Repair guide · Gresham
Gresham's Groundwater and Your Appliances: What Changes
Updated 10/29/2026
Gresham now gets most of its water from wells instead of Bull Run. The new water is harder: more calcium, magnesium and silica. For appliances that means mineral film and scale where water heats or evaporates, and a little more detergent where water used to be very soft.
It is not hard enough to call for a water softener by most appliance makers’ measures. A few changes in habit, the dose, the rinse aid, a cleaning cycle, a filter changed on time, deal with most of it.
Before you check anything
- Unplug an appliance, or switch off its breaker, before you clean a filter, a dispenser or a spray arm.
- Do not mix descalers or vinegar with chlorine bleach in any appliance.
- Do not pour descaler into an appliance whose manual does not allow it.
What Gresham changed
The City of Gresham switched its main supply from Portland's Bull Run water to groundwater from the Cascade well field, a partnership with Rockwood Water People's Utility District, and keeps Bull Run and the Columbia South Shore wells as backups.
The city describes the groundwater as moderately hard, 58 to 108 milligrams per liter. On the U.S. Geological Survey scale, 0 to 60 is soft and 61 to 120 is moderately hard, so Gresham water now sits from the top of soft to the middle of moderately hard. Bull Run water was well inside soft, at roughly half a grain per gallon.
What you can check yourself
Dishwasher: the dose and the rinse aid
Whirlpool notes that hard water generally calls for more detergent. Keep the rinse aid filled, and raise its setting if spots appear. Whirlpool strongly recommends a softener only at about 15 grains per gallon or more, far above Gresham water.
Dishwasher: a cleaning cycle
Run a dishwasher cleaner, or a white vinegar rinse on an empty machine, when white film shows on the tub or the spray arms.
Washer: the inlet screens
Minerals and grit collect on the small screens where the fill hoses meet the washer. A washer that fills slowly, or shows a fill code, may have screens to clean; the manual shows how.
Washer: the detergent
Use HE detergent and the dose on the label for your water. Too little in harder water leaves soil behind; too much still makes suds. Run the washer’s cleaning cycle monthly.
Ice maker and dispenser
Replace the refrigerator water filter on its schedule. Scale shortens the life of the inlet valve and can leave white flakes in ice and water.
Undercounter ice machines
A separate ice machine is the appliance most sensitive to hard water. Follow its maker’s cleaning schedule; most ask for a descaling cleaner made for ice machines.
Signs the water is affecting an appliance
White crust on dishwasher spray arms, cloudy film that wipes off glasses with vinegar, slow washer fills, smaller or cloudy ice, white flakes in the water dispenser.
Do you need a softener
At Gresham’s hardness most households do not. A softener changes more than appliances, and the appliance makers set their thresholds well above this range. If you are on a private well with much harder water, that is a different question.
The water heater
Hardness also settles in a tank water heater. Its maker’s flushing schedule keeps the sediment down. That is a plumber’s or the owner’s job, not an appliance repair.
What usually fails
- Dishwasher: blocked spray arm jets, a scaled heater, a sensor coated with film.
- Washer: clogged inlet screens and an inlet valve that sticks.
- Refrigerator: an inlet valve that does not close fully, a scaled ice maker fill cup.
- Ice machine: scale on the evaporator plate, slow or thin ice.
- Any appliance: a filter left in past its date.
When to call for a repair
- A dishwasher still leaves grit and film after the dose, the rinse aid and a cleaning cycle.
- A washer fills slowly with clean screens and open taps.
- Water drips from the refrigerator water valve or filter housing.
- An ice machine stops making ice after a descaling.
- Any appliance leaks.
What a repair visit involves
- Book online: choose the appliance, describe the problem and pick up to three times that suit you.
- We confirm one of your times by phone or text. You are not booked until we do.
- We come to your home, test the appliance and find the cause.
- You get the price before any repair begins. We repair it with your approval; if a part has to be ordered, we come back to fit it.
The diagnostic visit costs $89. If you go ahead with the repair, the $89 is applied toward it; if you decide not to repair, the $89 covers the diagnosis.
Our work and the parts we install carry a 90-day warranty. The terms are printed on your invoice.
Repairs in Gresham
We repair appliances at home in Gresham and across the Portland metro area. Enter your ZIP code when you book and the form checks it right away.
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Sources
The facts on this page come from these sources, checked when the page was written.