When my previous dishwasher (Zanussi) was on its way out, the water softener stopped working and I noticed that it hadn't used up any salt whatsoever in three months. Glasses started turning cloudy, and stainless steel items all came out covered with white mineral spots. As it had undergone major repairs twice already for the same problem, and the extended warranty had just run out, sadly it had to go.
At the time I was using Finish liquid gel detergent, which contains chlorine and IIRC is clay based. I'm convinced this exacerbated the above problems and probably hastened the failure of the pump seals too, which in turn killed the wash pump and motor. The service engineer agreed with me at the time, completely off the record of course; this detergent is one of the products Zanussi recommends after all. After seeing the gloopy white sludge it left behind in the outside gully where the dishwasher drain terminates, I decided to play safe and not use it again.
Although I liked the Zanussi and do miss it, I upgraded to a TOL Bosch Logixx Automatic and couldn't be happier. Have set the water softener to "auto", whereby it detects the hardness of the incoming water supply and adjusts itself accordingly, and it works like a champ. Hasn't turned out a duff load yet in the time I've had it, and I never believed a dishwasher could be this quiet. Love it!
Have used Finish, Glist, Fairy and Ecover tablets in the past and find they do an A1 job, but really I prefer powder because one can vary the dosage according to the amount of dishes and the soiling level. Plus I like being able to add an extra teaspoonful of detergent for greasy loads and oven racks, both of which get a hot prewash.
