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casion

Fill the salt? Configure for water hardness?

I've never heard of either of these things before. Certainly not things on my, relatively fancy, dishwasher.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dishwasher_salt

The water hardness setting determines how much the water softener tries to soften the water.

If the water isn't soft enough, it will leave spots on the dishes. Hence people use "rinse aid", so the improperly softened water would drip off before it leaves spots.

If the water is properly softened it contains no calcium etc. which could cause spots on your dishes.

Miele has it. It's a reservoir with a twist-cover at the bottom of the dishwasher that you fill with salt whenever the dishwasher tells you its time. Seems to be about once a quarter.

Ditto, no clue what either of those mean. Never, ever heard of adding salt to a dishwasher, certainly. Not in new ones, not in ones from the bad ol' days when they used way more water but actually worked.

I have a new one (a few years old) and yes there's a compartment for salt. My previous one did as well. I'm in Europe (Spain) if that helps. I don't go to any special store to buy them, any old Lidl or other supermarket has it. Where you from where this isn't a thing?

From other comments it's looking like this one of those US/European divide things, with compartments for salt being uncommon on US dishwashers except for a few rare higher-end models/brands that are likely common to both continents (due to low volume in the US not justifying a localized version, I'd guess). I'm middle-aged and in the US and this thread is the first time I've heard of adding salt to a dishwasher.

Seems to be not quite EU/US. At least in Ireland we don't have salt compartments either. Maybe an anglosphere/not division?

Really odd that it differs so close to neighbouring countries. Here (UK) I've never seen a Dishwasher without a salt hole, and there's often several well know brands of salt in the supermarket (no idea why, its all the same stuff).

I wonder if its based on average water hardness in the area. I'm in the north of England and our supply comes out of Buxton Springs (yep the same as Buxton bottled water) and is extremly soft so despite filling the salt it never asks for it to be refilled again as its not needed.

When I used to live in north London I'd be filling it up once a month as the water there is extremely hard - so hard that it'll kill your kettle within a year if you don't keep on top of descaling.

In the US you would install a house water softener that would soften the water when it comes into the house. It would only be used in areas with hard water. Our dishwashers usually use hot water rinses instead of cold water like European style ones, the hot water heaters will soft the water before it gets to the appliance.

Ireland has very hard water for the most part so I don't think that'd be the reason.

Anecdotes are not data and all that. The dishwasher in my house is a NEFF, and it has a salt compartment. Came with the house, built-in unit. So yes, some Irish houses have dishwashers with salt - sample size 1.

> At least in Ireland we don't have salt compartments either

I'm pretty sure the majority of dishwashers sold here have salt compartments - I've never seen one without one.

Much of Ireland has very hard water.

In the US we have whole home water softeners when necessary, in the EU they’re built in to dish washers.

Just small differences in water treatment and quality.

I’ve never seen a dishwasher without this :)

But I think most people here in the Netherlands never set it up correctly and go for “all in 1” tabs. I never do, always set it up correctly. I do feel I need rinse aid to not have that nasty feel to the glasses.

Apparently in Europe and some other countries they don't do whole house water softeners?

Interestingly enough as normal as salt containers are in dishwashers as 'uncommon' are house wide water softeners to me.

I know a few people who have a single outlet for osmosis water, I use a optional water filter in the kitchen outlet for drinking water.

But nobody I know is softening their whole water supply. Why soften toilet water? Why soften cleaning water? Garden water?

Well for the last 2 I guess it depends on how hard it really is

Softening toilet water means there’s less limes SLE build up in the bowl and around the rim which means the toilet is easier to clean.

Softening cleaning water means your clothes come out - well, quite literally softer. And last longer.

US consumers are easier to sell to, perhaps.

Except for the various ethnic groups who are very proud of not using their dishwasher at all.

They use it alright (as a pantry/place to store dishes).

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