Most people don't wash the dishes coming out of the dishwasher.

I guess you might legitimately be confused about that.

Anyway, the other poster wasn't trying to rebut you, they were prompting to explain why you do those things.

re: hard water: your dishwasher has a setting for that. Set it correctly and make the dishwasher salt compartment isn't empty and your dishwasher will deal fine with hard water.

Ok. I quickly rinse the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, and put them straight back to the cupboard once it's done. I've been washing dishes by hand for 15 years and now I have my first dishwasher. So I know the difference, and I'm loving it.

We are on a well (rural area). The water is so hard here that when the house was built, they needed both a water softener and an iron filter to treat it.

I had an issue this winter with my septic system freezing up and in order to prevent an overflow before the tank could be pumped, I was told to put the treatment system on bypass (water softener cycles dump a lot of waste water down the drain). Even with the hard well water going through the dishwasher, it never failed to clean the dishes properly. This dishwasher is 22 years old.

I have hard water and my dishes are not made worse by the dishwasher. They actually come out better. Maybe depends on your detergent?

A dishwasher with a built in water softener fixes the problem. But really a whole home water softener is a good idea if your water is super hard.

I have a well so I have a water softener?