How to Remove Melted Plastic from Dishwasher Coils {Easiest Method}

Oh yes, friends, it happened. The classic plastic lid melted on top of the dishwasher heating coil. It happened last Friday night as I was relaxing, reading a book and enjoying the quiet time.

I wasn’t on the couch for too long, as the burnt plastic smell engulfed our kitchen and upon opening our brand new dishwasher I found the culprit. Yes, brand new dishwasher, like less than two-months-old dishwasher.

Enter a full-on panicked state…

It is hard to see here, but the coil had chunks of green melted plastic all over.

So then, I grabbed my phone and asked my trusted friend Mr. Google. The first post that came up talked about waiting for it to cool down, then putting an ice bag on top of it for 30 min and then peeling it off quickly. So that I did, ice bag on top of the coil for 30 minutes.

Half-an-hour later and the plastic was still fused on top of the coil, not coming off when trying to scrape it with a wooden spoon. Big fail!

If cooling it did nothing, heating it was undoubtedly going to work, right? So I run upstairs, grabbed my hairdryer and yes, it worked, I managed to get it off! I wish I would have skipped the icing part…

So here, if this happened to you too, don’t panic, it’s not too hard to remove it.

What you need:

• Hairdryer.
• Wooden Skewer stick or craft/ice cream wooden stick (you may have to cut it in half depending on where the plastic is, for easy access).
• Wet dishcloth/rag

Here’s what to do:

• First, turn off the dishwasher, grab a set of metal thongs and remove the piece of plastic.
• Open all your windows because the smell is horrendous!
• Unplug the dishwasher and wait for the heating coils to cool down completely, you don’t want to put half your body inside there when it’s super hot. While you wait, remove all the dishes and cutlery from the dishwasher.
• Use the hairdryer to heat the melted plastic, it took less than a minute for me, then with the wooden stick carefully scrape it off. Make sure you pick up and throw away any pieces of plastic that fall at the bottom of the dishwasher. Do this, as many times as needed.
• After you have removed all the visible plastic, use the wet cloth to scrub the coil and clean any remaining plastic.
• Run a quick cycle with the heating dry function with the dishwasher empty.  You may notice it smells a tiny bit but any remaining plastic should burn off at that point.
• You are DONE! Pat yourself on the back!

Did I learn my lesson here? Yes, never put tiny lids inside the dishwasher and be extra careful to check everything before it goes on.  The positive is that I know what to do if it happens again and my dishwasher isn’t ruined.

Has this happened to you before?  What method has worked best for you?