Dishwasher turns knives brown?!

pigeonpie

My dishwasher puts brown spots, like rust, on any knives put in it. It doesn't happen to spoons or forks. My cutlery is stainless steel. I've cleaned the dishwasher regularly with those liquid products on a hot programme. I use recommended detergent and there is salt.
Anyone know what causes this and how to avoid it? All my knives look rusty. I'm not sure if it's potentially harmful or just horrible looking?

[Deleted User]

I sanded mine off and my knives are fine now. I don't know what causes it but it is unslightly.

dannahaz

To avoid it you need to remove the knives from the DW as soon as the cycle is finished, and ideally dry them off with a tea towel.

I can't guarantee to be standing at the DW waiting for it to finish, so I just use a tiny tiny spot of Maas cream to get the rust off. It's not cheap, but my tube has lasted me years. http://www.lakeland.co.uk/product.aspx/!7247

pariskate

Try checking that the top of the salt contrainer is completely closed. I had the same problem and it turned out that a bit of salty water was leaking into the machine and it make the steel rust slightly. Also, when you fill the salt container, make sure to rinse all the overflow away before using the machine.
Hope this works
Kate

annie-c

I think it is more to do with the knives than the dishwasher. I have a set of Prestige knives and emailed to complain about this - the reply was that they need to be dried immediately after washing (and dishwashers don't do this). It is not rust but some sort of oxidisation process apparently. Mine is usually easily removable with a nylon washing up pad.

Annoying though....

pigeonpie

Yes it's worst on the kitchen cutting knives. But very odd that it leaves the spoons and forks untouched. I usually turn on the Dw and go out (it takes ages even on its economy cycle) so getting there and drying them straight away's not going to work. Besides my old Bosch didn't do this. The brown dots are too engrained to work loose now and look awful.