--- title: "Glassware coming out cloudy" description: "Dacor glassware coming out cloudy: cloudy glass is two quite different problems wearing the same appearance." url: "https://dacormiami.support/symptoms/dishwasher-glassware-cloudy/" date_modified: "2026-09-12" Appliance type: "dishwasher" --- # Dacor glassware coming out cloudy ### What to do in the next ten minutes Soak one affected glass in white vinegar for ten minutes and rinse it. If it comes out clear, the film is deposit and the water is the problem. If it is unchanged, the glass is etched and no repair will restore it. Check when the softener was last serviced and what setting it is on. Note whether new glassware clouds as quickly as the old. ### The one appliance here with its own softener A dishwasher that treats its own water is unusual, and in a hard-water city it is the reason glassware in these kitchens stays clear for years longer than it otherwise would. It is also a maintenance item nobody is told about on delivery: it needs the right salt, the right setting and, eventually, new resin. ### Why etching cannot be undone Etching is glass that has been chemically attacked — too little mineral in the water, too much detergent, too high a temperature, over hundreds of cycles. The surface is gone. No machine, no rinse aid and no repair brings it back, and any site suggesting otherwise is selling something. What a correctly set softener does is stop it happening to the next set. The built-in softener needs servicing Set for water softer than what actually arrives, or running on exhausted resin, it does a fraction of its job. That produces exactly this slow, even decline across every load. The wash is no longer reaching temperature Detergent needs heat to work. A heater that half functions leaves residue on everything, and the complaint arrives as cloudiness rather than as a heating problem. Spray coverage has fallen away Blocked jets and a tired filter leave a repeatable pattern of poorly rinsed items, which reads as cloudiness on glass before it is noticed on anything else. The vinegar test Deposit or etching, settled in ten minutes and before anybody is called. Find the softener's setting Measured against the water that actually arrives, not against an assumption. Try one load with the filter freshly cleaned It costs nothing and it separates maintenance from repair. A film that will not wash off, and it is getting worse What it usually means Deposit washes off. Etching does not — and the test takes five minutes This machine has its own water softener, and it is the usual answer A slow, even decline across everything points at the softener rather than a part What to do in the next ten minutes Soak one affected glass in white vinegar for ten minutes and rinse it. If it comes out clear, the film is deposit and the water is the problem. If it is unchanged, the glass is etched and no repair will restore it. Check when the softener was last serviced and what setting it is on. Note whether new glassware clouds as quickly as the old. The one appliance here with its own softener A dishwasher that treats its own water is unusual, and in a hard-water city it is the reason glassware in these kitchens stays clear for years longer than it otherwise would. It is also a maintenance item nobody is told about on delivery: it needs the right salt, the right setting and, eventually, new resin. Why etching cannot be undone Etching is glass that has been chemically attacked — too little mineral in the water, too much detergent, too high a temperature, over hundreds of cycles. The surface is gone. No machine, no rinse aid and no repair brings it back, and any site suggesting otherwise is selling something. What a correctly set softener does is stop it happening to the next set. ### Should I stop using the dishwasher? No. Wash glass you care about by hand until the softener has been sorted out, and carry on with everything else. Nothing about this problem harms the machine. ### Would a rinse aid fix it? It helps with drying marks and does nothing for deposit or etching. If a rinse aid changed things, the problem was drying rather than water hardness. --- **[Read full article: Glassware coming out cloudy](https://dacormiami.support/symptoms/dishwasher-glassware-cloudy/)**