What is Dishwasher Salt, What Does It Do and Why is It so Important?

In the kitchen, salt is essential not only to flavor our dishes, but also to make plates and cutlery shine and ensure that the dishwasher works well. Often, at home, we do things that we take for granted without really asking ourselves why: putting salt in the dishwasher is most likely one of these, despite it being a really important habit. What is salt for? Technically, salt "softens" the water by keeping a small device clean, called a softener, whose job is to retain the limescale present in the water and thus prevent it from ruining the resistance, the walls and the hydraulic pipes of the dishwasher. How does salt work and why is it so important? What type of salt do you need for the dishwasher? What happens if we put table salt in the dishwasher? We are here to answer all your questions.

How Does Dishwasher Salt Work and Why is It So Important?

The dishwasher's worst enemy? Not food residue or dirt, but limescale. More or less present in the water we use at home, limescale is deposited on dishes and, over time, encrusts and ruins the walls of the dishwasher and makes it less efficient.

The amount of limescale present in the water determines the level of hardness and therefore the impact on our appliance: to reduce the action of limescale to a minimum, inside the dishwasher we find a small device, called a "softener". This system has the task of "softening" the water through ion exchange resins, substances capable of "blocking" the calcium and magnesium ions, which are responsible for the hardness of the water.

And what does salt have to do with it? The task of salt is to regenerate the ion exchange resins and with them the softener, thus allowing it to function correctly. Forgetting to add salt therefore means letting the limescale act undisturbed, ruining our dishwasher.

Where to put salt in the dishwasher? Every dishwasher is equipped with a small compartment on the bottom where you can pour the salt, connected directly to the softener system: during the wash, the salt dissolves slowly without ever coming into contact with the dishes or in the wash cycle, once its function is finished, it is simply expelled with the waste water.

How to put salt in the dishwasher? To correctly put salt in the dishwasher, simply remove the lower basket of the dishwasher, unscrew the softener cap (easily recognizable by the symbol of two arrows) and pour the salt with the help of a funnel, in some cases supplied.

How often? The frequency with which you need to refill the tank depends on several factors including the dishwasher model, the hardness of the water and the intensity with which we use it. Most models have a light that signals when the salt in the dishwasher is about to run out; if the light is not present, the advice is to check the salt level at least once a month.

Why is dishwasher salt different from table salt? Both are made of sodium chloride and both undergo a refining process:  dishwasher salt, however, comes in the form of larger grains, similar in shape to common coarse salt.

The consistency and chemical composition of dishwasher salt respond to very specific functions: the size of the grains allows the dishwasher salt to dissolve more slowly, while the added anti-scaling substances ensure that the salt, once dissolved, does not solidify again, thus avoiding the risk of "blockage".

Can we use table salt for dishwashers? The answer, as you might expect, is no: the "normal" table salt we use to season salad is not suitable for the dishwasher because the fine grains, dissolving too quickly, can block and clog the water softener system. Where can we buy dishwasher salt? We can easily find it in any supermarket, in the detergent and household goods section.