Cleaning your tools in the dishwasher?

[amd]

Hmmm... I wipe my stuff out with paper towels and wash in the sink. If I'm feeling particularly picky I will do a second wash in the dishwasher with ONLY soaping supplies. It seems like the bit of residue left on my stuff after wiping out is less than any cooking grease etc. from my regular dishes and shouldn't contribute to slow drains. I haven't tried re-using rags - it seems to me that would gunk up my washer with solid soap. After spending $1600 on my w/d I don't really care to void my warranty because I used "other" soap in it.

 

[Dahila]

I'm going to do some experimenting with D-Limonene as a degreaser. I've read a lot of good things.
http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.ca/2015/01/using-d-limonene-in-your-cleaning.html

I made all the cleaners with it, for me and my friend, I have allergies and using commercial cleaners is triggering my asthma
d-lomonene is awesome. I already ordered 1 liter of it, I recommend to anyone for cleaning, with gentle surfactant it cleans , even stainless appliances , without leaving smudges)
I am using it for two months already.

 

[SplendorSoaps]

Hmmm... I wipe my stuff out with paper towels and wash in the sink. If I'm feeling particularly picky I will do a second wash in the dishwasher with ONLY soaping supplies. It seems like the bit of residue left on my stuff after wiping out is less than any cooking grease etc. from my regular dishes and shouldn't contribute to slow drains. I haven't tried re-using rags - it seems to me that would gunk up my washer with solid soap. After spending $1600 on my w/d I don't really care to void my warranty because I used "other" soap in it.

This is pretty close to my method as well. I get as much "raw" soap out as I can with a spatula or paper towels, then rinse with very hot water in the sink. I almost always run it through the dishwasher after that, mostly to make sure that there's no residual lye left over or scents from the EO or FO that I've used.

 

[gigisiguenza]

It doesn't hurt the dishwasher? I would love to be able to use the dishwasher and be done with it. I'm very careful to get every bit of raw soap out of all my containers before I clean up anyway, scraping the small amount of excess into one of my tossable color cups or onto a paper towel so I can just fold it up and toss it.

 

[coffeetime]

My question would be how many towels are we talking here? How much soap were they making?



I find it hard to believe that my 2-3 rags would build up enough heat. But if you are making many pounds of soap a day, it is possible.

It was a soap studio for a medium-sized business, so yeah-quite a bit of laundry. I just mentioned it because it had never occurred to me that combustion was even possible. I use some cloths and some paper towel, but I always make sure that the cloths are in an open area between soaping and laundry.

 

[SplendorSoaps]

I haven't noticed any problems with our dishwasher. Of course, by the time I scrape and rinse the dishes in the sink, the dishwasher is really more to sanitize than anything.

 

[Jstar]

I scrape out as much soap as I can with my silicone spatula {I LOVE those things} then its a wipe down with a paper towel and everything goes into the hot water...my lye pitcher however never sees soap in any form..just scalding hot water rinses. {I dont care for the 'floaties' that soap can leave behind on it...I like my lye water to be clean dagnabbit

 

[gigisiguenza]

Thank you so much for all this feedback. It really helps lot in taking the anxiety or nervousness out of some of the elements of the process. I feel fairly confident now that as long as I don't put the extra batter (what very little there might be left) down the drain, and thoroughly rinse the pitchers and tools, I can run them safely through the dishwasher and not have a catastrophe. I think I'm gonna stick with Jstar's method for my lye pitcher though - rinse in hot water and put it up. I can't remember if I washed it the first time, but I know I didn't the last time.

 

[houseofwool]

I rarely wash my lye pitcher. I rinse it well and store upside down on the bottle of lye master batch. That way it doesn't get used for anything else.

 

[shunt2011]

Another one who scrapes then wipes out the containers and then wash in hot soapy water. I don't put my soapy stuff in the dishwasher as the one time I did I didn't get all the FO out and it made everything smell and taste like the FO. I just rinse my lye containers in hot water and dry. I can't stand having dirty soapy stuff laying around. Must wash when done.