Dishwasher safe for sanitizing plastic?

My dishwasher has a sanitize settings, and I use that for my bottles and other glassware, which has worked out very well. I started thinking about using it to clean my airlocks, siphons, beer thief, hoses, etc.

The only thing stopping me is a concern about it being too hot for those plastics. I've searched for info here and elsewhere trying to answer this question, but nothing so far. Any thoughts on this?

If the dishwasher manufacturer actually calls it "sanitizing", then that means that it has to reach a certain temperature for a certain period of time. Commercial heat sanitizing dishwashers have to reach 180dF for... damn, I can't remember... 30 seconds? 2 minutes? Anyway, that's not really important. I would consult the owner's manual, or failing that, call the dishwasher manufacturer. They can tell you how hot it will get if you give them the model number. I did this with GE. Even at 180dF, most of that stuff you mentioned should be OK, but it might be worth conducting a test by heating up some water to however hot your dishwasher gets and dropping an airlock in it (for example).

It's just a pita to sanitize all these long plastic tubes and hoses, so it would be nice to use the dishwasher to clean and sanitize them. I use oxyclean or PBW to wash, and set it for sanitize. I think everything else will be fine, and airlocks are cheap, so I'll test this and let you guys know the results.

BTW, the dishwasher is NSF certified to sanitize, so that part should be fine.

I think your suspicions are correct the setting will more than likely be way to hot for any PVC plastic. Even if they remain intact, PVC that hot will leach lead, other plastic such as PETE and Polycabonate leach chemicals when heated. And if they are very close to the heating element they will more than likely melt.

for comercial i know in marylany its is 2 mins at 180 degrees.
I personally run my stuff that i can through the dish washer then i sanatize it in bleech water.

abracadabra said:

I think your suspicions are correct the setting will more than likely be way to hot for any PVC plastic. Even if they remain intact, PVC that hot will leach lead, other plastic such as PETE and Polycabonate leach chemicals when heated. And if they are very close to the heating element they will more than likely melt.

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I think I'm going to try a test with my old siphon and airlock on the top shelf and see what happens, I'll do that tonight and report back my results.

I don't know about hoses and airlocks, but you definitely don't want to use it for those brown plastic beer bottles. Mine all shrunk in the dishwasher (from 16 oz. to less than 12) and some are unusably deformed.

Eskimo Spy said:

It's just a pita to sanitize all these long plastic tubes and hoses, so it would be nice to use the dishwasher to clean and sanitize them. I use oxyclean or PBW to wash, and set it for sanitize. I think everything else will be fine, and airlocks are cheap, so I'll test this and let you guys know the results.

BTW, the dishwasher is NSF certified to sanitize, so that part should be fine.

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get a spray bottle, a gallon of distilled water, and some star san.

*spritz...spritz* there! all your oddly sized gear is sanitized in seconds, for a lot less than running the dishwasher's sanitize cycle for 30 minutes.

malkore said:

get a spray bottle, a gallon of distilled water, and some star san.

*spritz...spritz* there! all your oddly sized gear is sanitized in seconds, for a lot less than running the dishwasher's sanitize cycle for 30 minutes.

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I currently use iodophor, but everyone seems to have good reasons for using Star San, so I guess I'll move that way, since iodophor won't "keep" in solution.

You can also consider switching to a stainless steel racking cane and silicone rubber tubing. I like it because you can heat sanitize/sterilze it in the dishwasher or oven.