White residue under glasses in Bosch Serie 8 dishwasher — annoying persistent issue since purchase, how can I fix it & is it normal?

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wholelottared

Well-known member
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Dec 7, 2022
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Hi everyone! Hope you’re all doing well 🫶🏻

I’ve been dealing with a frustrating issue ever since I bought my Bosch Serie 8 (SMS8YDI82T) dishwasher last year, and I still haven’t been able to solve it, so I’m hoping someone here might have insight.

The issue:
On both the middle and top racks, whenever glasses or other items are positioned in a way that allows water to pool on top of them, they come out with a white residue in those pooled areas (even though everything is fully dry at the end of the cycle). Technically, it's impossible to angle them an another way as their glass design is that way.

Some informations:
— I always use rinse aid
— I always use salt
— We have hard water (my water provider says it's currently°E21.7) so my salt setting was originally set according to our water provider to: "°E 21–26 (hard) 3.0–3.7 mmol/L".
— Rinse aid level has always been set to maximum (Level 6)
— Detergent: I used both Finish Ultimate Plus & Fairy Platinum Plus, they both had the same issue.

At first, I thought the salt setting might be the problem, so I experimented:
— Lowered it to °E 13–15 (medium 1.9-2.1 mmol/l) which is the current setting now → no real change
— Increased it to maximum °E 39–62 (very hard 5.5-8.9 mmol/) → still no change
It seemed slightly better when I lowered the salt level, but the residue never disappeared, so that was probably just placebo.

Next, I suspected the rinse aid level might be too high. However, everything I’ve read on Google suggests that too much rinse aid causes rainbow streaks, not white residue, so that doesn’t seem to explain it either.

Other settings:
— “Extra Dry” → always enabled
— “EfficientDry (auto door opening)” → always enabled
— Tried the “Shine & Dry” feature→ no improvement

One more detail that might be relevant: when I take these glasses out and simply touch and rub the white residue with a wet finger, it disappears instantly. It’s that easy to remove, no scrubbing at all. Because of this, I end up having to rinse those glasses under water every time before putting them away.

At this point, I’m honestly out of ideas. It’s especially confusing (and frustrating) that a high-end Bosch dishwasher leaves these kinds of stains. Angling every glass so that water never pools on them just isn’t realistic.

Does anyone know what could be causing this or how to fix it? I’ll add example photos along with my current salt and rinse aid settings. I still feel like it might be happening due to my settings, but you guys know better of course.

Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated, thank you so much! 🙏🏻
 

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Last edited:
Rinse aid is too high, try it in the middle.

I suspected that might be the problem, but Google said too much rinse aid causes rainbow streaks instead of white residue so I wasn't sure.

I just lowered the rinse aid setting to "Level 3 (Medium)" after your comment, let's see if it will change anything on my next wash. Thanks.
 
Sorry that I didn't say this, but I would also check to be sure that your filter is clean, I would clean it and also use a dishwasher cleaner with the longest/hottest setting. I also have a Bosch and had the same problem. Once I cleaned it thouroughly and reduced the amount of rinse aid, the problems stopped. Good luck! BTW, I wanted a Bosch and I hate it, lol.
 
I suspected that might be the problem, but Google said too much rinse aid causes rainbow streaks instead of white residue so I wasn't sure.

I just lowered the rinse aid setting to "Level 3 (Medium)" after your comment, let's see if it will change anything on my next wash. Thanks.
Bosch has the settings default at 5, utterly stupid, at that rate I had to add Rinse aid in a few weeks I do not have hard water but I want to save $$ so I set my Bosch at 2.
 
Sorry that I didn't say this, but I would also check to be sure that your filter is clean, I would clean it and also use a dishwasher cleaner with the longest/hottest setting. I also have a Bosch and had the same problem. Once I cleaned it thouroughly and reduced the amount of rinse aid, the problems stopped. Good luck! BTW, I wanted a Bosch and I hate it, lol.
Hate it but Bosch and Miele are the best .
 
A few weeks ago I noticed the dishes and overall interior of my Bosch dishwasher wasn't as clean as it used to look. Turned out the thing wasn't draining completely between cycles. The clue was when I looked down the sink drain where the dishwasher also drained, the drain water was almost to the top of the drain basket. Clearing the drain was very difficult as the blockage was past the trap. An hour of aggressive plunging and swearing got the drain flowing freely. Just something to investigate, make sure your dishwasher drain is clear.

As others have mentioned, make sure the filter at the bottom of the machine is rinsed out. I sometimes scrub mine with a used toothbrush under running water. I like the Affresh tablets. Mom used to put Tang in the dishwasher, back when white vinyl racks turned brown.
 
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