I would expect your facts to be straight.

So I would've put this in the last entry but it's not gross.

Another Public Service Announcement!

Bullets first.

1. who knew Jacksonville doesn't have hard water, just VERY high concentrations of lime.

2. Ever wonder why your dishwasher says Electrosol is best?

3. Ever get white stuff on your dishes that doesn't come off?

4. Ever think about becoming a little more Eco-friendly?

5. Read on to get the answers.


Our dishwasher crapped out on us last week. Everything has this nasty white film on it, even after multiple rinse cycles. We used the Electrasol cleaner. That didn't work so we called out the maintenance man. Turns out that the white spots we see everyday is from the Lime. But the white film is from Phosphates that build up over time. The MM asked me what type of soap I used. Up until recently I have always used Cascade. MM says "Oh that's the worst, it has the highest level of phosphates in it." I say "well I have tried 3 different types and nothing is making it better." MM says "well Electrasol has the lowest levels" I say " Hmmmm what about the phosphate free?" MM is dumbfounded. I guess the old guy isn't current on his Eco friendly products. Phosphates are killing our lakes and steams and our beautiful St John's River. I have been using Palm Olive Phosphate free for a few months now. But I was curious at the levels of phosphates in the other products and decided to do some research. It turns out that MM was WRONG. Electrasol is no better. I looked at Electrasol, Target Brand, and Cascade tabs and all had at least 8% phosphates. So even though your dishwasher says to use Electrasol, it's not good for it. I bet they get some sorta kickback from the appliance companies. So try the Palmolive phosphate free. It's in a white and yellow bottle (please recycle it) and only costs about 60 cents more then the others!

After a rinse cycle in CLR our dishwasher is back to normal. Thank goodness we don't pay the MM.

So this post was really about my Maintenance Man not having his facts straight. I bet he has never even read the labels!