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Cleaning Your Dragon

edited March 2015 in Usage

For hobby scale stillers:
Disassemble your column and put it in the dishwasher (without soap).

@Smaug made this recommendation to me, when I bought my torpedo, instead of doing a cleaning run after first assembly.

Now I do it on my four plate bubbler and my Carter head after every run. Pots and pans cycle with a high temp scour, aka CNIP

Load er up, push da button, and Bob's your uncle.

I'm more like I am now than I was before.

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Comments

  • Second that! That's what I did.
    After every run seems excessive though...

  • edited March 2015

    I disassemble my dragon and store it in drawered tool boxes. Hidden in plain sight. Looks like automotive tools at the side of the shed.

    Can't bring myself to put STP and Moog stickers on those tool boxes though...

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • @Kapea - Do you put the bubble plates in as well?

  • @Kapea said: I disassemble my dragon and store it in drawered tool boxes. Hidden in plain sight. Looks like automotive tools at the side of the shed.

    Can't bring myself to put STP and Moog stickers on those tool boxes though...

    Sent your SD stickers last week, they should be there soon.

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  • @Topshot said: Kapea - Do you put the bubble plates in as well?

    Yes, bubble plates too. (in the dishwasher AND the tool boxes) Hot water scour only, no soap

    @punkin said: Sent your SD stickers last week, they should be there soon.

    Thanks Punkin!

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • Must admit. Doing a cleaning in the dish washer would have been easier than a run with vinegar. Had to clean all the tees and plates after the run anyway.

  • Is Borosilicate Glass safe to put in a dishwasher?

  • Just seen some info on another thread, it seems it's not as it can chip

  • No problem with the dish washer at all, chipping mostly happens when not carefully put down on a hard surface. So handle with extreme care, but nevertheless dish washer safe.

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  • Keep the parts separate from the regular dishes and as level as possible and there should be no issues.

    Certainly safer than wine glasses.

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  • @Anavrin said: Is Borosilicate Glass safe to put in a dishwasher?

    If it's safe to use with hot alcohol vapors, why would a dishwasher hurt it?

  • It's safe to put borosilicate glass in a volcano... :D

    Who puts wine glasses in the dishwasher @smaug?

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • @Kapea said: It's safe to put borosilicate glass in a volcano... :D

    Who puts wine glasses in the dishwasher smaug?

    Me.

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  • Dishwasher soap etches glass.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • @Kapea said: Dishwasher soap etches glass.

    How many washes does it take for you to be able to notice the impact? I've been washing my wine and crystal glasses in the dishwasher for years, they still look amazing to my untrained eye.

    If the impact is at the microscopic level, say resulting in poor bubble formation for champagne etc then only a purist would be concerned IMO. And that said purist would likely have a butler or maid to hand wash said delicates.

  • edited May 2015

    I don't know. All of my water glasses are hazy/scratched looking. It just happens over time. I like to look at the color and clarity of my beverages, so I hand wash and dry my beverage glasses. The only maid around here is home-made beverages. :))

    I use filtered rainwater for my household water. It is very soft. Could be that hard water minerals bind up the soap that causes etching.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • Interesting thought, water chemistry is not my forte but from memory hardness is a measure of CaCO3 and it is intimately linked with alkalinity. Both measures are looking at things in terms of Ca and Mg ions.

    If we assume that these ions are the key then understanding how they are interacting with the soap powder is crucial. These powders contain builders/scavengers/chelating compounds with the specific role of binding with stray Calcium or Magnesium ions to soften the water and reduce spotting and smearing.

    There are surfactants (non-ionic polymers), corrosion inhibitors, chlorine compounds, alkalis (sodium carbonate, trisodium phosphate), perfumes and other processing aids.

    Interestingly out of all that I couldn't really come up with a possible cause for what may be "etching" the glass in your house but not mine. From what you've described is "etching" the best word?

    I am aware of powders that are acid based, perhaps there's an answer there?
    Or perhaps it all comes down to the type and quantity of alkali powder being used?

    If you had an abundance of Calcium ions present in an alkaline solution in the absence of a suitable chelating agent you have the potential to make slaked lime. Slaked lime will combine with the sodium dioxide in the glass forming a dissolved sodium silicate, eventually dissolving the glass over time.

    That's the best I could come up with.

  • @Kapea said: All of my water glasses are hazy/scratched looking. It just happens over time.

    Maybe time to change the dishwashing detergent? Or maybe a bad combination of detergent and water chemistry?

    We wash all kind of glasses in our dishwasher only, that machine runs one or two times a day, and we have never seen any influence on glass surfaces.

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  • edited May 2015

    Hardness is the concentration of divalent cations, mostly calcium and magnesium, expressed as (converted to) calcium carbonate (weight per volume) in order to make it independant of the species of the cations. Hardness and alkalinity are not the same. Alkalinity and pH are not the same. Alkalinity can take several forms, depending on the anions present in the water.

    The term hard water comes from the notion of how "hard" it is to make soap foam with your water. The more dissolved calcium and magnesium, the harder it is to make soap lather. Soft came about because it it the opposite of hard.

    Dissolved calcium and magnesium are inversely soluable. The hotter the water, the less soluable the ions are. That is why hardness scaling forms in water heaters, and in dishwashers with auto-heating cycles. Washing with hard water and not enough soap (or an extra-hot rinse, heated inside the dishwasher) can cause mineral depostion on your glassware. Cloudiness caused by adding something instead of taking something away.

    The etching of the glass in my dishwasher is almost certainly due to the softness of my water and the detergent. Instead of reacting with dissolved solids in the water, the soap is reacting with metal ions in the glass. Trying to get my family to use less soap in the dishwasher is futile. Just getting them to load and start the dishwasher is quite an achievement. It's easy enough to wash and dry stemware by hand to keep it looking clear and unchipped. I'm picky about my knives that way too.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • @TheMechWarrior said: Interesting thought, water chemistry is not my forte but from memory hardness is a measure of CaCO3 and it is intimately linked with alkalinity. Both measures are looking at things in terms of Ca and Mg ions.

    Soon as i read this i thought 'Careful, as it IS Kapea's' :D

    I am also picky about my stemware and have left specific instructions with my dishwasher that the stemware and beer glasses be washed first and carefully rinsed. I am also picky with my knives, especially the ceramic ones and they are washed separately one by one and not put in the sink with the rest of the cutlery after use or the drawer before use. The ceramics are to be kept sheathed and the steels are to be kept on the knife rack.

    My dishwasher complies. :ar!

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  • ARRR! The beatings will continue until morale improves! :ar!

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • I only use half the recommended powder.

    1. Because I'm a tight arse
    2. Because it works and I get away with it.

    I'm just inspecting my crystal tumbler I'm drinking out of atm and it's lovely.

    I do hand wash my good knives, the reason being the manufacturer recommended to only hand wash and never machine wash. For the money I spent on them I simply complied.

  • I've got a set of Global Knifes, I wouldn't want to unknowing stick my hand into a sink of water and find one by mistake, one of them took 3mm off the end of my thumb a couple of years ago!!

    About cleaning, I filled my baby CD with a solution of warm water and citric acid, for 10mins before rinsing it out, looks good as new again and I didn't have to take it apart.

  • edited May 2015

    @Anavrin said: I've got a set of Global Knifes, I wouldn't want to unknowing stick my hand into a sink of water and find one by mistake, one of them took 3mm off the end of my thumb a couple of years ago!!

    I wash my knives with a kitchen sponge under a stream of water, dry them, and put the back on the magnetic strip as soon as I am finished using them. They never soak.

    The Guide Hand

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • @Kapea said: The Guide Hand

    That's what you learn after taking a chunk of finger off. Wüsthoff knives are my fave

  • edited May 2015

    I added some knuckle skin to the stew last time I went camping. What Chef forgot to mention in the video is "do not attempt this technique if working by firelight."

    I have a fondness for Solingen rostfrei blades too. I like ceramic ones, but I cannot store them on my magnetic strip.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • edited May 2015

    I have some solingen, the Eicker with the handle that needed a soak in some sodium percarbonate when the pic was taken is Solingen.
    I buy my knives from the hunting store, not from kitchen specialists.

    You can get a very good boning knife for $25 that will go up against a $100+ kitchen knife for general kitchen duties.
    A set of diamond Lansky's and a good steel and that's all you need.

    image

    image

    knives1.jpg
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    knives2.jpg
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  • edited May 2015

    And a nice wooden cutting board...
    I like maple.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • edited May 2015

    @punkin said: I buy my knives from the hunting store, not from kitchen specialists.

    Did the cleaver you picked up in China make the journey back?

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  • edited May 2015

    It's funny that cleaver. It's sharp as all fuck, unbelievably sharp, but it's got a couple dents in the cutting edge from the first time i used it.

    Admittedly i was cutting frozen corn cobs with it, but it looks like i've been cutting wire. :))

    image

    The shoulder is so fine it's easy to see how they put an edge on it, but it'd be impossible to keep it.

    I have a good cleaver that's in the photos, but it's smaller. The good one is a Mundial, i picked it up at a garage sale for $4

    cleaver1.jpg
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