Technical parts washer; anyone used a residential dishwasher?

anything that needs cleaning; i.e., car parts

 

But the wrinkle finish on the jugs came out OK, didn't it?

 

Ray Baker used to use a dishwasher.
Be smart, clean the grease off first.

 

will work ok, but get a big water heater for it , the hotter the better for parts, normal dishwasher toss in soap is kind of caustic, so it could be ok on steel, don't us it on aluminum,

 

The only parts I've ever put in the dishwasher are vintage glass headlight and taillight lenses. Cascade makes them come out looking NOS.

 

I have cleaned several parts and had no problems. Clean most of the heavy grease of first and run through on normal wash. I have a spare knife and fork basket for when there are many small parts. My wife thinks it's a great idea. She wouldn't be without one, so why should I.

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I used Sodium Hydroxide in a tank to clean these. Just let them soak for a while. Then wipe them off with a towel and your done.

 

The residential dish washer will not hold up in the long run if used for washing engine parts. The pump and hoses they use can't take the petroleum and fall apart. It will work for a while and would probably be fine if used as a final wash. But as some guys have stated, don't use the dry cycle.

I worked at a machine shop that had a commercial dish washer that we could fit 6 chevy blocks in one shot. All steel construction with a built in oil skimmer. It even came with a 5 gallon bucket of cascade when it was purchased.

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Hey @atch , I did exactly what you are considering 25 years ago with good results. As others have pointed out, pre-clean any heavily "soiled" items. I use a pressure washer if I can. A rough clean with some old gas is a minimum. I generally limit what I put in my dish washer to transmission and engine internals after a preclean. Talk to your local Hotsy dealer and get some of their corrosion inhibiting cleaner for a hot tank, and skip the dry cycle, wipe and blow things dry.
My shop is on it's own septic tank, and our ground water is 300' deep but I'm still careful not to put oil and grease down the drain. I think your drum idea is a great alternative if you can maybe add a point of use instant heater to the washer supply. Please let us know how it turns out!
And that old electric range that got changed at the same time works great for a welding preheater, and for small powder coat jobs too.

 

I feel like this is a good idea. Automated parts washers are expensive. With a dishwasher, you get a controller and a stainless tank. You could replace the pumps and lines with more chemical resistant stuff. Stick the washer on top of your grease/crud tank, and you won't have to bend over so much. The sprayers may need to be replaced after a while. Obviously the right soap or cleaner.

 

When I lived in my apartment I used the dishwasher all the time for parts clean up and degreasing. Works great, I used either Dawn detergent or Simple Green in it.


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I've been an appliance repairman for 13 years. Here are a few things to think about.

1. On many, but not all dishwashers, the first thing they do when you start any cycle is pump out (drain). The manufacturer's reasoning is that if there is old, dirty water that has sat for a few days with little chunks of food in it, it would stink up the house if it sprayed around inside the dishwasher.

So, if you put your cleaner in it, the first thing it would do is send it down the drain.

So we'd need some way of defeating the drain. You could simply cut a hole in the top of the tub, stick your drain hose in it and let it recirculate. When you're through, move the hose to a bucket or barrel or the plumbing in the wall and press, "Cancel" to make it pump everything out.

Or you could snip the wire on the drain pump (or drain solenoid) and install a switch. When you're ready for it to drain, flip the switch on, press, "Cancel" and it will pump out. That would eliminate the need for a hole in the top of the tub and the need to phycally move the drain hose every time.

You clould also simply install a gate valve on the drain hose. (Unless it's a Bosch brand.)

2. As some have already said, you can't use any kind of soap that makes a lot of bubbles or foam. The spray inside the dish washer will make it into an instant bubble bath and it will seep out, under the door and across the floor like a cartoon or an epesode of, "I Love Lucy."

I don't know if Simple Green or the purple stuff foam or not. You could try it. Get a video.

If it does foam, Rug Doctor has an anti-foaming liquid that you can buy wherever you rent their rug machines. I use it whenever one of my customers accidently gets dish soap (for washing dishes by hand in the sink) in their dishwasher. It just takes one little sqiurt. I don't think it will reduce the cleaning power of whatever cleaner you decide to use but wouldn't know for sure unless you tried it.

3. Most dishwashers fill and empty the water about 5 times on every cycle. If you let it go down the drain, 4/5ths of the cycle will be spent spaying your parts with clear water - no cleaner. Another good reason to defeat the drain.

4. Most dishwashers will stop filling when a float gets to a particular water level. So there shouldn't be a reason to defeat the fill solenoid. Even though it wants to fill several times throughout the cleaning cycles, it won't over flow or dilute the cleaner because of the float.

Good luck!

The Quarter-Fast Club
(We're half half-fast.)

 

Yes sir!

They came out perfect. HRP

 

i need a dishwasher.

she should also be an intelligent young hard body with large breasts who's into dancing naked for my amusement, keeping my bike and house clean and buying me nice things.

 

I hadn't planned ahead to do a test, but circumstances just dictated the following:

• Sweetie is out of town for a couple of weeks
• A while back I got a bunch of sockets in with some other stuff I bought at auction
• These sockets and the carrier they were in had several years of dust and dirt on them
• Not oil or grease, just dust from sitting on a shelf in a barn or garage for many years
• I was out in the shop and saw this stuff today. I had been meaning to clean these up for several months
• Light bulb over the head; sweetie isn't here so let's try the kitchen dishwasher

I ran the dishwasher twice; once with the standard dishwashing soap, and again with no soap to make doubly sure that everything was rinsed well.

Stuff came out of the dishwasher looking great. I don't know what they would have looked like if they had oil or grease on them, like car parts would have had, but I'm pretty satisfied with these test results. I'm thinking that the idea as first proposed will work. I'll try to get to this next winter and will let you know the results.

 

Separate question:

Does anyone know how much water a load needs? i.e., how large would a tub or barrel need to be (sitting above said dishwasher) to hold enough water or solvent to make this work?

 

My wife is our dish washer. And on some occasions, I pinch hit for her.

 

To tell you the truth I wanted to use our commercial dishwasher for washing the auto parts. After that my wife was freaking out and she said that I am an idiot. But our dishwasher is so old it is already nine years old so I thought it wouldn’t be a problem. Now I am buying a new dishwasher because that one broke.) our new dishwasher from ianboer.com.au is arriving in two weeks. I hope after my story you won’t ever do this shit.

 

I've washed differential covers. Rods, pistons and manifolds in the dishwasher. Be sure to use the pots & pans setting.

 

A few years ago I my buddy called me and asked if I could come over and help him unload and install the new dishwasher he had just bought his wife. She was not at home and it was a surprise gift for her. I went over with a case of PBR in the cooler and we got the beer pretty well finished off and the dishwasher installed in record time. He saw a bunch of wheel covers in the back of my truck so we decided to try out the dishwasher on the cruddy hubcaps before his Mrs. got home. By this time we were feeling pretty good and were not as careful as we should have been. We dumped way too much soapy stuff in, set it on heavy load and went out to the garage. Before we knew it his wife came home, went in the kitchen and right back out the door. She was about 10 notches above PISSED!! There was soap suds all over the kitchen floor and the new dishwasher was full of crud from the wheel covers. I yelled SURPRISE!!!! She did not think it was near as funny as two drunk guys did. She called my wife to come and see the mess and to drive my drunk ass home. Come to think of it I never did get my hubcaps back

 

After a kitchen remodel & a new dishwasher in place, I kept the old one around & tried T.S.P. on several items such as brake drums, rims etc. even tried some muratic acid as a cleaner. wasn't overly impressed so it went to a local iron junker neighbor

 

I baked a pair of manifolds in the oven today.
I was gonna run em through a dish wash cycle but they were really clean.
Kitchen had a weird smell for some reason though