My boyfriend was loading the dishwasher and as usual splashing
water all over the floor. The bottom rack of the dishwasher was pulled
out and all the silverware,ya know forks and steak knives,had been
loaded pointy ends up. Well, he turned to
close the dishwasher and when he did so lost his footing on the wet
slippery floor.He fell into the open dishwasher,just missing a host of
forks and pointy steaknives with his left hand.
So,here is my question to you the teeming millions:how many dishwasher related accidents
happen in the U.S. per year?Could he be the first statistic?
This could be as bad as which way do you load your toilet paper. Some people load their utensils pointing down–they’re less in the open, but they’re closer to the action, and it’s less dangerous.
Walker man survives ordeal in industrial dishwasher
August 5, 2000, Saturday, BC cycle
The Associated Press
HUDSONVILLE, Mich
A bakery company worker escaped serious injury after being trapped for nearly two hours inside an industrial dishwasher.
The 38-year-old Walker man endured 180-degree temperatures Wednesday night at the Spartan Stores bakery in Hudsonville until a co-worker freed him.
“We’re just glad he’s fine,” Spartan spokeswoman Karen Aylsworth told The Grand Rapids Press for a story Saturday.
The worker, whose name was not released by the company or police, entered the large dishwasher to clean it about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday. The machine, which cleans large pans and other objects, is about 8 feet long, 5 feet wide and 6 1/2 feet tall.
The man became trapped in the dishwasher when the door closed behind him. He banged on the door but could not attract attention, Hudsonville police Officer Bruce Veltman said.
Veltman said the dishwasher, which is programmed to start automatically, turned on shortly after the door closed. Because it was set to be cleaned, no water was shot at the trapped man, but he was subjected to high temperatures.
The man remained in the dishwasher until co-workers ended their shift about midnight, headed to the parking lot and noticed his car was still there.
“They felt something was wrong, went back inside, looked around for him, and found him in the dishwasher,” Hudsonville Police Chief Richard Honholt said.
The man was “responsive and coherent” when Veltman interviewed him. “He was extremely hot, but there was no physical evidence of any extreme burns,” the officer said.
He was taken to a Grand Rapids hospital, where he was observed for a few hours before being sent home. The man, a Spartan employee for about three years, planned to return to work Monday, The Press said.
“It could have been a fatality,” Honholt said. “Thank goodness the employees put two and two together and went looking for him.”
Veltman agreed, saying: “He probably would have dehydrated if he had been in there all night. He’s a very lucky guy.”
Honholt said the door to the dishwasher has no lever to let someone inside open it. Spartan officials were considering installing an inside release, the chief said.
Oh yes, we could debate this forever. Basically, handles up is safer, (I also know of a child who impaled a palm on a fork) but handles down is more sanitary. For the knives and forks, it probably doesn’t make much difference, but spoons put in with the handle up can retain dirty water in the bowl and thus come out germy.
I suppose one alternative might be to put the sharper utensils (forks and knives) in upside down, and the spoons right way up. But then they get caught on each other.
I, for one, put them in handles down, don’t slop water on the floor, and forbid children to play around the open dishwasher.
What kind of spoons?
Owning a sailboat, efficient alternative sources of electric power would be a boon for me. Recharging (and replacing) batteries seems to be a permanent concern and expense.
Although… I just discovered the boat was hit by lightning and all electronics are shot… major damage, something like $10 - $15,000
I guess the good part is that my electrical needs have suddenly diminished to close to zero. The other good part is that I had renewed the insurance.
Shoot! I did it again! Posted to the wrong thread! That’s what happens when the connection is slow and I have several windows open at the same time… my brain seems to be also kind of slow…
Manhattan, can you please delete these two posts?
Eh, Sailor, I think you posted this in the wrong thread.
Mindy, I bet if you asked Google, you’d find some kind of statistics for dishwasher accidents. Try putting “dishwasher accident statistics” into http://www.google.com.
Welcome to the Straight Dope!
After slicing my hand open on more then one occasion it finally occurred to me to put all sharp utensils in the dishwasher sharp side down.
I pretty much wash everything before I put it in the dishwasher so I don’t worry about which way gets them cleaner.
RM Mentock asked, What kind of spoons?
Take a spoon (a soup spoon or a serving spoon will have a larger/deeper bowl} and place it at an angle in the basket. You will probably be able to hold a small amount of water in the spoon.
It’s really not that big a deal in the home kitchen, but is more of an issue in commercial kitchens where sanitation is more of a concern. Having worked in commercial kitchens for several years, many of the sanitation practises I learned have stuck with me.
I’m trying to picture this. Isn’t the deeper part of the spoon closer to the handle usually? That would mean, for the same angle in the basket, that it would be more apt to hold water when the handle was down, wouldn’t it?
One factor that would be important is overloading. If you’ve overloaded the basket, the “dirty” parts of the utensils are crowded together in the basket if the handles are up. If the handles are down, they can spread out like a bouquet. But if you’re not overloading, then handles up should not be a health problem–plus you avoid the hazards of the OP.
I say, bump this question upstairs. It’s perfect: Which way should you load utensils in a dishwasher, handles up or handles down? mindy?