<p>Hi - a recent thread here talks about what new dishwasher brand to get. I am not in a position to get a new dishwasher, but want to make my oldish one work better. It accumulates a LOT of white crusty build up around the vents in the bottom, and leaves particulate stuff on the dishes. I took it completely apart about a year ago and manually picked out all the white cakey stuff, with a pick and toothbrush. It worked better, but still not great. I also switched from powder to liquid detergent. I have tried running the dishwasher empty with vinegar, but it left the NEXT load of dishes with white streaks. I have tried some “dishwasher cleaning” stuff from Home Depot and ran the thing empty with that. It makes the white cakey stuff look improved, but I am still getting particulate matter on my dishes. I use RinseAid, and my dog does a pretty good job of “prewashing” all the stuff that I miss on my prewash(!). On the new dishwasher thread it was mentioned to use Borax, but that makes me worry about getting even MORE white cakey build up. We have very hard water where I live. Can anyone speak to using bleach, vinegar, Lime-Away, ammonia, or any other recommendations to reducing this buildup??</p>