How to properly add salt to the dishwasher for the first time

Every dishwasher has not only a dispenser for detergent and rinse aid, but also a special bin for salt. Moreover, if the first two types of household chemicals are needed to clean dirty dishes, then salt is necessary to restore the ion exchanger resin - a special element of PMM that softens hard tap water.

If you use the machine in conditions of poor quality water and do not add salt, the softening unit will break within a month. In order not to pay for repairs, let’s better figure out how to add salt for the first time and maintain the required level of salt granules in the “home helper”.

First addition of salt

If this is the first time you have added salt to the dishwasher compartment, then it is very important to do everything in accordance with the recommendations. If you load salt incorrectly, you can damage the device instead of taking care of its safety. Therefore, strictly follow our instructions:

• open the washing chamber door, remove the lower dish basket and find the salt container lid at the bottom;
• Unscrew it and pour about a liter of water inside. This should only be done when you are going to add salt for the first time;
• using a special funnel, which should be included with the PMM, add salt to the compartment. For the first time, a kilogram of large salt granules will be enough;

Be sure to use only specialized salt for dishwashers, as it is coarser and cleaner than regular table salt, is consumed more slowly and better restores the functions of the ion exchanger.

• close the lid of the salt container. If during the process you accidentally spilled granules or saline solution, you should wipe the bottom of the washing chamber, or even better, run any fast work cycle to completely wash out any remaining salt that could damage the washing chamber.

Although the location of the salt compartment differs in different dishwashers, it is still easy to find - most often it is located at the bottom of the chamber directly under the lower cutlery basket, to the left of the lower spray arm. The lid of the salt bunker is so large that it is very difficult not to notice it.

Required amount of salt

One of the most important questions regarding salt for PMM is the amount required for the normal functioning of the dishwasher. If this is the first time, then you should not save salt, but you can safely pour it directly under the neck of the compartment, even if this action causes the granules to push out a little water. Depending on the brand of the equipment manufacturer, approximately one kilogram of salt is placed in the salt bunker.

If you have already added a whole kilogram pack and suddenly realized that there is not enough product, then there is nothing wrong with leaving everything like that, and after a while buy a new pack, and then add the product to the brim. Under no circumstances should you add regular table salt, as it contains harmful impurities that can damage the ion exchanger.

Is salt used up quickly?

Salt consumption is always directly affected by the hardness level of tap water. The lower the quality of the water, the more calcium, magnesium and other substances it contains, the greater the consumption of saline solution used to combat water hardness.You can set the salt consumption level yourself, but to do this you first need to know the quality of the liquid. To do this, you can arrange a test at home using special test strips. You can also find out information about the quality of tap water on the official Internet resource of the local water utility, where service employees are required to post information about water in a timely manner.

Once you have the hardness data in hand, you can change the water softener settings. If your dishwasher has such a function, this can be done on the device dashboard. If you don’t have such an additional option, then it’s okay - the machine itself will efficiently consume salt and save ion exchanger resources.

Tips for using salt

In order for the equipment to last for a long time, it is necessary not only to correctly add salt to the compartment, but also to follow a number of recommendations from experts. Please read the following list carefully to achieve maximum washing results.

• If your dishwasher has a function for changing the salt consumption, then be sure to use it.

Salt is not needed in the machine only if you have very soft tap water in your city.

• Load additional portions of salt granules only after the PMM itself “asks” for it.
• Never add anything other than salt and water to the salt bin, otherwise you risk damaging the water softener, which will require costly repairs.

As a result, there are not so many rules, and following them is easy and simple. Load salt correctly, monitor its quantity and everything will be fine, both with the dishwasher and with the dishes.

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