New Dishwasher from Howdens – confused by salt

Hi everyone, hopefully someone can advise me.

I recently purchased a Howdens kitchen and got their built-in slimline dishwasher.

Now, the manual says to run a pre-wash cycle before the first use, to remove any factory deposits, etc. It says to pour 1 ltr of water into the salt compartment before first wash – it doesn’t say if it means first real wash or includes this pre-wash! I assumed the latter.

The manual recommends the use of separate powder, salt and rinse aid. So, I’ve got some Sainsbury’s powder, rinse aid and Finish salt.

Now, the manual says I can add up to 2kg of salt. I did this before washing any actual dishes.

What I’m confused about, is this.

After several days washing, the salt compartment is still fill up with water. Is this normal? I thought the level would go down. When I remove the cap, water overflows into the main compartment.

Apparently there is a float, and also an LED indicator when the compartment needs more salt, but how does it know this? Water level? Or by some other means?

The level never seems to go down. Or, is going down extremely slowly! Does this sound normal?

I’ve set the hardness to my area’s hardness level (mid setting), and have my rinse aid set on 3 (also middle setting).

Also, some wine glasses occasionally look a bit cloudy. What is causing this? I did a wash last night using less detergent and it seemed to improve it a bit?

Finally, I have some mugs with tea stains on, and it cannot shift them, even when using higher settings. Do you have to do these by hand, or is the Sainsburys detergent not up to scratch?

I’ve heard that Which? recommend Finish Powerball (original).

Many thanks!

John