A drying rack is the conventional answer to washing crates and plenty of operations do not have one. It is possible to wash crates without it, and the thing that decides whether it works is what happens to the crates in the first hour after washing.
What drying actually requires
Air movement across both surfaces and somewhere for water to drain. That is all. A rack makes it convenient; it is not the mechanism.
So the minimum workable setup is a clean, drained area where crates can be stood on edge or inverted, spaced apart, with air moving. A wall with crates leaned against it, spaced, in a draught, dries crates adequately. A pile does not.
What does not work
Nesting wet crates. They nest, the water has nowhere to go, and the inside of the stack stays wet for hours – which is exactly the condition that grows biofilm. This is the single most common failure and it happens because nesting wet crates is also the obvious thing to do.
Stacking them flat is nearly as bad. The contact surfaces stay wet.
Washing itself
Warm water and detergent, a brush for the vents and corners, and a rinse. Vented crates hold water in the vent slots, so shake them after rinsing – it removes most of it and it takes no time.
If you have a hose, use it at low pressure. High pressure drives contamination into corners rather than out of them, and it is slower than people expect.
How dry is dry enough
Visibly dry on both faces and no water held in the vents. Crates going into cold storage need to be drier than crates going into ambient storage, because residual water freezes and then a stack of crates freezes together.
When a rack is worth buying
Above a certain volume, yes – the floor space and the handling time add up, and a rack pays for itself. Below that, lean them against a wall and spend the money elsewhere.
Whether crates can go through a wash tunnel instead, which changes the whole question, is covered in can PP crates go through a wash tunnel.
And whether washing is needed at all
For crates going straight back into the same crop in a closed loop, often not. Washing is required when crates move between crops, between sites, or into a food-safety regime that says so. Washing crates that do not need it costs time, water and crate life.
Drying in the sun, and water disposal
Sun drying outdoors works well and costs nothing, with the usual caveat that UV ages the crates. A few hours of sun is fine; leaving the fleet out all summer is not.
Then the water. Wash water carrying soil needs to go somewhere that is not a drain it should not be in, and on most sites that is the part that needs planning rather than the washing.
And a cheap improvement
A row of pegs or a length of wire at waist height lets crates hang to dry with air on both faces. It is a drying rack made from what is in the shed, and it works as well as one you buy.
What we can do
We make PP crates for fruit and vegetables with drain-friendly vent geometry, which shortens drying time considerably. Tell us how you wash and where you dry – we will tell you whether a different vent pattern would help, including when it would not.