I’d say I have to have much harder water, though I have not yet had it tested (testing is more for my own curiosity, as the water here is hard enough to leave deposits on everything it touches) but completely intend on installing a softener. But the water deposits were definitely collecting in and damaging the internals of the dishwasher. Chunks of calcium seemed to be growing down in the pump or something and then eventually breaking loose and clogging the holes in the wash arm. Not to mention this schmaggy crud that looked kinda gray paper pulp kept appearing in all the crannies of the dishwasher, and it smelt like a manky dog covered in slobber. And worse yet, every time I’d clean it all out, run dishwasher cleaner through it would always come back, and I never really felt the dishwasher cleaner removed the water scale on the inside of the tub or all over the wash arms. I felt this was a recent problem, as I can remember in the past never having anything but a fresh and clean smell when you open the dishwasher, and I never saw crud collect in there at all, nor water scale. And I also remember when we used powdered Cascade, and the dishes never had water spots and we didn’t use Jet Dry. At one point I remember my mom not buying Cascade anymore, she said it just didn’t seem like it was cleaning the dishes anymore. The dishes and the dishwasher were in a steady decline at that point. Just the other day someone I know was lamenting that they remembered when they could slop the dirty dishes into the washer with no need for scraping or rinsing, and no concern for how much food was on them, as it all vanished magically during the cycle. Most people have been blaming it on the dishwasher and I at this point feel it’s the detergent more than anything.
