Stop Collecting Water in Hollow Handles in the Dishwasher

25 years ago it was common for the carafe for a Mr. Coffee to have a hollow plastic handle that filled up with water when it was run through a dishwasher. At the time we had a number of plastic utensils or containers that had similar “troughs” that had to be carefully emptied so as not to spill onto the rest of the clean dishes. It occurred to me that drilling a very small hole in the top of the plastic handle (the surface which would be on the bottom when turned upside down while in the dishwasher) would prevent water from collecting inside the hollow recess. After drilling such a hole, I found that it worked exactly as desired.

Next, I set out to find the items in our kitchen cabinets that were the most common water catchers. Almost all of these implements were plastic but one or two were metal. Using a 1/16” drill bit or slightly larger made holes that did nothing to harm the structural integrity of these devices and were barely noticeable. Nowadays, when my wife purchases some new kitchen gadget that looks like it will collect water, she asks me if I will drill a hole (or two) in it.

Many years ago, I wrote the manufacturer of Mr. Coffee and a couple of other kitchen devices suggesting that they might insert tiny drain holes into their hollow handles, etc. Ultimately Mr. Coffee began sealing off the end of their carafe handles and thereby sidestepping the issue entirely. I realize that drilling these tiny holes may be commonly done in some kitchens, but I have never heard of anybody doing it, so I thought it might be worthwhile to write it up as a method for eliminating a small daily irritant.