---
title: "Cloudy Glass in a Dacor Dishwasher: Deposit or Etching"
description: "Dacor dishwasher cloudy glasses: cloudy glass from a Dacor dishwasher is deposit or etching. Soak one glass in vinegar to tell them apart, then check the…"
url: "https://dacormiami.support/blog/cloudy-glass-and-the-softener/"
date_modified: "2026-09-12"
Category: "Maintenance & Prevention"
---


# Cloudy Glass in a Dacor Dishwasher: Deposit or Etching

Two problems, one appearance, and ten minutes tells you which one you have.

## Dacor dishwasher cloudy glasses: the test

A glass, some white vinegar, ten minutes. Rinse and look.

If it comes out clear, what you had was deposit: minerals sitting on the surface, which the acid dissolved. That is a water problem and it is fixable.

If it looks exactly the same, the glass is etched. The surface itself has been attacked over hundreds of cycles, and there is nothing that brings it back.

## Why this machine has a softener at all

Most dishwashers take whatever water arrives. This one treats it, which in South Florida is the reason glassware in these kitchens stays clear for years longer than it otherwise would.

It is also something to maintain, and almost nobody is told: the chamber needs dishwasher salt, the setting has to match the hardness actually coming out of the tap, and the resin has a working life.

## What a wrong setting looks like

Not a failure. A slow, even decline across every load — everything slightly worse than it used to be, nothing actually broken. People describe it as the machine getting tired, and it is usually a softener set for water softer than what arrives, doing a fraction of the work it could.

Measured rather than assumed is the whole of the fix.

## The two other causes worth ruling out

Heat. Detergent needs temperature to work, and a heater that half functions leaves residue on everything. The complaint arrives as cloudiness rather than as a heating problem.

Coverage. A blocked jet leaves a repeatable pattern — the same dirty spot on the same plate in the same rack position — and it shows on glass before it shows anywhere else.

## The mistake that costs the most

Table salt in the softener chamber. It contains anti-caking agents that damage the resin, and it turns a maintenance item into a replacement. Dishwasher salt costs very little and the machine uses barely any of it.

## What a softener service actually involves

The salt level and the cap seal first, because a weeping cap puts brine somewhere it should not be and does slow chemical damage that outlasts the part. Then the hardness setting, measured against the water that actually arrives rather than assumed from a postcode. Then the resin itself, which has a working life and does eventually stop regenerating.

And then a cycle with known glassware, because the result of this service should be visible. If it is not, we say so rather than declaring it done — the point of the visit is clear glass, not a completed checklist.

---

**[Read full article: Cloudy Glass in a Dacor Dishwasher: Deposit or Etching](https://dacormiami.support/blog/cloudy-glass-and-the-softener/)**