Adjust the dishwasher softener OCU

A dishwasher does not need a lot of water to clean the dishes, only about 10 liters. This represents a saving of about 30 liters per day compared to washing by hand. If you still do not have a dishwasher or want to change it, we encourage you to consult the comparator.

Find the best dishwasher

In addition to having a good appliance, for the washing results to be good, that water has to be soft: excess limescale leaves stains on the dishes and can form encrustations inside the appliance that cause breakdowns and shorten its life. For this reason, dishwashers have a descaling device that conditions the water before starting to wash with it.

Dishwasher descaler: what and for what

All dishwashers have a built-in softener that serves to "soften" the water and avoid all those problems derived from hard water.

Why does hard water ruin dishwashers?

Water is "hard" when it contains many dissolved mineral salts, especially calcium and magnesium. In addition, the water can carry other types of minerals, such as marine scale or sodium bicarbonate.

Hard water, very rich in limescale, leaves scale in the pipes through which it circulates, especially if it is hot water, as occurs in dishwashers. These encrustations corrode the circuits and reduce the efficiency of the devices: 10% for each millimeter of accumulated lime, for example, in an electric water heater.

Lime also interferes with detergents, since calcium and magnesium carbonates interact with surfactants, decreasing their effectiveness, which requires using more detergent. The result is that the crockery is not completely clean, as whitish traces remain on it.

How does the softener work?

The softener is a container located at the base of the dishwasher that contains resin beads (usually called zeolites) to exchange calcium and magnesium cations, responsible for the hardness of the water, for sodium cations. Sodium dissolves better in water and therefore does not form scale or hinder washing. When these resin beads become saturated, they can no longer capture calcium cations and need to be regenerated. This is achieved by passing salt diluted in water (as a source of sodium cations) through the softener, to reverse the process and "clean" the zeolite pellets.

For this reason, all dishwashers have a tank that we have to fill with salt. It is preferable to use special salt for dishwashers to avoid impurities that can damage the appliance, especially if the manufacturer recommends it and the dishwasher is still under warranty. If you don't have the special salt on hand, you can occasionally use common coarse salt. The amount of salt needed to achieve this regeneration will depend on the hardness of the water. And that is the information we provide by adjusting the softener.

Find out about water hardness

Surely you already have a fairly approximate idea of ​​whether the tap water in your house is hard or soft, due to the amount of foam it makes or the remains it leaves when scrubbing, on the screens, etc., but if you want to adjust with precision your softener, you need to know the exact degree of hardness of the water that reaches your home. This information can be provided by the local water supply company: you will have to call them or check their website.

Hardness is usually measured in French degrees (ºF) which are calculated based on the amount of calcium carbonate in the water. For example, a water containing 70 mg of calcium carbonate per liter will have 7 French degrees, whose symbol is ºF or ºfH. The following scale is usually used to rate the hardness of water:

Up to 30ºF it is not necessary to treat the water. From that figure, some measures can be proposed to correct the hardness.

Adjust the softener

When you already know the degree of hardness of the water, you will have to adjust the softener.

How can you do it?

It is done by pressing a certain combination of keys that you should consult in the instruction manual of your dishwasher, since it depends on the brand and model.

In some models, you can also make a manual adjustment: pull out the lower basket to access the softener area, where you will see a scale.

If you don't have the instructions, look them up online where they are usually easy to find.

In Bosch dishwashers, to adjust the softener you have to press the power button and then the quick wash button and the start button. Then the default values ​​will appear on the screen and you can modify them with the + and – buttons.

In the manual you will also find which setting you should select depending on the hardness of the water.

If you don't change it, most dishwashers are set to a medium hardness level. We show you some examples here.

These are the settings recommended by the manufacturer Electrolux:

Once this is done, all you have to do is be careful to replenish the salt when the indicator lights up that it is starting to run out.

It is a good idea to use a funnel to fill the tank and collect the salt that remains in the bottom of the dishwasher if it spills.