cleaning my bottles...

[Dr Vorlauf]

Please explain how the dishwasher sanitizes anything?
Does the dish washer heat the water? If it does not then the water can only be as hot as it is when it comes out of the tap.

I once was present at a commercial kitchen during an inspection, where the inspector had us run the dish washer until it had heated the water. he then placed a thing in the machine that melted at the temperature at which it would sanitize.

This was an older machine...which passed. He commented that the newer (commerical) machines were not as good as that one and many would not reach that temperature.

I seriously doubt that a dish washer in a home would come any where near the efficiency of those machines?

Usually I wash in the dishwasher and then sanitize. Never had a problem. My last batch I just used the dishwasher with a few tbs of bleach on the ultra hot. The results from this were not good, I had my very first gusher and it took me a half hour to clean up the mess. Id stick with the sanitize after option.

Also before I sanitize the bottles, I also sanitize one of those big plastic bins ( and the lid !) that have tops ( can easily buy one big enough for 100 bottles at a time. As I sanitize the bottles I put them in the sanitized bin and then seal. This is good if you want to wait until the next day and if you want to bottle immediately it is a convenient way to move the bottles around if you need.

 

[Nazhuret]

It's basically non-radioactive radiation. Since there is no fat (or water) in an empty bottle, it wouldn't work.

Ah... Good point.

 

[mrfocus]

No way, if I remember how microwaves work. They actually don't heat a container, they have electromagnetic waves kind of like radiowaves. The reason the food cooks is that it causes the molecules to "vibrate", causing friction which heats and cooks the food, especially fat and water molecules. It's basically non-radioactive radiation. Since there is no fat (or water) in an empty bottle, it wouldn't work. But you could maybe put those bottles in a container of water and boil them. Of course, you could do that on the stove or oven, too.

A microwave actually only makes water move really quickly, since it is at the same resonance frequency.

You could put water into your bottles and heat them in the microwave, but the quick temperature change would risk breaking the bottles.