My dishwasher is about six years old and the utensil basket is starting to break. I suppose the force from kids dropping the utensils in rather than placing them in gently is causing the bottom of the basket to come apart or break in places. (Okay, I admit I probably drop them in sometimes too.)
I came up with a simple solution for this problem. My husband is a handyman and I knew he had some cable ties
(also known as zip ties) in the garage. The ties are plastic so I didn’t have to worry about them rusting. They are also strong, and I knew they would hold well.
The difficult part was working with the inside bottom of the basket. There were times when I was trying to manipulate the ties inside the basket and wished that my hands were smaller. However, in the end it worked out.
I used ties at two places. In one place the bottom piece of the basked had become detached at the edge and heavy utensils would push through. The cable tie holds that bottom piece in place well enough to keep that from happening.
In another spot, a piece was broken out leaving a hole that allowed almost any utensil to fall through. It was also detached at the bottom.
In this case, the cable tie holds the bottom up and spans the gap preventing utensils from falling through.
You can purchase cable ties at Amazon or at your local home improvement store. They come in a variety of sizes and colors. The ones I used were 8 inch ties, but quite a bit was cut off.
I thought it was funny that last week my friend Toni posted the same tip.
If you have a kitchen tip to share, send me an email.
See, my dishwasher utensil basket is fine, it’s just the individual prong-things (whatever they’re called) that separate dishes in the rack that break off, one by one. It’s like the latex covering on them cracks, allows water inside, and then they rust off. I keep thinking that if enough of them break, I’ll HAVE to get a new dishwasher – preferably one that doesn’t make so much racket!
I had a dishwasher once where the coating wore off the tips of the prongs and would rust. I found some plastic tip covers that worked well. I don’t know if it would help you any. If the coating is only cracking on the tip it might keep the rest of the prong from rusting. I think they might also sell coating that you can brush on. Then again, maybe you would rather let it be and get a new dishwasher a little sooner. 🙂
This video really help me solve the issue once and for all, Katie
https://youtu.be/QmFGESz_-Vk
Just fuxed mne with zip ties! Cist $1
I used this hack as well but please be careful as eventually those plastic ties will break and probably end up near the internal food grinder (along with other food particles that don’t grind (i.e. popcorn kernels, shrimp tails, etc). I actually had to repair my dishwasher because one of these ties. Make it a habit to replace them every 6 months
If you have a lot of cracked or missing fretwork at the bottom of the utensil basket due to disintegration of the plastic, there is another way you can make a more permanent repair.
I cut a piece of plastering lath, which I obtained at Home Depot (it only comes in a six foot long sheet), to a size that fit across the bottom of the basket. I then used wire ties to secure it to the sides of the basket which are thicker and stronger than the bottom pieces of the basket. The lath is made of metal and will not disintegrate and will keep silverware from going through the bottom for a long time.