How to clean glass in the dishwasher

From those annoying cloudy stains on your glasses to how to get your glassware sparkling, here’s our guide to cleaning glass in the dishwasher.

Glassware can be some of the most frequently used items in the household, and as a result, some of the most often washed in the dishwasher. However, repeated washing and high temperatures can cause cloudy stains to appear on those much-loved glass items.

There are two main causes of cloudy glassware, and both tend to happen over time. The first is due to hard water deposits, and the other is caused by corrosion. These two different types of clouding require different precautions to prevent them from happening when cleaning glass baking dishes or drinking glasses.

Cloudy glass & hard water deposits

If you live in a hard water area, you may be faced with mineral deposits gathering in your dishwasher. Hard water can be problematic for dishwashers, as the minerals in the water can appear as cloudy marks on glasses and dishes. These deposits, such as limescale, can cling onto your glassware and dishes, causing white spots or clouding. To combat the problems driven by hard water, always keep Salt and Rinse Aid topped up in your dishwasher. Salt will soften water and enable your detergents to work better and prevent spots caused by hard water, leaving you with sparkling clean. Rinse Aid will protect your glasses further ensuring brilliant shine. Always use a good quality detergents, like Finish Quantum Ultimate, on top of Salt and Rinse Aid for the best cleaning results.

What can you do to prevent cloudy glasses?

Fortunately, this sort of glass clouding can be fixed and easily prevented if you follow the below tips:

Give your dishwasher a regular, thorough clean with Finish Dishwasher Cleaner to help remove the nasty debris that can get left behind after a wash, like grease grime and limescale – before it can cling to your glassware.
Add Finish Rinse Aid to your cycle to ensure that water droplets that form on surfaces are dispersed before they can evaporate and leave behind any lime-scale residue.
Keep Finish Salt in your dishwasher at all times to soften water and avoid white marks from limescale deposit on your glasses.
Adjust the temperature of the dishwasher or try using a different dishwasher cycle. Some dishwashers have a glassware setting, or you can manually adjust the temperature to bring your wash onto a lower temperature cycle. This gentler cycle should help reduce clouding.

Glass corrosion

If you’re living in a soft water area then you’re particularly at risk of corrosion, another kind of glassware clouding, but it can happen anywhere. This can be caused by a number of factors, from heat exposure and poor glass quality to detergent type and lengthy programme cycles. Therefore, use our Rinse Aid to prevent this from happening and, to protect colour fading, you can use Finish Glass Protector. This is a specific product to protect and prevent corrosion and colour fading.

How to prevent glass corrosion in your dishwasher

There are a number of ways to prolong the life of your glassware and prevent cloudy glasses in your dishwasher, and it’s important to get it right before the irreversible effects of corrosion occur:

When buying glassware, ensure they are dishwasher safe.
Use a dishwasher detergent like Finish Quantum Ultimate to keep your glassware looking shiny for longer.
If you have a water softener unit, check to make sure it isn’t on too high of a setting.
For more delicate glassware, wash at a low temperature, or on a glass washing setting.

Once your dishwasher cycle has finished, open the dishwasher to allow excess steam to escape. Modern machines take care of this with internal fans. Allow your glassware to cool in the washing machine before removing them.

Now that you understand the cause, read on for more information about how to avoid these annoying cloudy stains on your favourite glass kitchen items before your next big dinner party.

How to clean drinking glasses in the dishwasher

Every day we use and reuse glasses over and over again, but with every wash, your glasses can go cloudy. Take a look at some of our top tips below for making sure your glasses sparkle out of the dishwasher, every time.

Load your glasses onto the top rack, away from any other dishes.
To get the best results, use Finish Rinse Aid to help avoid watermarks appearing on your glasses, as well as preventing extra washing and wiping after your dishwashing cycle has finished.

When it comes to storing glasses after they’ve come out of the dishwasher, there are two options: rim up or rim down.

Having the glass rest on its rim avoids dust and other nasties settling in the glass, but having it stand on its base means the part that you drink from doesn’t get contaminated by the bottom of a cupboard and runs less risk of getting chipped. The choice, we’re afraid, is up to you.

How to clean wine glasses in the dishwasher

Cleaning wine glasses in the dishwasher can be perfectly safe – as long as you are careful about how you load your machine.

If possible, load your wine glasses on the top rack - you may have to lower the rack to make space. Make sure they’re not touching each other, as this could cause them to crack as they knock together.
Sturdier wine glasses (those with thicker rims and stems) can also be arranged on the bottom rack, as long as they are secure and separate from other items.
Many modern dishwashers have a delicate or glassware setting. The lower temperature and gentler jets are ideal for washing wine glasses.

Make sure to add Finish Rinse Aid to help prevent water spots and cloudy glasses.

So, there you have it, just a few simple things to keep in mind when looking after your glasses to ensure that they stay looking shinier for longer.

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How to prevent cloudy glasses from the dishwasher

Does it matter what detergent I use?

Your detergent needs to complement the cleansing action of your dishwasher. Automatic dishwashing detergent is specially formulated to disperse food residue and greasy soiling, hold it in suspension, and remove it in the final rinse. It does all this while producing little or no suds.

For best results use the detergent recommended by the manufacturer of your machine.

Finish brand is #1 global value sales in Automatic Dish Washing category* and recommended by leading dishwasher manufacturers such as Midea and Bosch. In very hard water areas we also recommend the use of separate Salt and Rinse aid to protect your machine and achieve the best result.

* Finish brand is #1 global value sales in Automatic Dish Washing category in 38 countries representing for more than 80% of global sales of DW detergent (source: NielsenIQ RMS data)

Do I need to pre-rinse my dishes before loading them into the dishwasher?

No need to! Pre-rinsing is a thing of the past. And although many British households do it, it’s time consuming and wasteful of precious resources.

Modern detergents such as Finish Quantum Ultimate contain both bleach and enzymes and are recommended by dishwasher manufacturers for use without pre-rinsing.

Bleach fights tough stains like tea and coffee, and enzymes breakdown proteins and starches. All you have to do is scrape the larger pieces into the rubbish bin and load your dishwasher.

How do dishwasher tablets work?

Dishwasher tablets contain surfactants, which affect the liquid they are added to, making it more efficient at picking up and washing away debris. They also include enzymes (to break down starchy foods and protein), builders (to tackle hard water) and safe bleaches.

Once you’ve put your dishwasher tablet into the detergent dispenser compartment, your machine will release the contents at the optimal time allowing the tab to disintegrate into the water, release all ingredients and clean your dishes!

How should I store my dishwashing detergent?

Your dishwashing detergent should be stored in a dry environment. If you are using powder, be careful to close the spout after each use to help keep the product dry (and to avoid spills!). Like all cleaning products, store your detergent out of the reach of children.

Do I need to add salt and rinse aid?

Rinse aid is required to:

Ensure spot-free, shiny dishes
Assist the drying function

Salt is required to:

Protect your machine from limescale
Soften the water for better cleaning

With multi-benefit tablets such as Finish Quantum Ultimate and Finish All in One, rinse aid and salt functions are included. However, in very hard water areas we also recommend the use of separate Salt and Rinse aid products to protect your machine and achieve the best result.

How do I use dishwasher tablets?

Dishwasher tablets are very simple to use. If needed, remove any protective packaging, pop the tablet into your detergent dispensing compartment, close the compartment, turn on your washing machine and let technology and Finish handle the rest!

For detailed information on how to use Finish Tablets, read on below.

With dry hands, remove the tablet from the container and place it in the detergent dispenser. Ensure both the dispenser and the tablet is dry to prevent it from dissolving prematurely.

Close the tablets packaging lid tightly. Store away from heat and moisture to protect the remaining tablets.

Our tablets are wrapper-free (with the exception of Finish Classic) and are designed to release their contents when they come into contact with water. Do not pierce or attempt to unwrap the tablets.

Clip the detergent dispenser shut and close your dishwasher.

Make sure all items are dishwasher safe and separate silver from stainless steel.

Wash metal items according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Run dishwasher. The optimal water temperature is 51° – 60°C.

For optimal results, it is recommended to also use Finish Rinse Aid for shinier and drier dishes (vs. detergent alone).

Can you put dishwasher tablets in the bottom of the dishwasher?

Detergent tablets should always be placed in the detergent dispenser compartment.

If you’re placing the tablet at the bottom of the dishwasher it’s likely that it will dissolve too quickly, releasing the detergent during the prewash and leaving no detergent for the main wash cycle. This will reduce the efficiency of your wash.

Do I take the plastic off Finish dishwasher tablets?

Whether you need to remove the plastic from your dishwasher tablet depends on the product you have bought. As a good rule of thumb, if the tablet comes individually wrapped then yes, you should remove the plastic wrap before using. If, however, the tablet is encased in a skin of thin, transparent plastic, this should not be removed and will dissolve itself safely during the washing process.

Where do I put the dishwasher tablet?

Dishwasher tablets should only go in the dishwasher detergent compartment of your dishwasher, not loose in the dishwasher itself.