Dishwasher - knives up or down?

I've had one of those dishwashers with a rack rather than a basket for years, though I always used to stack knives and forks blade down. Not just safer if you fall but also safer to pick up if they are sharp.

Our last dishwasher didn’t have a cutlery basket but a tray that sat at the top of the machine and each item of cutlery was placed in the individual slots whack prevented any knives causing damage

Having almost impaled my wrist on a knife pointed upwards all mine now point down, I’ve replaced one basket in my Miele dishwasher in the 19 years approx that I’ve had it, at a cost from espares of roughly £20 a small price to pay for not having to visit A & E

Ordinary table knives are more likely to wash clean if you place them blade up. Same applies to forks and spoons: handles down.

Steak knives should go blade down, so you cannot cut yourself or fall on the blade.

Really good sharp kitchen knives, carving knives etc, should be washed up by hand, as the handles are usually damaged if you wash them in a dish-washer. As should wooden spoons, chopping boards and rolling-pins.

These are the rules followed in professional kitchens.

If you watch Eastenders, that's how Chantelle died, after Gray pushed her. She was impaled. As others say, wash by hand or sideways, handles facing you, in dishwasher.

kittylester I agree. Dishwasher detergent will take the edge off your good kitchen knives. We don't put them in even if the packaging says you can.

For safety blades and prongs down,

It is so easy for someone to trip over the lowered front flap and I do know of a woman who impaled herself in this way on a sharp knife, punctured her lung and died . Possibly lay a sharp knife along a shelf instead of cutlery container ?

Knives should go blade down but I've also wondered what is the best way to manage the fragile cutlery baskets as I'm about to replace yet another.

All blades down. However my favourite little chopping-up knife never goes in the dishwasher - the wooden handle would soon be wrecked.
I possess hardly any of what I call ‘murderous’ knives - the sort people keep in a block, all ready for any intruder to grab. Funnily enough I manage fine without.

I always put the blades down now ,
my grandson aged 6 at the time , backed into the open door of the dishwasher , and sat down abruptly!
Luckily he was wearing sturdy thick denim jeans and only got a scratch on his bottom !
I have never had to replace the basket !

Ordinary cutlery goes on a tray with the tines facing up. Any type of kitchen knife never goes in the dishwasher as I understand dishwasher blunts the blade, due I think, but not sure, to chemicals.

Down unless you want to risk a nasty accident.

Cateq

Our last dishwasher didn’t have a cutlery basket but a tray that sat at the top of the machine and each item of cutlery was placed in the individual slots whack prevented any knives causing damage

Yes, ours has a cutlery tray too.
It took a bit of getting used to at first and seemed much slower than just put it all into a basket (sharp knives points down, cutlery knives with rounded edges blade up) but it's so much better than a basket.

No cutlery basket in mine, a tray with grooves so they sit horizontally usually blades facing downwards.

We used to have a cutlery basket in our former dishwasher, all the cutlery went in 'head first', as it were.

Not only for reasons of safety but of basic hygiene.
No handling of blades, tines or spoon bowls when taking them out. No point in having cutlery washed in very hot water and air dried if you're going handle the very bits which you are going to eat off when you remove them from the basket.

I always put cutlery with the business end up because that was where the muck was. If I put them in with the blades/tines/spoons down, the bits just got swirled about and stuck to another item in the same section of the basket and then, for good measure, got baked on in the drying process.

It never occurred to me to put the blades facing down.

Who leaves a dishwasher open anyway?

Nowadays I have a model with a tray at the top. This is a very bad design.

1. The third level (cutlery tray) doesn't have its own spray arms and the spray from the second level does not reach up properly to clean the cutlery.

2. Due to the third tray taking up space, you lose on height in the other two trays.

I don't like to pre-rinse the dishes because then I may as well wash the lot by hand anyway.

I used to put all cutlery handles down, dishwashers are designed to wash cutlery that way. I’ve a tray now so no need to think about it. I’d never put sharp knives in though, it ruins them.

As for the dirt about the child killing being killed it’s an apocryphal story. And his could an adult fall into an open dishwasher, let alone impale themselves?

As for the hygiene aspect, which ixion brings up, I learned as an au pair back when I was a teenager to spread a tea towel on the work surface and tip the lot out into it. You can pick everything up by the handle, sort it out on the teatowel, and put away with minimum handling.

Blades down - always.
After reading of a young mum in UK who tripped and died as a result of a dishwasher knife being blade upwards.

Down. I have a nurse friend who looked after someone in intensive care falling on dishwasher. They didn't survive

The thought of them facing upwards, pointing at your eyes terrifies me 😮.

Blade up, but no sharp knives in the dishwasher. x

Sorry about x/kiss

Foxyferret

No cutlery basket in mine, a tray with grooves so they sit horizontally usually blades facing downwards.

Wehad this in our previous house. And really missed it when we moved here, ad dw had a basket. First thing I said when we finally replaced the kitchen last year, dishwasher with tray on top. Great.