Streaky, Salty Dishes

A couple of weeks ago, I ran my dishes through the dishwasher and they didn't get clean at all. My dishwasher is a SMEG, which is a pretty high end brand here I guess, and looks pretty neat, as do all my appliances, so I thought it was kind of odd it would go on the blink like that. The soap didn't really come out of the little basket, so I thought it just needed to be ran again.

After two more washings, it became evident that my dishes were not going to come clean. In fact, they got really cloudy and gross, with a gray layer of film on them. I had no idea what was going on, but since I was going to the states, I figured I would deal with it when I got back.

When I got home, I had the wild idea of reading the manual for the dishwasher. In the troubleshooting area, it told me that if my dishes were streaky, it was probably because the salt was low.

Salt, I thought? in the dishwasher??? WTF?

Sure enough, there is a space in my dishwasher to hold salt. It is filled with about a litre of water, and you pour special dishwashing salt in there until it is full, 170 grams or something like that. I guess it lasts for about 20 washings before you have to do it again. I had never seen anything like it before, but when i went to the Ocado website to order my groceries (yes, I am lazy, but I hurt my back, remember?) there were about 5 or 6 different brands of salt. I chose Finish.

I guess I must have hard water. I hadn't really noticed otherwise. Huh.