Starsan as dish detergent?

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clayroc

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So we don't use rinse aid at all, and I was thinking I could use starsan in the dishwasher to sanitize my bottles. Has anyone else tired this?
 
I don't know how it would work as a dish cleaner as opposed to just a sanitizer. I've also never used Starsan before but I'd be curious to see what the consensus is on this.
 
Haven't tried it myself, but I've heard horror stories of how the dishwasher makes it foam up way too much... foam pouring out of the thing and making a mess.

If you do try it out, make sure to take pictures!:D
 
Brilliant!! It would probably work awesome, just put it right in the thing that dispenses the rinse agent?
 
Haven't tried it myself, but I've heard horror stories of how the dishwasher makes it foam up way too much... foam pouring out of the thing and making a mess.

If you do try it out, make sure to take pictures!:D

Oy, bad memories of when I added dish soap ... come on, dish soap, dish washer.. makes sense, right??? :drunk:
 
I don't see the point in doing it... I just dunk my bottles in my StarSan filled bucket, then place them onto the bottle tree (sprayed with StarSan first)...

Maybe it's because my crapshackapartment doesn't have a dishwasher in it, that I wouldn't even think about using one to sanitize my bottles... Or it's because I use Grolsch style bottles, which I would probably want to remove the tops from before running through a DW...

Besides, I feel that bottling beer should be at least a little retro... It probably takes me less time to sanitize my bottles than it takes you to run the DW long enough to sanitize them... If not less, than close enough to the same amount of time (after your bottles have cooled enough) to not matter. :tank:
 
Seems like being sure the Starsan was getting inside the bottles would be a problem. If you run bottles in the dishwasher, at least my last two, some of the bottles get sprayed inside... but some just get steamy and the jets don't seem to hit the bottle opening.

Also. What's the dilution on your Starsan going to be in the dishwasher? I think it has to be at or above 1 oz/5 gal to work.
 
Hmm well so far I have used a bottle washer to clean them out and then just line them up in the dishwasher and put it on a short cycle with "sani heat" as they call it and heated dry. While it's doing it's thing I setup everything else, and sanitize my other equipment etc. When the dishwasher is done I open it to let it dry a little as I fill my bottling bucket and do my priming sugar and the bottle away. Just thinking that Starsan would be an extra bit of sanitization. That's all :) thinking about what has been said so far I can see foam everywhere in 10 min
 
I fill and drain my bottles in a bucket of StarSan by hand. It only takes a couple of minutes to do two full cases and I know it's been done correctly. The way I see it, the bottom line is putting StarSan in your dishwasher is using it in a way it was never intended to be used. So it might work, and it might not. And if it does work it will probably work inconsistently. So to be certain, you'll probably want to fill and drain them by hand anyway, which means you've just wasted however much StarSan you put in the dishwasher. And how much would you put in anyway? How many gallons of water does a dishwasher use per cycle?
 
This reminds me of the old TV gag where someone adds too much soap to the washing machine and soap and bubbles go pouring out all over. Anyone remember those? The Brady Bunch comes to mind but I know I've seen it on a bunch of classic TV episodes. StarSan bubbles a lot. I wouldn't add it to a turbulent dishwasher...
 
the phosphoric acid in starsan might not play nice with parts of the dishwasher
for a while I used bleach to "sanitize" in my old dishwasher, It wasn't pretty
 
I fill and drain my bottles in a bucket of StarSan by hand. It only takes a couple of minutes to do two full cases and I know it's been done correctly. The way I see it, the bottom line is putting StarSan in your dishwasher is using it in a way it was never intended to be used. So it might work, and it might not. And if it does work it will probably work inconsistently. So to be certain, you'll probably want to fill and drain them by hand anyway, which means you've just wasted however much StarSan you put in the dishwasher. And how much would you put in anyway? How many gallons of water does a dishwasher use per cycle?

+1 to mixing up the Starsan and dunking the bottles 4-5 at a time (2 in each hand). Something the simplest way is the best way,
 
Reminds of the time my dear dad tried helping his wife by doing the dishes. Yes, he put dish soap in the dishwasher. We got to go over and help clean up the bubbly mess.

Honestly, I would not trust the dishware to get up inside that tiny opening, and how would you know you got the correct dilution?

I just fill a spray bottle with starsan and keep it on the counter. When I sanitize bottles I just spray a couple of times in the bottle and shake it around. Then dump it into a small dish to pour back into the sprayer (usually). Then I place the bottles upside down on the dishwasher top rack to drip. It goes pretty fast.
 
Yeah, I'm picturing a foamy volcano in your kitchen. Like Capt. Damage says, how much water will your dishwasher use for a cycle? I use about 4 gallons at a time and I still think I'm wasting too much water (and starsan). Maybe time for a bottle washer....
 
You would have no control over the water to starsan ratio, rendering it useless.
 
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