Are Phones dishwasher safe.

[HowardPgh]

Can a phone or parts be cleaned in the dishwasher?
Has anyone tried this? I figure that a 500 might survive this treatment as most of its electronics are sealed.
An inquiring mind wants to know.
Howard

[LarryInMichigan]

I wouldn't try it.  I don't have a dishwasher anyway, but even if I did, I wouldn't.

Larry

[HarrySmith]

I run all my hard plastics through the dishwasher and have not have a problem. I have not tried a complete phone, I do not think the interior parts and wiring would fare well. I also put the cords in. I do not run "heated drying". I have not tried soft plastic.

[DavePEI]

I have asked my dishwasher to wash phones, but she refuses!

[Charles]

I have restored several WE 500 phones from the 60's and 70's that were in a flood. I hosed these phones out with soap and water as well as mineral spirits and then let them air dry. Every thing holds up well except the microphones (even the receiver elements seem to do OK).

I would not do it to phones that were not already in bad shape but it does show how well these phones were constructed.

[DavePEI]

Probably the worst sounding thing I did to phones, and that was on a very large lot of phones I got from New Brunswick that were full of/and covered with mold, cords, covers and all, is pressure wash all of them using hot water right out of the hot water tank... Prior to cleaning, most of these were all pretty well black with mold. They had been stored for years in a leaky school bus.

None were damaged, and it did the trick, even cleaning the mold and mildew off the cords. I avoided directly aiming the water at the TT dials, of course, and allowed them a day in the sun, BUT WHEN TESTED, THEY WORKED GREAT! Cords were blasted up close and on the phones.

Here is a photo taken after the clean-up. Below that, another find done the same way.

Dave

[McHeath]

I've run a lot of plastics through the dishwasher. 

Basically hard plastic light colors will be fine and come out nice and clean.  Black might discolor, get white streaks, or it might not, there seems to be no rhyme nor reason here.  Browns have not been successful and come out streaked for me.  I once ran a black soft plastic parts through a dishwasher about 5 times to get some amazing gunk off the shell, I think the phone was in a barber shop/hair salon and was coated with a weird thick crust.  It came out great eventually.

Cords of all types have come out great, early straight, coiled, and even modular.  I don't do anything special to protect them. 

For cleaning the chassis I take all the parts off that come off and go to work under the sink with a toothbrush and Comet.  I Scrub leather feet with a brass brush.  Keeping water out of the network holes as much as possible I still clean them the same way, and the tops will then look real good.

[twocvbloke]

I've run the odd plastic thing that wasn't meant for the dishwasher through a dishwasher, the only one thing to come out looking worse for wear as my Miele vacuum's tool lid, which I did at slightly too high a heat and the plastic oxidised, but as that vac isn't loved in any way, I don't care much...

[JorgeAmely]

Most old phone networks have cosmoline inside. You don't want to put that stuff inside your dishwasher. I don't think it will go well with you stomach later.

[Phonesrfun]

My experience with dishwashers has been both positive and negative.  For sure, I would only run the plastics through, possibly a metal shell, but only if you were planning on stripping a metal part to repaint it later.  Dishwashers are not kind to paint.  They are also not kind to Bakelite that has started the process of deteriorating.  If a bakelite part such as a handset or a phone cover is getting rough, that is an indication that the phenol is breaking down.  The dishwasher will only make that much worse.

For sure, you do not want to run anything through the dishwasher that has a inked date stamp on it.  If you do, the date will be gone when it gets out of the dishwasher.

Also, for sure, you do not want to use the drying cycle that turns on a heating element.  Your phone will warp, unless it is metal.  Do not put hookswitches, dials, networks, induction coils or capacitors through the dishwasher.  Just not a good idea unless you know how to thoroughly dry them afterwards.  Also, the soap residue can raise Hell with metal parts later on.

Depending on the temperature of the hot water, you probably don't want to run a 302 or early 500 soft plastic shell through either.  Unfortunately, any dishwasher I have ever owned does not have a selection for water temp.  All dishwashers seem to be "hard-wired" for the hottest water they can provide.  Some even heat the hot water even hotter as the water enters the dishwasher!  If you want your best silverware or grandma's crystal glassware to come out nice and shiny, that would be great, but  with plastics, hotter is not better.  Soft plastics especially have a lower temperature to where they turn real soft.  Sometimes that preheat can be turned off.


For dial parts and other parts that you want to get goo and gunk off, an ultrasonic cleaner can be purchased for not too expensive, but bear in mind that those will also remove dates from parts, and it is essential to dry the parts off after they come out of the ultrasonic, so they don't corrode.

My two cents