I was told by my appliance salesman and also read over in the appliance forum that you should scrape but not rinse your dishes before you wash them in DW. The detergent needs something to "attack" and if there are no food particles then etching can occur. Also, use a detergent with enzyme action like Cascade Complete (which you are using).

Resist the urge to rinse the glasses first. With enzyme detergents you shouldn't rinse - just scrape food off the plates. Also, you should use a rinse aid such as Jet Dry - don't know if that will help with etching but it will help with drying.

Thanks! Yes, I do use Jet Dry all the time. This new KA dishwasher lets me know when I'm getting low on it, so that I can refill right away. As far as not rinsing the dishes, that's a new one on me. I'd never heard this before, but will take heed now that I do know.
Anything else I should know or try?

Forgive my ignorance, but is Cascade Complete a liquid or a powder? I was told some years ago that glasses etch from powdered detergents. If yours is a liquid disregard this nugget of info. Good luck.

Cascade Complete is a powder. Most DW manufacturers these days recommend powder.

No, my Cascade Complete is a liquid/gel. I buy it at our local Target store.
Igloochic, too funny! I swear girl, you need to change your name to INCORRIGIBLE CHIC ;~P !

lynn - try Cascade Complete powder - I've been told that gel can gum up the works - don't know about etching. I've been using it for 5 years in my KA DW with excellent results

I agree on the using powder over gel/liquid - we had horrible etching problems and switched to powder (and a VERY little amount of it!) and the etching stopped - also, resist the urge to use any powder-based tablets too - those are the worst for etching, in our experience!

I'm still trying to figure that out. I never had anything etch in ten years with my old Maytag dishwasher - using liquid detergent. Got an expensive, sophisticated Miele that requires powder detergent and all my glassware has been etching for the three years I've had it.

I chalked it up to that particular dishwasher not being well suited to use with a whole house water softener - which I have. Perhaps other modern day dishwashers are not suited to that either. Possibly it's even worse with an RO - don't know but that water is even more pure than softened water.

The common theme in everything I've heard is that it's a combination of soft water - hot water - and too much detergent. In the case of Miele it says do not rinse - not leaving dishes dirty enough causes etching. So I've never rinsed and I still have etching. With lower temp water and less detergent other dishes don't get clean - so I've been rinsing them a bit more but never any glasses.

Latest recommendation in my case was to try Miele's special dishwasher detergent tabs - so I'm doing that. On a promising note the first load did at least get my coffee cups clean - too early to know about the etching.

I had the same problem with another dishwasher but I started using JetDri and that helped. I have a KA dishwasher now and began having problmes with chipping and breaking coffee mugs - a lot. I was worried because some of the mugs are irreplacable. I switched from the Normal cycle to the china/light cycle and OMG, what a difference. Everything shines now, even the glasses. I'm a little worried because I'm not sure of the difference and everything is so shiny and smooth. I haven't used any addatives so not sure what makes it that way. The dishes seem to be cleaner also. Anyway, if you have a lighter wash cycle, try that. Hopefully it will work for you as well.

ASKO + electrasol = sparkling glassware :)

We have been using this combo for several years. we throw everything in it. Glassware, knives, fine china, bluestar grates.. everything comes out squeaky clean, no etching, no lost gold on the china, just perfect.

If you have softened water, then you likely do have etching and not a build up of film related to washing dishes in hard water. I too have this problem. You can test whether your glasses are actually etched by soaking a glass overnight in vinegar. If it doesn't come off by morning your glass is etched and if you don't enjoy drinking out of it like that you will need to toss it and buy new.

New glasses will likewise slowly get to the point of being cloudy. You will first notice the process when you see a bit of rainbow-like streaks on the glassware.

What I have learned after too much research is that dw detergents are manufactured to work in slightly hard water, and they are too harsh for glassware in water with zero hardness grains. That, coupled with the longer cycles that use very hot water and less of it, are very hard on glasses.

After buying new glasses, you could try to help them not become etched as quickly by washing them in a cycle for glasses, which won't be as long or as hot temps as regular cycles. And only use a tiny amount of detergent; like a half teaspoon for glasses only.

OR, you could by-pass your watersoftener and send hard, unsoftened water to your DW, and use a product called Glass Magic in each load to help cut down on hard water film.

Since I was getting a new DW and was researching same issue as you before I settled on my brand, etc., I learned a LOT from GW and the internet and Miele, who I ended up buying from.

I bought Miele Excella DW, which has the ability to soften the water coming into the DW itself; I'll have to add special salts to the DW. I will have a house softener, but will not be sending soft water to my DW (or to my instant hot/chilled filtered water at my sink, or my icemaker). I am having the plumber connect COLD, unsoftened water to my DW and will let my DW soften the water and bring it to the correct temp for the selected load. I plan to wash stemware and regular glasses in a top-only load with a setting for glasses. Since cold water will be going in, the water won't be too hot for the glasses. Since it will be unsoftened water, the dw will be able to soften it to about 5 grains of hardness, which is optimal for use w/DW detergents w/enzymes.

This fix is probably not an option for you, but you may want to try some of the solutions.

Like Pharaoh,

We have an Asko, and use Electrosol tabs. Everything is sparkling clean.

Have to say though, never had a problem with real etching- more just cloudiness (though before the new DW I didn't know my dishes weren't sparkling :>), so maybe it does have something to do with soft/hard water. My Mom's glasses on the acreage were very etched- now her water was so hard, you couldn't drink it, yuch! She had a water-softening system and I can't remember if the waterline going into the DW used the softened water or the hard water directly from the well... so I'm not much help... am I?

Thanks for all your ideas. Last night I put the dishes and glasses in the DW with the food scraped off but not rinsed. Am off to buy the powdered Cascade Complete in just a few minutes. I'm going to try using the Crystal cycle on my DW, to lower the water temp a bit. Checked with DH and the DW is NOT hooked up to the filtered water, so that's a good thing I guess. DH is going to try to soften the water less, and we'll see how that works, too. I hadn't considered or even heard about any of these things before, but am grateful for the advice . . . and I'm taking it. Thank you!