Best way to clean hard water residue off of glass?

February 19, 2020 12:15 PM

I live in an area with hard water. Just in the course of washing off my glassware with it, it accrues mineral deposits from the water. What's the recommended way to clean it off so that it looks clean and sparkling?
posted by jtothes to Home & Garden (10 answers total)

White vinegar. We add a measuring cup of white vinegar to our dishwasher (just sit the cup in the top rack, with vinegar in it, and run the load like normal) and that's taken care of this. There are also commercial rinse agents but vinegar has worked for us.
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:17 PM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

Sometimes, the hard water will actually etch the glass (usually after a long time without cleaning them off), in which case you are SOL.
posted by sarajane at 12:32 PM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

LemiShine! When I used to live in Pennsylvania we had terribly hard water and all our glasses were cloudy and awful. One run with LemiShine and they were totally clear. It was amazing.

(I'm pretty sure the stuff I've linked to is the right stuff--they've added a bunch of products since I had to use it, because the water in Alaska is not as bad as Pennsylvania, and I think my dishwasher is better too.)
posted by leahwrenn at 1:01 PM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

Yep, that granulated LemiShine stuff does the trick. At my house, their rinse aid does not help with the hard water and makes the whole dishwasher load smell like wet dogs but this is almost certainly not the universal result!
posted by corey flood at 1:18 PM on February 19, 2020

Thirding LemiShine. We have hard water too and it works like a dream.

I have read that Lemonaid Kool-Aid mix will also work but have not tried it.
posted by jquinby at 1:29 PM on February 19, 2020

You can buy 5 lbs of granulated citric acid on Amazon for $15. I'm pretty sure that's what is in the lemon stuff. Put a tablespoon in your dishwasher, or more if your water is harder. You can also mix it up in the sink and soak any glasses with severe deposits.

Do not do this with metal things, it ends badly.
posted by Horkus at 1:51 PM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

We use Finish Hard Water Booster -- that page says it contains citric acid.

And yes, I'm also losing the silkscreen designs off my pint glasses...
posted by natabat at 3:14 PM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

Seconding white vinegar. We just pour some in the bottom of the machine before we run and it works wonders.
posted by babar at 3:41 PM on February 19, 2020

You've got good suggestions for the dishwasher itself, but water softening equipment added to your water supply feed is good too. You have to add salt to the softener to allow it to flush the minerals it accumulates, but bulk salt is cheap, and most systems are low-maintenance.
posted by Sunburnt at 3:43 PM on February 19, 2020

Nthing Citric Acid. Recently bought a fancy dehumidifer and the manual said to use a solution of Citric Acid to clean it, so bought a big bag of it on Amazon and damn, this stuff is magical on glass. Dilute it and swish it or use it as a paste with a brush. Got all the hard water stains off my vases, hurrah.
posted by Ness at 3:26 AM on February 20, 2020