Adjusting for water hardness on new dishwasher - confusing instructions

__Alex__

Hi all, our landlord just bought us a new dishwasher. I read through the manual and there was a section on adjusting the machine for water hardness. As per the indicator strip in first photo in my post, we appear to be in a hard water area and the limescale in my kettle would back that up. :P

The manual doesn't match up with our machine. I've linked the manual below. Our manual differs slightly in that the cover shows a dishwasher with a digital display panel. The manual I've linked below doesn't show that but otherwise the booklet is the same. The actual dishwasher doesn't have a digital display, as you can see below but the instructions seems to think it does.

Can anyone help me reconcile the instructions on page 14 of the manual with the actual controls of my dishwasher, not the ones described in the manual? If it's possible to adjust for the water hardness, I'd like to do so before beginning to use the dishwasher. Thanks.





Instruction manual: http://downloads.beko.co.uk/bekoupload/manuals/DFC04210B_W_S.pdf

Alun

There's no mention of a digital display on that page that I can see. It's the 4 lights to the right of the Start/Stop button that light up to indicate the water hardness level. Seems straightforward enough to me.

By the way, with water that hard, don't even think about not using proper dishwasher salt and relying on 3-in-1 tablets for water softening.

__Alex__

I always use salt! I'm still lost on the instructions. Clearly I need spoonfeeding here. I think I was thrown by 'Do not release until "Water Hardness Level" set appears on the indicator of the machine.', that to me sounded like there should be a display.

TherapyBoy

Page 14 of your linked manual, your water hardness test strip looks like level 5? Follow the steps 1-7 detailed above the 'Water hardness level adjustment table'

__Alex__

TherapyBoy wrote: »

Page 14 of your linked manual, your water hardness test strip looks like level 5?

Oh yeah, it is, but apparently you also need to do some jiggerypokery to the dishwasher to set it to deal with the level of hardness of your water supply. I'm starting to figure it out, thanks to Alun there.

TherapyBoy

Sorry, I think I edited my post after you quoted it, follow the steps 1-7 on page 14 to adjust your settings.

__Alex__

Ah OK, here is what was confusing me, right at the start. It says 'Press On/Off button while keeping Start/Pause/Cancel button pressed...'. There is no On/Off button. It says to turn to position one then press start, then press the "off button" while holding Start for three seconds. Firstly, when you turn it to position one and press start, the position one cycle begins. When you hold start and move the dial back to Off (which is the only analogous thing I can do in the absence of an On/Off button), the machine goes off. Rightio!

Alun

Ah, I see the problem now! Looks like a call to the helpline is in order

__Alex__

Figured it out, guys, thanks! And yes, I'm a doofus! It just took a bit of interpretation in the absence of an on/off button.

Alun

__Alex__ wrote: »

Figured it out, guys, thanks! And yes, I'm a doofus!

So what was the secret?

__Alex__

Actually, one more general question. In a hard water how much dishwasher salt should I add and how often? We always used the stuff but maybe not enough and we are determined to keep this machine ship shape.

Alun

__Alex__ wrote: »

Actually, one more general question. In a hard water how much dishwasher salt should I add and how often? We always used the stuff but maybe not enough and we are determined to keep this machine ship shape.

Generally you always fill the salt reservoir up to the top, after filling the reservoir with water first if it's a new machine.

The higher you set the water hardness level on the machine the faster it will get used up, but there's a Salt light on the front that will light up to tell you when to top it up as the salt is used up.

By the way, dishwasher salt can sometimes be a bit tricky to find, but Lidl and Aldi are always a good source I find. Also, and this is a personal opinion, save some money and don't bother with fancy 3-in-1 or 4-in-1 tabs, and go for separate old-fashioned basic tabs and separate rinse aid, again Lidl and Aldi are your best bet for these.

__Alex__

Alun wrote: »

So what was the secret?

I put it to position one (Eco wash) first then pressed and held the Start button for three seconds and the level 1 hardness indicator lighting came on, then it was just a case of moving it to position 4 on the dial to set for level 5 hardness and then pressing Start again to save that selection. The off position didn't have to be involved at all. I then turned it off and again put it to position one and then hit and held start to check that it was set for level 5 water hardness and it was! \o/

__Alex__

Alun wrote: »

Generally you always fill the salt reservoir up to the top, after filling the reservoir with water first if it's a new machine.

The higher you set the water hardness level on the machine the faster it will get used up, but there's a Salt light on the front that will light up to tell you when to top it up as the salt is used up.

Great, thanks!

The Red Ace

generally speaking if the salt and rinse aid containers are filled to the top they will last approx. ninety washes which is about three months if used once a day

__Alex__

The Red Ace wrote: »

generally speaking if the salt and rinse aid containers are filled to the top they will last approx. ninety washes which is about three months if used once a day

Oh wow, that's very good. My salt might be used up quicker than that due to the hard water but I only put the dishwasher on every other day as there's just two of us so it'd probably last that long for me too.

Anyone know how much the rinse aid reservoir generally holds? (I know it might vary between makes but just a ballpark) The manual says that the salt reservoir holds 2kg of salt but no figure is given for the rinse aid reservoir and I don't want to overfill as I don't want the rinse aid seeping into the mechanism anywhere. Thanks!

Alun

For the rinse aid, you just keep filling it until it reaches the max fill line in the reservoir and then close the lid. Again, you can usually adjust the dosage on a dial, the harder the water the more you'll need, and there's a light on the front that detects when you need to refill it. The reservoir doesn't hold a huge amount, and a bottle of rinse aid lasts me for several months, but I'm lucky to be in a very soft water area.

__Alex__

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the thread! My dishwasher is working perfectly. I really missed having a working one, it is one of the best inventions known to man.