Should you point utensils up or down in the dishwasher?

What do you do to them? The dishwasher wore out long before the baskets for us, dropping insulation on the floor. We still have the basket from the old dishwasher, using it to prop the door of the new one open to give it more air circulation while drying without blocking the kitchen.

4 Likes

True - my cutlery goes in randomly except for the chopsticks that must go in fat-end first.

7 Likes

Yeah, and dishwashers are a lot gentler than they used to be, too. They typically run at <140°F. I have had wood and bamboo stuff warp and split, but it usually lasts >5 years minimum. If your dishwasher has an exposed heating element, though, make sure nothing wood or plastic can move, fall onto it, and burn/melt during the dry cycle. Had that happen twice with one (very old) dishwasher.

8 Likes

Pointy-side down knives and forks.
I don’t know the make of the dishwasher, as there’s a wooden door covering it (built-in thing).
It’s been good for more than fifteen years so far, but we’ve gone through quite a few of the cheap
hard-plastic cutlery baskets.

4 Likes

Actually I would like a dishwasher that has some LED lights along the edges of the door so that in the middle of the night when the door is left open to air-dry, I can see the friggen thing before my shins smash into it.

6 Likes

I have a 1986 Kitchenaid in my house that’s still going strong, BUT we only run it overnight because it’s too loud to be around when it’s running. It sounds like there’s a team of clumsy elves with pressure washers inside.

14 Likes

My sister has a cutlery top-rack, and bought a basket for the bottom shelf because she doesn’t think cutlery in the rack gets clean enough. I’m guessing this varies by brand.

6 Likes

Cyloneyes

3 Likes

We have diverging concepts for what that rack is used for. :slightly_smiling_face: And I mean that exact rack.

5 Likes

I have a bunch of korean stainless steel chopsticks, and putting them in the dishwasher is a bit of a pain but not impossible (it involves balancing them off a spoon or two to prevent them from falling through the bottom of the basket). That said i’d love a set that can easily go in the dishwasher

5 Likes

We’re on our third dishwasher, in 25 years or so (original → GE → Bosch), always loaded knives down and we’ve never had to replace baskets. Looking at the last basket, you’d have to actually work at it to break it, don’t even see slices on it, top or bottom and it’s probably 15 years old. You either have waaayyyy better knives than we do or cheap out too much when you replace the baskets.

5 Likes

Interesting that 3 of 4 consulted didn’t comment on cleaning performance, just about dirty hands. Solved by a gazillion comments here about cleaning performance.

So far, not one post mentioning the hazard of a fork pointed down sticking down through the basket low enough to catch the spinning arm and stop it from spinning. This shouldn’t break the arm, since it’s spun by water pressure. However, it can cause a sustained high pressure jet to focus on just the door seal for the entire cycle. An event most would prefer to avoid, as the seal will not withstand this use and fail.

You may guess how I know about this failure mode. There was lots of water where no water should go.

Maybe they’ve solved that with new baskets that prevent this and everyone just has fancy new dishwashers now. Fork tines up for me, lesson learned.

7 Likes

I’ve rented all of my adult life, so i’ve never gotten fancy dishwashers (trust me on this). And i’ve never once had forks peek down from the basket, its probably more of a design quick on the silverwave basket yours uses :man_shrugging:

5 Likes

Might have been the silverware too.

In either case, I no longer own that particular dishwasher, silverware, or house. Not taking any chances, the mess was unpleasant.

4 Likes

It is kind of funny how loading a dishwasher is such a weirdly different thing for everyone. From personal preference to the particular quirks of people’s dishwashers

6 Likes

I think it’s the latter. I just replaced like for like from the original.
It’s a weak spot in the machine but problem solved with ‘pointy-up’.

Also, I now use the crumpled tin-foil trick.
It does work!

3 Likes

I had never heard that before, so I googled it. Thanks for the tip!

For anyone else that happens to be in today’s 10,000:

7 Likes

Next best thing.

Purchase and cut up this glow in the dark exit sign.

Cut up the edge borders and stick them along the (now visible) side while the door edges are open.

I did this to my moms car so she could locate where to insert the key on the door and in the ignition in her darkened car.

8 Likes

It was here on the boing a month or so back, I recall. Great tip.

3 Likes

I just wished my wife cared at all about such things. She is an agent of chaos with no discernible strategy. If engaged in a conversation about tips or strategy, she is annoyed at the very idea of caring about it.

My one success - which came at great strain to our relationship - was to get her to stop putting our sharp knives in the dishwasher.

3 Likes