My Dishwasher is Leaving a White Powdery Coating!

Did you get new plates? I love that frosted white color. Oh, gosh, it's that noticeable? My dishwasher is leaving a white powdery coating! One cause is using too much laundry detergent. Have you tried using less? If I use less, the dishes don't get as clean. That has been a problem since the EPA essentially banned phosphates in laundry detergent in 2010. However, Consumer Reports did find that Cascade Complete All in One Action-Packs don't leave a residue, even in hard water. Glad to know the cause, hate the cost of the solution. Is there a cheaper solution? Adding a little white vinegar to the dish washer before running it does the same job as the missing phosphates. Now my dishes come out looking clean and smelling like pickles. Think of it as smelling like salad dressing! Or you could add Lemi Shine to remove the white residue left behind by the detergents. It's like using one beauty product to remove oils and another to "add shine". It feels redundant - and wasteful. You could add a box of STPP, Sodium TriPolyPhosphate, or TSP, TriSodiumPhosphate, from the hardware store. Then add a teaspoon to every dishwasher load. Not if I want to be eco-friendly and not put out phosphate pollution. Then use white vinegar or a more expensive rinse agent in the rinse agent dispenser. What do you think of using gel based detergent instead of the powdered ones? That works in some cases, but not all of them. You could also wash glasses separate from plates and use glass-specific detergents for them. Is there a simpler solution? Open up the dishwasher after the wash cycle and hand dry everything instead of letting them sit in the steam. That reduces the residue build up. I could install a water softener to get rid of the calcium portion of the residue. Only if you're willing to pay the cost. I'd get more work out of the dishwasher and have less work in the shower. That might be worth the expense.