I love having deep royal blue glassware, but hard water stains look especially gross on dark-colored glass. Fortunately, detergent manufacturers are here to save us all from their new phosphate-free formulas with improved versions that pollute the environment less, but pollute our dishes more. Our sparkling colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports learned that additives meant to clean up this gross residue actually work.

The three additives that they tested all performed well, though one
(Finish Power Up Booster Agent) required an adjustment to the directions, since it didn’t work very well in the pre-rinse cycle. Glisten Dishwasher Cleaner & Hard Water Spot Remover and Lemi Shine Original both performed admirably.

If you’re trying to shine up your dishes for use on the Thanksgiving table, remember that not all dishes and serving pieces can or should go through the dishwasher on a regular basis: be careful with china and crystal, for example. They won’t explode on the first washing, but repeated trips though the washer can damage the dishes.

How to remove white haze from your good dishes [Consumer Reports]

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