One mother of a strange sanitization idea.

Okay, so yesterday I put my bottles that had been soaking in Ammonia water (for label removing purposes) into the Dishwasher (with no soap of course) for extra sanitization and Ammonia funk removal. They are still a little wet on the inside, and I am without a drying tree. Suddenly it came to me:

Put them in the microwave!


Is this not like instant sanitization? I mean, not only will it get rid of excess condensation, but shouldn't it fry any bacteria? Has anyone ever done this before, I can't remember hearing about it.

Please tell me if I am crazy.

It will not necessarally sanitize..
MW's excite water molecules which in turn creates heat. In theory most bacteria will have some water in them so they "should" explode as the liquid in them expands. But there are no garuntees here..(besides we also have to deal with virii and mold spores) The best way to sanitze with a mw is to have water in the bottles when they get nuked, but this can result is super heated water (anyone else see that Mythbusters?) and really, really hot bottles.

I think its just as easy to soak the bottles in a mild bleach solution. Or better yet phase out bottles and get some kegs.

For bottles that have been sitting in my garage for awhile or are of unknown origin, I soak in a water/bleach solution, rinse thoroughly, then run them through the DW without soap. Bottles I have just emptied, I rinse three times with hot tap water and give them the same DW treatment - skipping the water/bleach step. I've never had a problem from unsanitary bottles.

Some bottles end up with some droplets of water in them, but I just bottle anyway. No problems, so far (knock wood!).

I've used the microwave to clean up unusually skunky bottomed bottles. I fill the bottle about 1/4 full, put in microwave and nuke'em for a minute or 2. The boiling water in the bottle instantly removes the funky green/grey matter that is on the bottom of the bottle. And then I do like Rhoobard does, put them in the dishwasher and run the cycle without soap.

loop