Knives are one of the essential tools you will use in your kitchen. They are an integral component of your cutlery set and make it much more convenient for you to prepare meals. Whether you are preparing a delicious stew or tasty vegan BBQ recipes, you will want to have a knife handy. Knives have various other uses; you will want one when opening your packages, for example. Ultimately, you want your knife to be nice and sharp so that you can accomplish the task at hand.
However, knives are notorious for being susceptible to rusting, corrosion and staining, especially when washed in a dishwasher. This can affect their lifetime, their luster and their usefulness. So how do you stop your knives from rusting in the dishwasher? We will discuss exactly that in the following article.
Let’s dive in.
Scrapping Food Remnants
When you’re done using your knives in the kitchen, there will typically be remnants of food on them. Food consists of various ingredients, including salt and various acid forms. If these remnants stay on your knives before you place them in the dishwasher, they can wreak havoc on the stainless steel alloy of your metal. This is especially the case if you leave your knives lying in the dishwasher before you turn it on.
Therefore, it is recommended that you scrape off these remnants before placing your knives inside. Typically, you should not pre-rinse your blades, but it is better that you do so if you tend to leave your knives lying around in the washer for a while. This ensures that the food remnants are removed.
Avoiding Over-stuffing
Another thing that can cause knives to rust is over-stuffing them alongside various other cutlery in the dishwasher. This tends to happen when you leave your unwashed dishes and cutlery for a while. This results in many people wanting to wash everything in one go. While this is understandable, it can cause staining and rust on your knives.
This is because you do not want cutlery made from stainless steel, silver plating and copper touching each other. This leads to a chemical reaction in the presence of hot water and washing solution when the dishwasher operates. Therefore, ensure that cutlery is not touching each other, and if you have too many unclean dishes and cutlery, consider washing them in batches.
Avoiding Certain Chemical Solution Practices
Dishwashing solution is vital when washing your dishes and is also necessary for your dishwasher to do proper work. However, there are certain practices you will want to avoid when using.
Dishwashing solutions contain strong alkaline chemicals that can wreak havoc on your knives if they come in direct contact. This is why they are typically diluted with water when washing dishes. However, you may not have to worry about this with your dishwasher as it takes care of the proportions.
Nonetheless, ensure you use dishwashing solution and not a more potent chemical solution unsuitable for dishes. Additionally, when removing food remnants from your knives, leaving them soaked in soapy water or bleach solution is not recommended. This can damage your blades leading to corrosion and rust.
Avoid Leaving Knives Wet After Washing
You will likely know that moisture is one of the biggest causes of rust. When the dishwasher is cleaning your cutlery and dishes, it uses water. After the cleaning process, everything will still have water on it, including your knives. If you let your blades sit in there after the washing process, the air inside will be humid, affecting the surface. In the long term, this can lead to rusting.
Therefore, it is highly recommended that you dry your knives immediately after the dishwashing process to ensure they are in perfect condition. If you do not have time, the next best solution is to open the dishwasher door a bit so that the humid air can escape.
In conclusion
Knives are essential tools and cutlery items that can be handy in many instances, primarily inside the kitchen. As a result, you want them to be in the best condition possible. However, knives are susceptible to rusting and corroding, especially when put inside dishwashers. This is primarily due to food remnants, over-stuffing, certain chemicals and humid air within dishwashers. As a result, we have looked at various ways to stop your knives from rusting when using dishwashers. We are confident that by integrating these tips, you will be able to save your precious knife sets and cutlery sets from retaining their luster and shine. Thank you for reading!