# Dishwasher Autoclave?



## tachikoma (Apr 16, 2009)

Just curious if one could use their dishwasher's high temp wash cycle as a make shift autoclave for sterilizing driftwood? I ran a piece through today (with no detergent or rinse aid of course) and it seems to have survived without any ill effects, but was wondering if anyone knows or has any idea if this is an effective method to sterilize or is it just a waste of water?


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## Bowser (Jul 4, 2011)

Don't know if this will sterilize it, but it does get the tannins out of it pretty quickly, i did it when i found a piece of driftwood at the park that i liked, put it in the fish tank no problems. Hope this helps!


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## Dizzle21 (Aug 11, 2009)

I like to get a big pot of boiling water and let it sit for about it hour. gets everything out and sterilizes it


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## tachikoma (Apr 16, 2009)

Dizzle21 said:


> I like to get a big pot of boiling water and let it sit for about it hour. gets everything out and sterilizes it


My particular pieces are fine (Malaysian driftwood) I just ran a piece through to make sure wood in general would survive without any unexpected problems. I was just wondering for future wild collected pieces which are too large for pots and pans.


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## ChrisK (Oct 28, 2008)

Just out of curiosity, how is that better than boiling? And would some type of pressure cooker be more "autoclave"?


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## tachikoma (Apr 16, 2009)

ChrisK said:


> Just out of curiosity, how is that better than boiling? And would some type of pressure cooker be more "autoclave"?


Not really any "better" but unless you have some other method of boiling 3 ft pieces of wood on your stove top I don't see any other option. I live in a apartment so going outside and starting a fire under a barrel for boiling large pieces of wood is not going to happen. lol


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

From my interactions with them I can tell you that autoclaves use high pressure for the sterilization (I believe the high pressure is used to elevate the boiling point of water)


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## Bowser (Jul 4, 2011)

Oh! i forgot to mention that i've also baked some of my driftwoods in the oven, the ones that i don't have a pot big enough for. I just soaked the wood in a huge tub, and pinned it down with rocks, and then baked it at 200 degrees for an hour or so it was bone dry when it was done. 

for pieces too big for your oven you can soak in tubs with water and bleach 10:1 ratio of water to bleach for a day then rinse or soak in water until you can't smell the bleach from the wood anymore


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## LookinRound (May 1, 2011)

Using your dishwasher won't act in any sense as an autoclave. It may help clean it to make it usable, though I have no data to knowledgeably respond either way for that. There are a couple different types of autoclaves, all of which rely on the pressure. There are advantages/disadvantages to each. They include downward displacement, steam pulsing, and vacuum pump autoclaves. There are other methods of sterilizing (which must be used for some plastics) which are more expensive but have some advantages. 

Dishwashers may use water at 130 to 170 °F while the autoclave will be using high pressure steam at 250 °F


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## morphman (May 20, 2011)

tachikoma said:


> Just curious if one could use their dishwasher's high temp wash cycle as a make shift autoclave for sterilizing driftwood? I ran a piece through today (with no detergent or rinse aid of course) and it seems to have survived without any ill effects, but was wondering if anyone knows or has any idea if this is an effective method to sterilize or is it just a waste of water?


 Great idea !!! I think that this is as close as you're going to get to the actual autoclave providing you use a decent dishwasher that reaches decent temps and create some kind of pressure with the steam.

I'm going to try it on everything ;to sterilize and get tannins out.

Cheers


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