I’m not going to be shy about this – I’m writing this post to win a contest.
The good people at Lemi Shine have a monthly testimonial contest, and I’ve read many of the winning entries – they sing the praises of this miracle powder for the hard-water inflicted that makes their spotted glassware sparkle, cleans the spots off the inside of their dishwasher, and makes it smell lemon-y fresh.
Pffffff. Those people don’t have real hard water problems.
Here’s a real problem – a couple of weeks ago I looked into the bottom of one of the dishwashers at work and the heating element had so much build-up on it, it looked like a piece of coral. Horrified, I checked the other dishwasher – same problem. (This discovery led to the realization that our water softener has been unplugged for several months, and our super-hard water has been baking onto the heating elements.)
Holy. Crud. I didn’t take a ‘before’ picture, this is a ‘during’, but you can see the strata.
I tried soaking some washcloths in vinegar and wrapping them around the elements overnight, but it didn’t help. A little internet search said that vinegar was too weak of an acid – you need citric acid. I scoured the kitchen for lemonade drink mix, but we didn’t have any. So, out to Wal-Mart to see what they had.
They had Lemi Shine.
I filled the bottoms of both dishwashers with enough hot water to cover the elements, poured in a bunch of Lemi Shine, and let it sit for a couple of hours. I came back and was able to chip off a fair amount of crud. After that, though, the voice of my old boss from Dairy King, Bonsall Huffington, came back to me – “Let the water do the work”. I’ve been letting the solution sit overnight and am able to gently scrape it off with a jam spreader, and I’m almost down to the elements.
Thank you, Lemi Shine. You saved us the cost of two heating elements, if not two new dishwashers.