CLOUDY GLASSES
Clouding or a foggy film on your glasses can be unexpected, but why does it happen?
Often, people who find their glasses becoming cloudy over time will either throw them away, or hide them at the back of a cupboard, only to use them when no-one is looking. This needn’t be the case though as it is entirely preventable. To be able to solve this problem we first need to understand what the problem is and what is causing cloudy glasses.
WHAT CAUSES CLOUDY GLASSES?
There are two main causes of cloudy glasses, and both tend to happen over time: one is due to corrosion, or etching, and the other is due to hard water deposits. These are completely different types of clouding and require different precautions to prevent them from happening.
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Etching / Corrosion
This is a slow process which can easily be missed. It is a form of corrosion that happens over time due to regular everyday use. Whilst this is neither avoidable or reversible, there are a few things you can do to ensure that your glassware is protected as much as possible to help prevent clouding for longer, including ensuring your glassware is dishwasher safe and using products that have added glass protection ingredients such as Finish Quantum Ultimate and Finish Dish and Glass Protector. -
Hard Water Deposits
If you live in a hard water area, you may be faced with deposits gathering in your dishwasher. These deposits, such as limescale, can cling onto your glass and dishes, causing a cloudy appearance. Fortunately, limescale deposits on your glass can be fixed, and easily prevented. While water hardness is largely dictated by your location, it’s no longer completely beyond your control. If you are unsure about whether you live in a hard or soft water area, this handy tool can help you find out.
HOW CAN FINISH HELP WITH CLOUDY GLASSES?
Finish products are designed to perform different tasks whilst working effectively together ensuring your dishes, glasses and cutlery all receive an optimum clean – meaning no need for repeat washes.
FINISH DISHWASHER CLEANER
A regular, thorough clean of your dishwasher with Finish Dishwasher Cleaner will help to remove all the nasty grime that can get left behind after a wash, like excess food, grease and limescale stored - before it can cling to your glasses. It’s advisable to clean your dishwasher every month, not only to prevent this, but to ensure that it’s performing at full efficiency, and ensuring cleaner dishes.
FINISH RINSE AID
For many, cloudy glasses can be something of an embarrassment. By ensuring that you keep your machine topped up with Finish Rinse Aid, you’ll not only help protect your glasses from the effects hard water can have on your glasses, but also give you shinier and drier dishes after each wash.
As well as a glass protection ingredient, Finish Rinse Aid is equipped with 5 x power actions to provide your dishes with a table ready finish after every cycle:
- Rinses residue
- Speeds up drying
- Fights water spots
- Film protection
- Brilliant shine
Adding Finish Rinse Aid to your cycle ensures the water droplets that form on surfaces are dispersed before they can evaporate and leave behind any of the limescale residue that they might have accumulated.
FINISH DISHWASHER SALT
If you feel that your dishwasher is leaving white residue on your glasses it may be because your machine is lacking dishwasher salt. This white residue could be a result of heavy deposits of limescale being left on glasses. Finish Dishwasher Salt helps soften water, directly reducing the amount of spots and watermarks on your glassware that can be caused by hard water.
FINISH QUANTUM ULTIMATE
A powerful detergent such as Finish Quantum Ultimate gives you the clean and shine that you’d expect with the additional protection against glass corrosion.
WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO TO PREVENT CLOUDY GLASSES?
If you don’t live in a hard water area but still find you are getting cloudy glasses, it may be a result of anything from heat exposure and poor glass quality to overly long programme cycles. There are a number of ways to prolong the life of your glasses, and it’s important to get it right before clouding happens, as it is usually irreversible:
- When buying glasses, ensure they are dishwasher safe.
- Use Finish Quantum Max to ensure your glasses are protected from cloudiness and stay shiny for longer.
- If you have one, check your water softener unit, as it may be on too high a setting. Over time, glasses can become cloudy and dull because of irreversible glass corrosion but with Finish Quantum Max, glassware is protected, so wash after wash your glasses come out with a brilliant sparkling shine.
- For more delicate glassware, wash at a low temperature, or on a glass washing setting. Dartington Crystal recommend Finish as the glassware detergent of choice, which should provide peace of mind when putting your favourite glasses in the washing machine.
- Once your dishwasher cycle has finished, open the dishwasher to allow excess steam to escape. More modern machines take care of this with internal fans. Let your glasses cool in the washing machine before removing them.
- Ensure your dishwasher has enough Finish Rinse Aid to speed up the drying process. Water residue will not have the opportunity to mark your glassware with water spot marks
- Make sure your dishwasher salt levels are topped up with Finish Dishwasher Salt. Dishwasher salt helps soften your water to boost the cleaning performance of your detergent by preventing spots and watermarks on your dishes.
