Before you replace a dishwasher you're not completely happy with, read this!

Looking at the range of detergents available for dishwashers, I have to believe that almost everyone uses tabs and very few use powdered dishwasher soap.

A claim on e.g. Fairy dishwashing tabs says "The capsule is a combination of liquid and powder that dissolves quickly."

In other words, all chemical agents are in use at the same time.

As a result, most people risk getting a poor dishwashing result. Most dishwashers have programmes consisting of 3 cycles with water changes in between:

1. "pre-wash" or rough rinse. This is where the water gets the dirtiest and therefore also needs a detergent to help dissolve grease and prevent dirt from sticking to the crockery.
2. "main wash", which is the part that takes the longest and where a dishwasher tab often comes into play if you remembered to put it in the soap drawer and not just throw it into the machine
3. Rinsing and drying

All 3 parts actually need help in the form of the chemicals you use.

1. Most dishwashers have a small compartment next to the detergent dispenser. This compartment typically has some holes or crevices for water to enter and dissolve the soap - if you remembered to add soap for the important pre-wash.
2. In the ‘main wash’, the soap dispenser opens and releases the tab, so all is well here. Your detergent belongs in the soap dispenser and not in the bottom of the machine, for example, where it is rinsed out in the pre-wash!
3. When rinsing, it is important that the salt container is full and that there is rinsing agent in the machine. Many dishwashers, including my own, have a dishwasher setting that claims that salt and rinse aid are not necessary. But of course it still is, the rinse aid has long since been rinsed out and is therefore of no use in this phase.

So if you want the best possible result, you should do the following:

1. Make sure there is detergent available in the pre-wash, either old-fashioned dishwasher powder if you can get it, otherwise half a dishwasher tab or whatever you can fit in the small extra compartment
2. Use a dishwasher tab or dishwashing powder in the soap dispenser. The brand doesn't matter and neither does the price, the key ingredients are always the same.
3. Always keep the machine supplied with salt and rinse aid if you want to minimise streaks and limescale deposits.
4. Occasionally use a dishwasher cleaner that is simply run through a short programme. This helps remove limescale deposits in the nozzles on the rinsing arms, for example.
5. If you follow the above, you don't need to rinse before washing dishes, but you should of course remove all larger food residues. If you only wash dishes every few days, it's best to rinse them so they don't become disgusting.

If you are using a very short programme without pre-wash, one dishwasher tab is sufficient, but there should still be salt and rinse aid in the machine.