Dishwasher cutlery trays

[WombatStewForTea]

What fresh hell is this? Our dishwasher has gone kaput so looking for a new one. Half of them seem to have these cutlery trays at the top instead of the traditional baskets. I get that it gives you more space but surely it's a total pain in the arse to empty? My dishwasher is in the utility room so I'd have to traipse back and forth. Am I missing something and they're great?

Our tray is brilliant, but it is right next to the cutlery drawer. I think it comes out fairly easily, though, maybe you could carry it through?

Tray much better than basket. Everything cleans better and more room. Wouldn’t ever want to back to the basket

Agree! Basket all the way! Plus I'm still revelling in the novelty that the basket lifts out so you can carry it to the cutlery draw... didn't know this until my now dh came to my family home for dinner in the early days of our relationship and pointed it out to us. We'd had a dishwasher for approximately 15 years and had carried cutlery back and forth to the cutlery draw (sans basket) at least eleventy-billion times. My whole family was mind-blown 🤯 (actually think it was at that point they thought he was a good catch 😅)

I hated the tray, we have large plates and tall glasses and it wouldn’t fit both. It had to go!

The idea of a tray is ok but they need to find a way to make it all fit!

Leave the basket in the utility room and empty from the tray into it then carry into the kitchen. Job done!

When I bought my last dishwasher, John Lewis said the baskets were being phased out due to EU health and safety legislation. I was not impressed. Fast forward a couple of years and I had to buy a new one (after I stupidly put Fairy liquid in my Bosch😳) and I now love the tray- cleans much better than the basket version ......

I've only had a dishwasher for a year or two. All my friends teased me that I hadn't had one before.

It's got a basket at the bottom. Works perfectly.
Never had / tried a tray before.

I think a couple of people, including a child, have died after falling onto an upwards pointing knife in a dishwasher so that might explain the H & S. I don't understand the point about it taking too long to sort the cutlery into a tray. Surely when you put it randomly into a basket, you then have to sort it when you take it out? Same process, different time. I've also found when we had a basket one, that there was a lid on it with slots to keep the cutlery apart, but our knives didn't fit through the slots. I took the lid off but the cutlery touched each other and then didn't get fully cleaned. As mentioned before, the trays do lift out, so you can just carry then to your cutlery drawer in the same way as a basket.

I don't get the h&s issue. Put the point end down.

I've got a dishwasher with a tray and a basket. We usually use the basket as it's quicker to load, in which case we use the tray for things like larger utensils and chopping boards. The tray is used for cutlery when we have lots to wash! I love it, it's the best of both.

What am i doing wrong then? We have a cutlery tray and its crap. Half the items come out dirty. Total rubbish. Why doesn't mine work properly when you are all raving about them??

You can still buy dishwashers with baskets if you want. I have a brand new one that has a basket

What am i doing wrong then?

how do you load the tray?

Its not hard to empty. I just try and put the cutlery in there already sorted. Forks with forks, spoons with spoons. That way you just grab them all at once and you dont have to pick them out one by one.
My family still doesnt get the system though, so everytime i put something in i have to reorganise some of it.

I hated the idea of a tray but am a massive convert. So many benefits.

For example, sharp knives don’t get blunted by knocking against other cutlery. Also, the tray is perfect for lids and other small items that get lost otherwise.

However, it only works well as our cutlery drawer is very near our dishwasher. Otherwise I’d really miss the basket at unloading time.

I don't get the h&s issue. Put the point end down.

I used to do that; the baskets always ended up damaged, point right through the bottom of the basket impeding lower rotor arm.

Errol are you a very aggressive dishwasher loader?

It takes getting used to but you will develop a system. If you divide the line into 3 mentally and put all knives together,then forks etc, it is easier to put away then when they are jumbled.

Those of you saying you did not have the height you needed, do you know that the middle section is usually height adjustable? I only found out this week, but then it leaves less height in bottom section!

Errol are you a very aggressive dishwasher loader?

No, I just have properly sharp pointy knives .

We’ve just this week taken delivery of one of these. The tray lifts out, I carry it over to the cutlery drawer, unload and return to the dishwasher. There is a paddle directly above the tray, and we are finding that thanks to that, and the cutlery being spaced out, everything is cleaner this way.

(Our machine also a bottom drawer that can be lifted up so it’s the same height as the top one for unloading. I like that too, and hadn’t even k own it was an option).

Yes, we know about the height adjustment, you can either have it too low for 12" plates or too high for pint glasses.

@woodencoffeetable - i load all the knives together at one end, and all the forks together at the other end of the same tray. The spoons all go on the other side, and i lay them all in the same direction all facing the same way.
I have looked and there is just a hole/water jet i guess from above the tray, we don't have a rotating arm that is on the bottom only.

backs slowly away from Errol while proffering a nice charcoal biscuit