Why Do Plastic Containers Take SO LONG to Dry?

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Why do plastic containers take so long to dry? You open up the dishwasher and everything else is dry except for these containers. There are two main reasons.

[00:00:07]Number one, glass and ceramic have a higher heat capacity, meaning they can store more heat. So, after they've been in the dishwasher, which is around 50 to 65° they're nice and hot and they evaporate all the water on their surface. But, plastic has a lower heat capacity. So, after the end of the dishwasher cycle, it's not holding on to very much heat. So, it can only evaporate some of the water on its surface. Number two, water is attracted to glass and ceramic because they're chemically quite similar. So, when glass and ceramic is wet, the water spreads out over its surface in a thin film with a large surface area, so it's very easy to evaporate. But, plastic and water don't like each other very much because they're chemically quite different. The water droplets don't like being on the plastic surface and they huddle together in little droplets. These droplets have a low surface area to volume ratio, so they're harder to evaporate and therefore the container stays wet for longer.