Dishwasher cutlery basket holes are too big to contain the cutlery

[trainedopossum]

Has anyone here solved this problem without creating a new one (like mould or bits getting caught in the filter)?
I’ve been down an Amazon rabbit hole of cut-to-fit plastic mesh so I know there’s probably a solution but there were too many options and most of them looked like garbage.

Pic?!

I actually just don't understand this!

I have a draw for cutlery but I’m sure you can buy baskets so maybe try a different brand accessory (pop to curries to look first).

Fork tines and paring knives fall through the bottom of the basket and stop the cleaning mechanism.

Put them in the other way round!

Can you not just put them in the other way up?

Fork tines go through and if I put them in the other way the handles go through. I may just use spoons for everything 🥄

Buy a replacement cutlery basket?

Do you have really thin cutlery ? I don't disbelieve you but I don't understand forks falling through whichever way you put them in is it a flat drawer rather than a basket?

I’m not sure how I would know if it would have smaller holes or if it would fit?
My 85yo DM has just moved and this is one of ~100 small annoying problems I’m trying to solve in her new place.
Putting away the cutlery means prying it out of the holes in the basket and if they’ve stopped the washing arm (or whatever you call it) going around everything is dirty and needs to be rewashed.

Put a cloth or sponge in the bottom or buy cutlery that's bigger, how annoying. I once had plates that were too big and had to get new ones

It’s a basket, stuff sits vertically. I don’t know if it’s particularly thin cutlery, she uses multiple sets and it happens to all of them.
Having googled it and looked at the thousands of preventative products on Amazon I assumed it was common but I guess it’s more of a niche than I thought 😀

It should have a sort of 'lid' that you slot things through to stop them going through the bottom.

Look for a universal replacement based on amazon, they're about a tenner.

Does the basket not have a top? Mine has a top (it is a flap, so you can fold it out of the way if you want) so you can put the handle of each fork into a hole:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-00418280-cutlery-basket/893ev
The mouth end of the fork is too wide to slip through the lid hole. I hope that makes sense!

Mine is very similar to this, with the lids that you can flip back and I've never had this problem. The lid keeps the cutlery separated so they wash better too 😊

Omg the plate thing is worse!

Yeah that's design flaw I get the odd teaspoon falling through but never forks! You might need to move the basket or just slant the forks

Even without a lid the cutlery shouldn't fall through like that. Mine doesn't have a lid and nothing falls through - the basket is at the bottom of the d/w. Mind you I don't use it very often as there's just me now, so I use it to store the big packs of paper towels now lol 😊

There's something wrong with the basket, it's a basket case! I'd bring it to a shop that sells them as spares and compare the holes. I just had a look at mine there, and TBH the only thing that would fall through the holes are bamboo skewers!

Is that a John Lewis cutlery basket?

Mine did that, it drove me mad, and then my in laws Bosch (or was it Becko?) dishwasher broke. So I had that cutlery basket...... it just about fits (not perfectly but it "will do") and I dont have the problem anymore.

But yes, I had a cutlery bascket just like that and the same problem, which was fixed by getting a different basket

Yes i have big plates that we only use at Christmas because they don't fit in,

There's a way to raise the top rack to get big plates in the bottom rack. I think it's now on most models.

Is the bottom of the basket actually broken?
I had this with an old dishwasher and the plastic bottom grid had deteriorated and things went through like that.
You can get replacement baskets (brand specific or generic) if it is broken.

It's surprisingly difficult to find a picture to actually show the cutlery in the basket, but hopefully you can see that things don't fall through (except chopsticks). I put knives with blades down.

Yes of course, the lid thing is missing. I’ll have a look at replacement baskets.
She did actually buy new cutlery with fat handles which didn’t fit through the basket lid of the old dishwasher 😀

Just buy another basket or look for one on a second hand site.

The ones by Bosch/Siemens are really well designed. We always had these and I just took it for granted that dishwashers work, they were all second hand. The other second hand dishwasher I had was a late 90s Zanussi, again totally flawless.

The first time I bought one brand new I went cheap and it was an absolute disaster. I ended up completely drowning the thing within 2 years, never ever again, it drove me utterly mad. It was Beko which I always thought was a reliable brand but cheaply made/designed and just kept having stupid problems simply from normal use. FWIW I've had a Beko tumble dryer for 4 years, completely flawless, never had an issue.

IME the baskets are all compatible with each other, we always used to keep one from the older machine to have a spare to swap out, and never had an issue cross brands, I think the gaps between the upright spokes are a standard distance apart.