Your advice to me

First of all, THANK YOU to all of you who have sent me advice on what to to do about the HEAVY residue that has been plaguing our dishes once they are washed in our brand new dishwasher!!! Some of the people sent me advice via email so you weren't able to see what remedies were given. I have THOROUGHLY appreciated each and every recommendation!

A couple of people suggested that I try LIME-AWAY. Like, duh!!! In the past, I ran it through our old dishwasher once a month. Now...I forgot about it??? It cleans the interior as well as the little holes that dispense water throughout the twirling arms, etc. If you want to try it in your own machine, make sure that no dishes are left in the machine. Run hot water through your kitchen faucet until it is super hot. Once it is hot, turn off your faucet and start your dishwasher on the longest cycle. If your machine has a high water temperature function, make sure that it is turned on. Run the first short cycle with nothing but hot water. After that water has drained and the next cycle's water is in the dishwasher, pour 1 cup of LIME-AWAY into the water and let the cleansing begin!!!

When your entire wash and rinse cycle has been completed, open the DW and take a look. Usually, you'll be able to see a shine on the dishwasher's interior unlike before. The stainless steel parts will also be clean and shiny. I like to look at the ends of the twirling arms. I am always surprised to see how much HAIR, etc. is sticking out of the holes! Just reach in with your fingers and pull the debris out. Your machine is now ready to do a much better cleaning job than before!

I decided to use that method first since I actually had a store brand of it on hand. As I just said, I run LIME-AWAY through an empty machine. So, while that was happening, I filled our kitchen sink up with HOT water with a generous amount of the store brand lime-away. Then, one by one, I filled the sink with the glasses and cups that were nasty. After all of our glasses and cups had been soaked and cleaned with the lime-away water, I proceeded to rinse them. Once they were rinsed, I did the same thing to our plates and silverware. By the time that everything had been cleaned with lime-away and had been rinsed, I was ready for step 2. After rinsing the dirty water out of the sink, I plugged it up again and filled it with HOT water with dishsoap in it. After I re-washed each and every glass, cup, plate, fork, spoon, etc., that I had just used the lime-away on, I rinsed it, dried it and put it away. I am very happy to say that EVERYTHING is beautifully shiny and clean now!

We use glass and china plates. Our china plates have real gold on the edges. When I washed the china, I was very careful about not hurting the gold. I sure wouldn't recommend that you soak them for very long with lime-away. I also wouldn't apply it directly to the china either.

WEAR RUBBER GLOVES WHENEVER HANDLING LIME-AWAY, THE NAME BRAND OR THE STORE BRAND!!! If you do not, your hands stand a good chance of being damaged and burned from the chemicals. Plus, when you wear rubber gloves, you can use pure hot water which kills germs. When my hands become dry and chapped,I put alot of lotion on my hands. Then, I put on the rubber gloves and go to work with hot water doing dishes, etc. The heat from the water helps the lotion penetrate into skin better than otherwise. Try it!!!

Now, that my dishwasher is clean and all the dishes look brand-new again, I will use Carolyn's advice and add the vinegar in my dishwasher when I wash them in the dishwasher next. I am also planning on going to the store and buying that Lemon product that was recommended.