Caustic in DW?

[meow2222]

Can caustic soda be used in a dishwasher? Would it die prematurely? I'm thinking it might perhaps remove baked kitchen grease.

NT

[fred]

Isn't that the stuff that melts aluminium ?

[philipuk]

Dishwasher cleaner is cheap enough that you shouldn't need to risk it with caustic.

[newshound]

Do you mean as the working detergent, or for manually cleaning buildup inside?

Corrodes rather than melts, but is there any aluminium anywhere on the wet side?

[meow2222]

in lieu of detergent, to clean well baked on grease off ovenware

good question. probably not. I was thinking more about flexible hoses - if theyre even used now in dishwashers.

NT

[ss]

Last time I looked I am sure the fins in the pump were aluminium.

[Bob Eager]

Our new Bosch has a flexible plastic hose.

[stuart noble]

Presumably the baked on stuff is on the items going into the DW. Caustic works best when hot, but keeping it hot is the problem. These new surfactants that the mobile cooker cleaners use must be quite effective, but I did see one guy with a heated caustic tank in the back of his van

[The Natural Philosopher]

almost certainly pot metal

[Jeff Layman]

It also attacks glass and many ceramic materials. The surface of such material will most certainly get damaged.

Assuming you want to remove baked-on grease from material which is not attacked by caustic soda, one way is to put whatever you want cleaned in a PE or PP bucket, or, if it is vaguely flat, in a tray. Then add hot caustic soda solution and wait as long as you need to.This method can be useful for oven grids.

[meow2222]

Yup, that was my first though. But its a recipe for accidents. A dishwasher would make the process safe, so if its doable I need to go that route.

Sounds like the only answer is to open a machine up and check it all out. Which sounds a bit impractical.

And I cant think of another way to remove well basked on crud thats safe & involves minimal labour.

NT

[polygonum]

I would consider putting whatever (caustic, oven cleaner, etc.) onto the items and leaving them in a plastic bag for a few hours. Do it in summer and they might heat up nicely in the sun. Some substances respond well to this sort of treatment.

I actually find that almost all actual dirt comes off with the stainless steel wool scrubbers (I use Lidl's finest). The problem I get is the last bit of grease/oil. Seem to end up with a very thin layer, especially on anodised aluminium bakeware, which does not want to come off however much effort I put in, detergent and hot water I use, etc.

[stuart noble]

Put the caustic in a plastic container (storage box or whatever) and keep it warm with a heater element. Takes no time when hot, several hours if cold.

[Chris French]

From what?

Seeing as dishwasher detergent is pretty alkaline and will remove the oxide coating on Aluminium pans and corrode the aluminium, though not to a great extent - pans are still perfectly useable., (though I don't know if it actually contains NaOH), then it's probably safe to assume there isn't any aluminium components, leastways not on the wetside.

It'd still not what to be running NaOH through mine without knowing what sort of concentration would be safe for it though :-)

I've had success dissolving dishwasher powder in hot water and then soaking stuff in that to help remove baked on crud.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Unlikely, as the washing soda in the dishwasher detergent also attacks aluminium.

However, it may well also corrode the surface of the low grade stainless steel used, although you might get away with it once.

All the ones I've seen are plastic, but there may be some metal ones.

If I was going to try this (with an old dishwasher;-), I would use it with regular dishwasher detergent too, as it has lots of things in it to help wetting/cleaning in an environment where no elbow grease is available. However, test mixing a small quantity separately first, to make sure they don't react.

Talking of elbow grease, I have found that opening the dishwasher halfway through main wash and rubing over burned on grease with a washing up brush often knocks it off very easily, whereas if left to the end of the cycle, it can remain in place and then gets dried back on the items.

[Andrew Gabriel]

If you're going to use a plastic bag, you can use ammonia which will react with the grease as a gas. Don't know if you can still buy it, but Scrubs Household Ammonia was ammonia in solution, and if you poured some into a sealed bag, the bad would fill with enough ammonia gas for it to work.

[meow2222]

I've got very strong ammonia, but once the fat is polymerised it doesnt really shift it.

NT

[meow2222]

I can't bank on excluding kids, animals & the untrained. A tank of caustic is therefore a problem.

I tried that until it went rusty, but no joy.

NT