exerzise. Alot of the electricitywe use is really in exess, and a waste of money.

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ENJO's Calcium Dissolver is great as an additon to dishwasher soaps -just a few drops and helps keep the glasses clear and not cloudy. www.enjo.net
-CJM

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I also use the Shaklee dishwasher product and have for 6 years. I have lived in a house with hard well water with lots of mineral deposits, semi- hard city water, and very soft water. In all of these conditions I have never had to pre-clean my dishes or rinse them afterwards. They always come out sparkling - unless the water temp is too cold from too many showers. Then sometimes my glasses look a little cloudy. But then, I rinse them and they are fine.

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Mary M, sorry about that. It could depend on your water. Water can be hard or soft, and have a variety of minerals, additives, etc. Everyone's water is different, so what works for one person may not work for another.

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Hey, I recently tried that homemade dishwasher detergent recipe as posted by Lady Cat. I'd run out of my usual biodegradable, environmentally-friendly, Shaklee GET CLEAN Automatic Dishwasher Concentrate. Her recipe
didn't work for me and in fact, made MORE work for me! It left an awful powdery residue all over my glasses, even with vinegar in the rinse cup and so they all had to be hand-washed. Even running them through AGAIN with only vinegar in the wash as well as the rinse cycle failed to remove it! I can't WAIT for my GET CLEAN to come in!
Mare

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