Okay what the story with my dishwasher

[moaninlisa]

Had my dishwasher for years perfect in everyway except in the last couple of months I have been left with rust spots on all my cutlery.

Ruined all my Sabatier knives- bought a new cheapo knife block last week and already all the knives are rusted.

Tried different brands of washing tablet and stopped salt.

Anyone any ideas?

The only thing I can think of is that your drying cycle isnt working and the cutlery is wet too long or the rinse aid has run out.

Your not really supposed to put sharp knives in the dishwasher anyway as they can blunt them, my sharp knifes ruined but it wasnt expensive anyway.

are you sure the lid of the salt reservoir fits tightly and there is no crack or anything allowing it to get into the washing cabinet? The salt for the water softener should never mix with the washing water unless there is a fault (same as a household softener)

Are these spots appearing on old stainless steel, or new? It is not unusual for low-quality stainless to get rust spots on them, which can be cleaned off using a green pan scourer. Are the spots appearing on stainless pans, or only on knives?

Curiously, good chefs knives are made of a very hard steel of a different composition to ordinary stainless, and are not so resitant to rust. Again, a green scourer will get it off. You will probably find the manufacturer recommends hand washing.

My sabatiers have gone like this in all dishwashers. The new ones I just handwash now.

It's happening to all my cutlery and yes the stainless steel pans have also got spots on them

try the green scourer.

Incidentally, I just checked some of my knives. The older "V" Sabatier with a separate aluminium bolster are unmarked, but the newer one-piece forging with solid bolster do have some specks on them. I use the scourer occasionally so there is no brown mark, but you can see little pits. I see it on table knives too, and occasionally blitz them all with the scourer. I don't think it's your dishwasher that's to blame. My Swedish cooking pans have no specks.

I've heard it said (about building materials) that the quality of stainless has declined as it is cheaply made in China now. I can't tell if that's correct.

That's true and also I believe Sabatiers are made under licence these days unless you buy the top of the range ones. The ones which cost £200 each don't seem to rust at all. Most of mine are the £50 each ones which do

I've had this problem with 'non stick' bakeware.