The Problem
I know the problems vary region to region, but especially if you have well water, you will have problems with build-up on your… well, most likely, everything. In this post we will be focusing on the build-up on our dishes and how to fix it!
The house that we currently live in has well water and, as is the case with most houses in Western Pennsylvania, our water is hard, meaning there is more iron and other minerals in the water than in many other parts of the country. While our water is hard, it’s not terrible—it doesn’t smell like sulfur or turn our white clothes orange, but it does leave a build-up on our glasses.
It wasn’t so bad at first, just a few white, water spot-looking marks left on our glasses. But these white marks didn’t wipe off—and they didn’t wash off either. Over the years these spots got worse and worse until our glasses were so foggy that you could not see through the glass! I had decided to ignore this facet of our home and not let it bother me—the dishware was still sanitary after all, until my mother mentioned it. I figured if it was bad enough that she noticed then I should probably try to correct the situation!
The Process
I have had great success removing build-up on other surfaces with vinegar so I did a little research and decided to try soaking my glasses in a large stainless steel pot with a solution of half water and half distilled white vinegar. I let the glasses soak for about 5-10 minutes depending on how bad that build-up was on the glass and the results were amazing! In most cases, my glasses looked brand new when coming out of the vinegar solution! What about the cases where the build-up still existed after soaking? For those, the build-up had softened and by washing them by hand and paying just a little attention to the area of the glass that was still foggy, I was able to completely remove the foggy build-up to reveal sparkling clear glass! I had forgotten how glassware is really supposed to look!
How to Avoid the Issue in the Future?
After investing all that time into soaking, and washing by hand all the glasses, I wanted to try something to avoid that happening again—or at least right away! While I am willing to go through that process every now and then, I hardly want to set aside time to soak my glasses every month.
I started doing some research into using vinegar as a natural rinse aid in my dishwasher. I remember my grandmother doing this but couldn’t remember how she did it or how much vinegar she used. It was suggested that you sit a ¼-½ cup of vinegar on the top shelf of your dishwasher. We have been doing this and so far so good! I would start with the lesser amount and then up it to more like the ½ cup amount if you find that your glasses are still collecting spots!
Warning- One Last Note
Don’t Use Vinegar in Your Rinse-Aid CompartmentWhy put vinegar in a dish on the top rack of the dishwasher instead of in the rinse-aid compartment? Vinegar is a concentrated acid. While natural and safe to ingest vinegar it can, nonetheless, do damage to materials like rubber—as in the rubber seal of your dishwasher. By using vinegar in the rinse-aid compartment the acid is sitting right against the rubber seal. By sitting the cup containing the vinegar on the top rack, it is mixing and being diluted by all of the water in the dishwasher, making it a slower release over the course of the dishwasher’s washing cycle. Do your own research and check with your dishwasher’s manufacturer but this solution has been working well for us! I hope this helps if you have been struggling to remove build-up on your glasses! Have you found a different solution that worked well for you? If so, I’d love to hear it! You can always email me at alainascleaningservice@gmail.com! Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you!