How often should you add salt to your Bosch dishwasher?

Users usually forget about salt immediately after they first pour it into a special compartment at the bottom of the washing chamber. However, you should add salt to your Bosch dishwasher regularly, although less frequently than rinse aid. Special salt for PMM helps soften hard water from the tap, as well as effectively wash dirty dishes. Let's study in detail how often it is necessary to replenish the salt reserves in the salt bunker of the “home assistant”.

How do you know if the salt tank is empty?

In order not to miss the moment when it’s time to add salt, you can simply monitor the light on the dishwasher body, which reports the current amount of household chemicals in the compartment. The salt indicator looks like S-shaped icon.

It often lights up bright red when the salt in the bin begins to run low, but in some dishwashers it can glow a dull, pale yellow light that is hard to see with the naked eye.

The light will remain on until the salt reserves in the special compartment are replenished.

The indication is provided by a special sensor that monitors the consistency of the saline solution, which is installed directly into the dishwasher’s ion exchanger. As soon as the amount of salt begins to approach the minimum values, it will transmit a signal to the PMM control panel, on which the corresponding indicator will light up. For the user, this will be a sign that it is time to add special salt for the Bosch dishwasher.

PMM without salt indicator

It is much more difficult in a situation where there is no special indicator on the dashboard to remind users of salt.In this case, it is important to remember about household chemicals yourself, for which you can, for example, write down the date of the next addition of salt on self-adhesive tape, or by recording the data in your phone or notepad.

In addition, indirect signs can be used. You can add salt if you notice the following:

• After a working cycle, the dishes are slightly cloudy, have whitish drops, or have a milky coating. If this can be corrected by hand washing, then the problem is in the saline solution, which is not saturated enough for the resin in the ion exchanger to be regenerated efficiently;
• tableware is not completely cleaned using multi-layer tablets and capsules. If the water in your area is very hard, above 21°dH, then salt tablets alone are not enough - you need to add additional salt to a special compartment.

Thus, the cleanliness and shine of the dishes will help you understand that it is necessary to replenish the salt reserves in a separate bin. If there is a special indicator on the display, then you don’t have to wait for it to light up if the quality of the wash has already deteriorated.

Frequency of adding salt

There is no single schedule for adding salt for PMM, since the frequency depends solely on the quality of tap water, which differs even in different areas of the same city, to say nothing of different cities or even countries. If we are talking about a brand new “home assistant”, then after the first addition of salt granules, the equipment may indicate the need to replenish the supply after about 5-8 dishwashes. This behavior is absolutely natural, because for the first time the user could add a little less product than necessary to create a high-quality solution.

In the future, a number of factors will influence salt consumption.The most important ones are worth mentioning.

• The quality of tap water, how hard it is, as well as the selected ion exchanger parameters. The harder the water in the water supply, the higher the salt flow rate should be set, which allows you to provide the machine with a concentrated salt solution, which is enough to regenerate the depleted resin. But you should not go overboard with the settings so as not to waste salt, so check the water data in advance with your local water utility in order to correctly adjust the consumption of the product.

If you have medium-hard water in your area, then special salt should be added about once every six months or a little more often.

• Frequency of dishwasher operation. If the machine is used every day, the equipment will use an order of magnitude more salt than if it is used once a week. That is why frequent use of equipment will require loading salt at least once a quarter, and rare use - approximately once a year.
• Size of salt granules. It is necessary to add only a product specifically designed for this purpose to the salt compartment. Cooked analogues are much smaller in size and are also not so well cleared of foreign impurities, so they are not recommended to be added to the salt compartment. Try to choose large granules - they dissolve more slowly in water, which means you need less of them for the normal operation of your “home assistant”. Experts recommend products from the EONIT and Mister DEZ brands, which are distinguished by large crystals and a relatively low price.

It is very important to ensure that each factor described is taken into account in the work. This is the only way to ensure efficient and economical consumption of salt.

Loading salt correctly

If the salt refill light comes on, this does not mean that the machine can no longer be used, for example, if there are no salt granules in the house at the moment. However, this means that you should add salt as quickly as possible. This should be done as when loading the product for the first time - carefully opening the lid on the bottom of the washing chamber and pouring granules into the tank.

Questions may arise in a situation where there is water up to the neck in the compartment. There is nothing wrong with this, because the liquid should always be in the compartment - this is a saturated solution with salt, which is responsible for the regeneration of resin in the Bosch PMM. Add granules to water, which is very convenient to do using a small funnel, which sometimes comes with household appliances.

When you add salt, water will flow out of the hopper and go down the drain. You should stop when the compartment is almost completely filled and the salt is covered with water by about a few centimeters. Most often, it is enough to add only about 700 grams of salt, so that this will last for about six months.

After loading, be sure to wipe the edges of the compartment and remove any spilled granules. Carefully close the hopper lid and make sure that it is not distorted, as the lid should close the compartment tightly.

Immediately after loading, you need to start the rinse mode to remove any remaining saline solution from the washing chamber that was spilled during the process. This step cannot be skipped, because if the dishwasher hopper is metal, then it will be at risk of corrosion if all technical salt is not removed from the bottom of the PMM.

You should not pay attention to the salt indicator, as it may continue to light for several more sinks after salt has been loaded into the compartment, until the salt solution reaches the required concentration.

This is everything you need to know about salt granules, which need to be poured into the dishwasher from time to time. Try to carefully monitor the indicators, plus, always evaluate the quality of dishwashing so as not to miss the moment when you should add salt.

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