Back to your initial question. I am surprised that you smell the vinegar. You must have a much more sensitive nose than I do...although I'm not opposed to the scent of vinegar, I guess if you are sensitive to it, you might be. I have been adding 1/4 cup of vinegar to my rinse, since just before I changed to a front loader. I had already switched to Charlie's Soap for my top loader and using vinegar in the rinse. I had been using vinegar to 'set' color in my wash for several years before. I don't recall ever smelling it though. Have you tried an extended rinse?

I think the dispenser just wasn't full, thanks morz8. What I had was a sample that came with the dishwasher, it held all of it but I didn't look to see where the full line was and I don't know how much was in that tiny bottle because I threw it away. I know it was pretty small though, maybe only 2 ounces. So I bought a large bottle and filled it up and YES I did over fill it because you cannot really tell when it's full and plus it's really hard to get it in that tiny little fill spot. Then I got out a funnel and that's when I over filled it. HA! I'm going to have to find a better container to put it in to dispense it properly. Maybe one of those hair color dispensers/applicators from Sally's with the pointed top.

I do use rinse aid in my Bosch. Dunno what would happen if I didn't. The third rack is awesome. So, so awesome. I got it by accident because my GC found an 800 series for the same price as the 300 series machine I had specified. I use mine for silverware. The way the third rack works, I can sort the silverware for washing, which makes unloading it a breeze (scoop up all the spoons in one hand and drop them in their spot). I took the basket out and I can fit so, so, so much more in the bottom rack now. A whole party's worth of plates! Or mixing bowls, plus the dinner dishes! I do so much less handwashing now. I use the normal cycle all the time so I don't care about all the other options, except that I do use the delayed start pretty much every day. I load the dishwasher after dinner and set it to run a couple of hours later. That way I can add the random post-dinner snack items, without risk of forgetting to start the machine before I go to bed.

Susan, I don't worry about it! First, I think it rinses off. Second, just a teensy bit gets dispensed in a cycle. Third, food/mouths come in contact with relatively small portions of all the items in the DW. So compared to everything else we are exposed to daily, rinse aid is not among my worries.