New Dishwasher from Howdens – confused by salt

[jhclare]

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

[martinm]

Re: New Dishwasher from Howdens – confused by salt

I would recomend Finish, should see an improvement. The water level in the salt chamber will never go down so dont worry about that, just replace the salt when indicated.

[iadom]

Re: New Dishwasher from Howdens – confused by salt

Everything you need to know is within these pages.

Stains, performance and other stuff 😉

Fairy Active Bursts are very good. 8)

Jim.

[jhclare]

Re: New Dishwasher from Howdens – confused by salt

Thanks all.

Ooops, I obviously didn’t look hard enough! 😳

I’m still a bit confused about the water level in the salt compartment. Are you saying it never goes down, and if not, how on earth does the dishwasher know when it needs more?

Does it somehow measure the concentration of salt in the water?

And why is there also a “float” indicator in the cap?

BTW – it’s this model:

http://www.howdens.com/appliances/dishw … ishwasher/

Does anyone know who actually makes appliances for Howdens?

Thanks,

John

[eastlmark]

Re: New Dishwasher from Howdens – confused by salt

ITs made by Beko.
there will be an internal float in the salt container which rises and falls subject to the specific gravity of the water in the salt container. this wiil in turn operate a swtich which will turn the light on on the control panel. If there is no water when you remove the cap then you really do have a problem. Most dishwashers need to be adjusted to cope with the hardness level of your water, see you instruction book on how to do this. Some work it out for themselves automaticly though. not sure about your one, read the book to make sure.

[kladave]

Re: New Dishwasher from Howdens – confused by salt

Hi John

I do belive it is Beko from Turkey.

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