What is the difference between the top and bottom rack?
In: Other
A lot of plastics used in food containers are from the polyolefin family of polymers, polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP), which get soft and begin to deform at 140F and 180F, respectively. The heating element in many dishwashers is at the bottom, so it’s more likely that deformation of those plastics will occur the closer they are to it.
Most plastic containers are made from these plastics because they A) are food safe (aka generally unreactive to the compounds found in food and do not leech chemicals or break down when exposed to food) and B) are cheap as hell.
For example the clear parts of Rubbermaid containers are usually HDPE and the lids are usually PP. Nalgene bottles are usually some specialized form of HDPE.
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