ANCHORAGE, Alaska—
The dishwasher is supposed to clean your dishes and glasses, but recently consumers have been discovering clean glasses are coming out cloudy.Consumers are going crazy trying to figure out why, all of a sudden, cloudy glasses are coming out of clean dishwashers.
It’s a simple chore: dirty dishes in, clean dishes out -- but maybe it’s not so simple any more. Consumers are clearly confused to see cloudy glasses pulled out of a clean dishwasher.
“They look cloudy, it's hard to explain: like they're smudged, like they're dirty,” said Angela Tandy.
“We're seeing in our glasses a film and splotchiness,” said Dan LaFountain. “I mean, everything is done exactly the same as we've done before.”
Some wonder if they need a new dishwasher.
“Yes, I did think that could be the problem, and was on the verge of going out and purchasing a new one,” Tandy said.
No, it's not your dishwasher or just your house -- it's a nationwide problem. The reason: the elimination of phosphates in dishwasher detergent.
This past summer, more than a dozen states banned phosphates to protect the environment. Manufacturers knew the bans were coming, and decided to reformulate their products for all 50 states. But getting rid of phosphates in dishwasher detergent isn’t pretty.
“Phosphate was a major workhorse ingredient: it helped remove stains and food and grease on your dishes and your glasses,” said Brian Sansoni with the American Cleaning Institute. “It is not an easy process. You can't just take out a major ingredient and overnight come up with a product that's going to do the same thing.”
And consumers are noticing. One of the largest manufacturers of detergents, Proctor and Gamble, has seen an abundance of complaints on its website.
The company says its research and development teams have been working for two years, trying to come up with formulations that work as well as the old stuff with phosphates. It says spotting or filming can occur, particularly in harder water, with these new phosphate-free formulas.
“I've never heard anything like that with phosphates before; this is news to me,” LaFountain said.
So what is that white stuff? Officials say it's not dangerous; it's just calcium carbonate that is sticking to surfaces.
“I handed a glass to somebody that was at my house last week and you know, she didn't drink very much -- and I was worried it was because the glass looked so disgusting,” Tandy said.
A once-simple chore has become more work, often with negative results.
“You wash them once in the sink, then you put them in the dishwasher. You wash them in the dishwasher and then you rewash them when they come out of the dishwasher,” LaFountain said.
“I would just like clean glasses,” Tandy said.
We have asked the experts what to do. One piece of advice:
pour white vinegar into a bowl, then place it on the bottom rack of the dishwasher with the cloudy glasses in the top rack. Next, run a full cycle then repeat with detergent.
On a regular basis, add white vinegar to the wash cycle, or try a different brand or different formulation.
