Are you careful to buy a good-quality brand of dishwasher detergent? If you live in Utah or California, that may not be an indicator of performance. Recently, the Utah Legislature decided that it would be a good way to show our ‘green-ness’ if it was made illegal to have phosphates in the dishwasher detergent. They did this in spite of information that it is not difficult to remove phosphates from the water at treatment facilities. This has made the performance of all of the dishwashers in the state drop significantly, even to the point of completely ruining some dishwashers. My sister-in-law, Care Bear, has to replace a dishwasher that is barely two years old, due to mineral build-up inside the working parts and I’m hearing this same sad song from others as well. Thanks, lawmakers, this is just what we needed – now Big Brother washes our dishes too – he just does a really bad job of it.
Fortunately, if you learn about it in time you can prevent a lot of problems by occasionally running a dishwasher cleaner, like LemiShine, or some citric acid through while the dishwasher is empty. Also, be sure to always use rinse-aid in the machine. Not only will your dishes be sparklier, but your dishwasher will love you and be more likely to live a long and happy life.
winner-winner, chicken dinner 🙂
Weathering The Journey 
We’ve been using plain vinegar in ours for months now and it works just fine. I put in a few tablespoons at the start of the was cycle and the dishes come out better than they used to before the whole phosphate issue.
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I tried to get my family on board with the vinegar method, but finally decided it was easier to buy the rinse aid than be stubborn and supervise (or just do) all the dishes myself.
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Hi, Dustin from Lemi Shine here, I just wanted to let you know about a new humanitarian project we launched called Project Ethiopia. We are challenging our blog friends to help us get the word out. If you would like to write a post about it here are the direct links to the information.
Press Release > http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/lemishine/prweb8896551.htm
Website > http://projects.lemishine.com
Direct Video Link > http://youtu.be/3wL9j4MVV9M
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This is a great idea in concept. I just want to verify the sustainability and long-term local ownership of responsibility of the projects. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” It may be cliche, but it’s also true.
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