Dishwasher Mystery Part Deux // Salt, Vinegar, I Now Know All!

Just got back into our cozy warm house from taking L & L on a snowy walk.  Normally, I walk them through the neighborhood to a quiet trail through some corn fields.  I like this place because I can let the dogs off their leashes so that they can play together & get out some energy!  It's a perfect spot for this, & it helps that they are good about coming back to me :)  But this trail was not so quiet today!  About halfway down the trail, I turned around to see an elderly lady walking her tiny little fluffy white dog.  Uh oh!  That little thing probably wouldn't want to play with my dogs!  So I called L & L, put them on their leashes again, & quickly walked to the end of the trail & onto the road, hoping that the lady & her little one would turn the other way once they reached the same road.  Thank goodness they did, with L & L watching them all the way!  After a few minutes, back to the trail we went for some more running.  Thankfully, there were not any more run-ins with dogs of the tiny variety!  I know L & L would have been good playing with her, but I have to be careful.  Not everyone is comfortable around them; they can be pretty intimidating!  If only everyone could tell what teddy bears they are :)

Anyway, that's what I just did!  Now, I'm warming up & thought I'd fill you all in on the end of my dishwasher saga!  You may remember my previous post about this topic.  Well, I did a lot of research & figured out how to fix this problem!

Many website recommend buying salt specifically made to be used in dishwashers, but I discovered that Kosher Salt works just fine!  The U.S. Air Force actually did a study on it several years ago.  Interesting!  So my dishwasher salt unit is now filled with Kosher Salt.

Also, vinegar clears off hard water stains!  I was planning to do a "vinegar bath" for all my dishes, one by one, but hoped there could be a way to wash them in vinegar in the dishwasher.  So I Googled it!  {Isn't the internet amazing?!}  I read on many sites that the way to do this is to put a glass in the top rack, right side up, filled with about half a cup of vinegar.  Then, load the dishwasher with your stained dishes & run a full cycle.  No detergent necessary, just the vinegar.  Voila!  It worked!  Clean, sparkly dishes at last!

I even ran a load this way {with baking soda sprinkled on the bottom of the dishwasher for extra clean!} without any dishes, that way my dishwasher could be cleaned out & any hard water deposits that were in the pipes could be washed away.  Now my dishwasher sparkles too!  Hooray for vinegar!!  And Google :)

I suppose it makes sense that appliances would work a bit differently here in Germany than in the US, but isn't it amazing all of the new things that need taken care of?  And I now have one more down.  Dishwasher?  Check!