"Larry B" wrote
I had an idea on those racks. A year ago or so, they called saying that
they had an awful burning smell in the apt. Before I could get over there,
they called to say that they found a piece of plastic in the dishwasher
that had melted in the dishwasher (on the heater element). My guess is
that the plastic fumes from the burning plastic weakened the vinyl coating
on the racks. It is the only semi-rational reason that I can come up with
for this premature failure.


I doubt that would cause the problem, but it does show they are careless
slobs. Makes my cleaning car parts theory more plausible.