Water stains on the dishes after washing them? Here are a few tips to remedy this problem

It is never pleasant to open the dishwasher when it has finished its wash cycle to find various glasses and dishes stained with a whitish film. This film is formed by the residue left by hard water and it sometimes forces us to wash the glasses a second time to get them as clear and bright as we would like them.

As mentioned, this problem happens when the water is rich in mineral deposits - which is common to most urban water systems. To counter this phenomenon, some useful precautions can be used, such as those listed below:

• Do not use too much dish washing detergent: even an excess of this soap increases the chances of finding yourself with water stains left on the dishes. Since the dishes remain covered by an invisible layer of soap, this layer can retain the minerals present in the water.
• Don't overload your dishwasher - water doesn't get everywhere in the same amount when the dishwasher is overloaded, and rinsing unevenly can contribute to the problem.
• Use rinse aid: both those made specifically for dishwashers and some DIY alternatives are very useful. You can in fact use white vinegar, or by dissolving 2 tablespoons of citric acid in 100 ml of boiling water.
• Use salt - it must be 100% sodium chloride (and not normal cooking salt). In fact, the salts for dishwashers are designed, both in terms of particle size and composition, precisely to prevent the formation of limescale in the pipes located in the section in which the various tablets or detergents enter the system. Often, however, in the making of cooking salt there are also other additives that should not be used in the dishwasher - so don’t use cooking salt.
• Hand drying the dishes avoids the formation of white spots, so you can interrupt the wash cycle and hand dry the dishes (which also helps reduce power consumption).
• Also consider investing in a home water softener, which serves to counteract the excess of calcium and magnesium ions entering your home’s water system by replacing them with sodium ions.

As you can see, then, there are various ways to avoid having to use table glasses which, although clean, appear clouded by a whitish film or are stained by mineral deposits. Do you have any other effective ways to avoid this problem?