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The Insider Pick:
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A top-quality dish drying rack has a large capacity without taking up too much space, is designed for easy water run-off and efficient drying, and is easy to clean. The Premium Racks Professional Dish Rack is our top pick because it is customizable and can hold all of your odds and ends.
Even if you have a dishwasher, there are some kitchen items you just don’t want to trust in it. For instance, you should always wash your best knives by hand. And, you will extend the life of your cookware by cleaning it with old-fashioned elbow grease.
Dish drying racks are an indispensable tool when doing dishes by hand. They keep your dishes in a holding pattern until you are ready to dry them. Or, you can just leave them to air dry.
Aside from bamboo knife blocks and silicone mats, the most popular materials used to make dish racks are stainless steel and hard plastic. Both materials have their plusses and minuses. Though it generally isn’t an issue, some cheaper brands use stainless steel that is sometimes susceptible to rusting. Plastic dish racks are more likely to break. For the most part, though, you are unlikely to experience these problems when you choose one of the top-rated racks.
When shopping for a dish drainer, pay special attention to its dimensions if you have a small kitchen. You don’t want to end up with a behemoth that dominates your counter space. Yet, if you have the extra room and a large family, one of the bigger models might be preferable.
Drying racks can be used for much more than just drying dishes. Some people like to use them as cooling racks for cookies, cake, bread, and other baked goods. If you decide to buy one of the dish racks we recommend, don’t throw out your old one. Apartment Therapy offers a number of useful ways to repurpose dish drainers. You might use your old dish rack to organization mail or files, as a planter, or as a book caddy.
While researching the best dish drying racks, we looked at hundreds of rating and reviews of countless racks from both experts and buyers. The ones included in our guide are durable, well-designed, and they allow water to run off easily to ward off mold.
Read on in the slides below to find out why Premium Racks Professional Dish Rack is our pick and why you might prefer the Surpahs Over the Sink Roll-Up Dish Rack, the OXO Good Grips Convertible Foldaway Dish Rack, the Chef’n CleanGenuity Garden Dish Rack, and the Simplehuman Kitchen Steel Frame Dish Rack.
The best dish rack overall
PremiumRacks
Why you’ll love it: The Premium Racks Professional Dish Rack can hold twice as many dishes as other racks and comes with several unique features.
What sets the Premium Racks Professional Dish Rack apart from other racks is its customizability. You can choose where to place the cutting board attachment, three cup holder attachments, microfiber mat, knife holder, wide utensil holder, and the two drainboards. Also, the top shelf is removable and can be positioned front to back or side to side.
The rack is made of 304 stainless steel, which typically resists rust and other corrosive elements. With a 17.5-inch long by 13.9-inch wide by 11-inch tall footprint, the Professional Dish Rack can hold a lot of dishes, but it may not be the best solution for smaller kitchens.
The Kitchen Professor recommends the Premium Racks Professional Dish Rack because it can be customized and configured to meet your needs. The reviewer liked that it kept water off the counter, but would have preferred it if there were rubber stoppers on the feet to prevent sliding and scratching their countertop.
The reviewer at The Wirecutter was impressed with how many dishes and extra features this rack had, but stopped short of recommending it because the testers had trouble putting it together. They did find that Premium Racks’ customer service was responsive.
About 85% of the people who reviewed the Professional Dish Rack on Amazon gave it four or five stars. Buyer Big Sur Scott commented that the instructions for assembling the rack seemed like they were designed by “a small family of squirrels in Romania.” Overall, though, he gave the rack five stars because of the knife drying attachment and other similar perks. Other buyers were impressed with the number of dishes that the rack can hold.
Pros: Holds a lot of dishes, several different configuration options
Cons: Hard to put together
Buy the Premium Racks Professional Dish Rack on Amazon for $ 59.99
The best roll-up dish drying rack
Surpahs
Why you’ll love it: If space is limited in your kitchen, consider using the Surpahs Over the Sink Roll-Up Dish Rack to turn your sink into a drainer.
The problem with most dish racks is they take up space. This is true of even the foldable ones. However, the Surpahs Over the Sink Roll-Up Dish Rack features a flexible design that rolls up like a mat to take up minimal room. This makes it ideal for RVs, tiny houses, boats, and other abodes with small kitchens.
The Surpahs rack is made of steel and coated entirely with silicone. The silicone keeps the unit slip-free and heat-resistant up to 400 degrees. The overall dimensions are 20.5 inches long by 13.1 inches wide by 0.25 inches high. Surpahs backs their roll-up dish drying rack with a lifetime warranty.
The Mom Maven recommends the Surpahs dish rack to anyone who has a small galley kitchen like hers. The reviewer observed that she can easily store the rack on the side of her sink when it’s not in use. The reviewer at My Great Finds prefers to wash most of her dishes by hand and found the Over the Sink drying rack was ideal. She thought the rack was a bit heavy but appreciated the non-slip feel.
Kitchen Byte liked that the rack was easy to clean and resistant to slippage. However, the reviewer didn’t like that it lacked additional compartments, and though the writer didn’t have any accidents, they were concerned that the rack might cause dishes to break easily when stacked up.
More than 1,200 Amazon buyers have left five-star reviews of the Surpahs Over the Sink Multipurpose Roll-Up Dish Drying Rack. Babs, the most helpful reviewer, used the roll-up rack in conjunction with a more traditional dish drainer. She set it on top of the roll-up rack on the side of her massive sink, and it allowed the dishes to drain while she continued to wash.
There were a few complaints about the Surpahs drying rack, including that the single color does not work with all kitchen decor. Also, buyers should make a point of measuring their sink before purchasing this model to ensure it will fit.
Pros: Small storage footprint, non-slip silicone design, lifetime warranty
Cons: Small capacity, may not be able to use the sink while dishes are drying
Buy the Surpahs Over the Sink Multipurpose Roll-Up Dish Drying Rack on Amazon for $ 27.98
The best foldable dish drying rack
OXO
Why you’ll love it: The OXO Good Grips Convertible Foldaway Dish Rack provides a great balance of size and dish-holding capacity.
The feature that sets the OXO Good Grips Convertible Foldaway Dish Rack apart from competitors is that the spout, legs, and side walls fold up for compact storage either vertically or horizontally. Also, the majority of this rack is made out of hard plastic, though there is a stainless steel frame. The overall dimensions are 19.4 by 15.5 by 5.1 inches when open.
The rack has two utensil holders that are divided into three compartments each, which keeps flatware separated for easy organization. There are six slots for standing plates and cutting boards. Finally, there is also an array of tines for cups and glassware. Water drains directly into your sink using the drainage spout.
The reviewer at Floflo Kitchen has been using the OXO Good Grips Convertible Foldaway Dish Rack long-term and strongly recommends it. The reviewer likes the versatile array of dishes it can dry and that it stores and cleans up easily. The only downfall the writer found was that the spout doesn’t drain all of the water out.
Village Bakery recommended the Convertible Foldaway Dish Rack for people with limited kitchen storage space. The reviewer was impressed with the many compartments for a variety of kitchen utensils, which made it easier to put items away once they were dry.
Approximately 82% of the Amazon buyer reviews of the OXO dish rack are positive. The most helpful reviewer noted that it holds their cutting boards and doesn’t rust. The buyer liked that one side had foldable legs to allow for better drainage. However, the reviewer gave it four stars instead of five because the drain hole location made it hard for all of the water to be diverted out of the spout.
Other buyers both liked the drain spout and were impressed with how much the rack holds.
There was one buyer who noted that her rack spontaneously busted taking a few plates with it after 15 months of use, but this does not appear to be a common occurrence.
Pros: Folds up for easy storage, holders for several different kitchen items, rust resistant
Cons: The drain spout could be in a better location
Buy the OXO Good Grips Convertible Foldaway Dish Rack on Amazon for $ 39.95
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