What to use to coat rusted portions of dishwasher racks?

[Richard]

Folks, my dishwasher racks have some tines that are rusting, and are causing small spots of rust to form on my wife's china. I was wondering if anyone had a recommendation of some sort of coating that wouldn't be harmful to our health or hurt the dishwasher, so that I could sand off the rust and apply some sort of coating over the tine to keep this from happening? New racks cost an arm and a leg, and I can't help but think that there is a simple solution out there for this issue. Thanks so much in advance, Richard

[Doug Kanter]

Are these racks covered with plastic, and it's worn off in spots? If so, I'd apply small patches of JB Weld.

[Doug]

This seems to be a common problem (perhaps a conspiracy by the manufacturers??) and I have had very good results with small plastic "caps" that fit snugly over the ends of any rusted tines. I picked them up at Home Depot for a few cents each. They're red so they don't match the white of the rack, but they stay on and I have about 30 of them on my lower rack. I think they are meant to be caps that fit over the exposed end of a small bolt but I found them in the bulk screw, bolt etc. section at HD. Hope this helps.

[willshak]

Go to an appliance repair store (or search the web). They have a plastic coating for the rust spots.

[Richard]

Thanks so much for the great ideas, folks. While on the subject, any idea of what I might be able to use to polish off the rust spots on the wife's china? It is pure white, and pretty glossy, but some of it has those orange rust spots, and I would like to surprise her and remove those rust spots after fixing the time situation.

[Doug Kanter]

Bon Ami cleansing powder, usually displayed near the Comet & Ajax products. If that doesn't work, get a bottle of "CLR" at the grocery or hardware store.

[Walter R.]

Oxalic acid removes rust stains without being abrasive. I used it to remove rust stains on the plaster of my pool.

[Charles Spitzer]

barkeepers friend is oxalic acid, and easily found in supermarkets

[Andy Hill]

Generic lemonade kool-aid (make it into a paste, or just use it in place of soap in the dishwasher). Just about anything containing citric acid will do a good job.

[Gideon]

This is a related question for those who have had experience with the various fixes for the original question:

I too have used the plastic pronge covers to "repair" rusted tines in the dishwasher. We will be installing a new dishwasher soon and I am curious about the value of installing the prong covers pre-emptively on the new unit. We tend to keep appliances for a long time, so I would anticipate rust problems eventually over the course of the next few decades. It seems logical to me that the prong covers would help delay rust problems. Agree?

(The fridge died last year at 28 years of age. The dishwasher died recently at 27 years. We get a lot of service out of appliances. I fix them until they are way too outdated or getting expensive to repair.)

==========================