explosivebeer said:
I've used the dishwasher before but did the whole cycle. All the labels that were previously on the bottles were littered across the bottom. I've heard of someone's dishwasher actually overflowing due to a clogged drain from labels. I'd rinse them well by hand and do the heat drying cycle, or else go the Iodophor route.
Before I found oxyclean I used my dishwasher to delabel bottles. Worked great, but the labels ended up clogging the drain.
Having said that, you absolutely MUST clean the bottles before using the dishwasher to sanitize. I found out the hard way and lost several bottles in my first batch because they had gunk floating in them. Here's my procedure:
1. Soak all bottles in oxyclean to remove any labels and clean out the insides. I inspect them for crud and use a bottle brush only as necessary. This can be done weeks ahead of time. I generally do it when I have collected a case or so of empties.
2. My dishwasher has a rinse and hold setting. I run this setting on the empty dishwasher to clean it out.
3. Put the bottles in the dishwasher and run it on the rinse setting with heat dry.
4. While the dishwasher is running I boil the priming sugar and syphon into the bottling bucket.
5. Put the now full bottling bucket on the counter above the dishwasher, take the bottles out of the dishwasher and place them on the open door.
6. Fill the bottles - the dishwasher door contains any overflows.
Haven't had any problems after that first batch.