GE Dishwasher Automatic Detergent Dispenser Clogged - DC Water Grain?

I don't know what it is with GE appliances, but we haven't had a lot of luck with them. In Milwaukee our automatic ice dispenser didn't last very long. And it didn't last much longer here with the new GE refrigerator in spite of following instructions for regular filter changes. Now we started to notice that the dishes weren't quite as clean as they should be, and found that the automatic detergent dispenser component didn't seem to be working because the level of detergent hasn't changed for awhile. So my husband snaked a wire through and sure enough, it was very clogged. But that maneuver didn't seem to fix the problem. So now we are going to use the manual dispenser. Upon reading the instructions, they said to contact the water department to find out how hard the water is first. That would then tell you how much detergent you should use. So I sent an email to the DC water department. It was bounced back because the person is on vacation. They left another name to contact so I did. That person returned the email with a number to call. I called the number. They said to leave a message with a name and number. I did.  Did they return the call? Of course not. So now we will probably never known whatever information we need. I think we will just get the cascade tablets and forget this ever happened. 

Tide High Efficiency Detergent

We are back to the daily grind. We just returned from our visit to Florida to see my elderly parents - not quite the vacation, but time away from the nation's Capitol. My husband now is on the look out for high efficiency washing detergent. The LG washer/dryer machine we have cannot tolerate regular washing detergents. The repairman once told us that high efficiency detergent was essential for this type and brand of clothes washer when he came to fix it quite a while ago. Since my husband said he could not find it at the local Harris Teeter he usually goes to, we had to spend precious Saturday time searching for it at another grocery store. I know they don't have it at Safeway, because we checked there around Thanksgiving. So we went to the Giant where he got his flu shot in McLean. And there it was clear as day - to me. The blue HE symbol wasn't really that noticeable, but the bright orange rectangular box it comes in was the same. There were two sizes...the small box is almost ten dollars and the larger one is $15.00. Now I know why some of the residents in the condo building were complaining when their laundry detergent was stolen from the laundry room last week. Nothing is cheap any more. Let's hope this stuff lasts awhile. When I told him I only use a small amount for each wash, he was surprised. We never had to worry about any of this in our large laundry room in our home in Milwaukee. I suppose there are worse things to think about. But this just all seems to be a waste of time.