Wood utensils in dishwasher

[Jovidah]

Yes, I know, the usual recommendation is to not put any of your wood in the dishwasher ever. But between me giving up on silicone (long term durability and toxicity concerns), plastic (durability; they always keep melting on me), and metal simply not being ideal for everything (I hate scraping enamelled stuff with metal), I find myself slowly drifting back towards wood utensils.
But I want to have my cake and eat it too; ideally I throw as much as possible into the dishwasher. Apparently this isn't entirely unreasonable; @stringer mentioned he had a spatulat with wooden handle that survived just fine long-term, and I've seen something similar at my aunt's place who's been succesfully dishwashing cutlery with wooden handles for at least 2 decades.

So... does anyone have any experiences with this or recommendations? Woods that work better or worse, what treatment works best, whether to oil or not to oil? Right now all the wood stuff I have is cheap, and it's cheap enough that it's okay if it doesn't last forever. But I was hoping someone had any pointers about how to increase my success rate with dishwashing my wooden spatulas, wooden spoons, etc.

 

[McMan]

No problem for the cheap bamboo stuff. I've been putting it in the d/w for years. Never had an issue. Plus, it's cheap and comes in different shapes.
I can't say I've tried anything else. The d/w is an inhospitable environment for wood. The wet then heated-dry is a nasty combination. Plus, the stronger d/w detergent can do a number on many woods.

 

[jjlotti]

Counterintuitive but in my experience the cheaper wooden spoons (ash?) seem to do better in the dishwasher. After an oiling then couple rounds of stirring soup or gravy all day, they become seemingly impervious to the effects of the dishwasher. Problem for me is I never see them in stores anymore. Anything thicker will crack.

 

[jjlotti]

You know the kind your mama used to break or your backside... Or was that just me lol

 

[chefwp]

You know the kind your mama used to break or your backside... Or was that just me lol

It wasn't just you, unless mom got to a hairbrush first... I never learned to not CYA, my knuckles suffered the worst.

 

[chefwp]

I never begin cooking until my work area is clear and clean; and until I have one compartment of the sink filled with hot soapy water. It goes without saying on KKF that knives get priority cleaning/drying, but cutting boards and wooden utensils are up there in priority, followed by large bowls and pots&pans that take up too much space in the DW. To me the main advantage of making it second nature to clean as I go is that when I'm finished dining and I turn back to the kitchen, I don't have a complete disaster area, which is the last thing I want to face when I'm ready to enjoy the rest of my evening.

 

[stringer]

I don't wash many wood things in the dish machine. In the other thread @Jovidah, I believe you were asking about fish spatulas. This is what I had in mind. These spatulas are more than 15 years old and get used and washed in the dishwasher a couple of times per week at home. I wash them in the machine because they usually touch raw meat when they get used. I mineral oil them 2 or 3 times per year. They are just standard issue restaurant supply equipment. Similar stuff gets run through commercial dish machines all day every day in professional kitchens. And it lasts decades. But if it does get messed up, then replacing simple wood scales is very easy. Much easier than replacing a melted plastic handle. The one on the right is a Dexter and the one on the left just says China.

 

[stringer]

One other thing. I usually recommend Winco for cheap generic but decent commercial stuff. But the wood that they use doesn't hold up. It is noticeably softer and more porous. But I have had really good luck with the Dexter-Russell and Tramontina stuff. I worked with a lot of folks in their sixties and seventies at my last hotel who had had the same kit for 40+ years and they were rolling Tramontina and Dexter-Russell.

 

[Jovidah]

Tramontina is really useful since those are actually easy to acquire in the EU for very little money (unlike Dexter-Russell).
It's not just about fish spatulas / wooden-handled stuff by the way... I also want to go back to wooden spoons / stirry / scoopy stuff, mostly for use in the enamelled pots.

I've tried clean as I go... but it's more of a 'last resort' to me... first preference is to see what I can get away with dunking into the dishwasher.

 

[BillHanna]

It wasn't just you, unless mom got to a hairbrush first... I never learned to not CYA, my knuckles suffered the worst.

You gotta turn your palms out; stings worse but subsides faster.

 

[Naftoor]

I have given up understanding the ways of wood. I’ve accepted anything I want to last has to be hand washed. But my mom has beech utensils that are decades old, dishwashed multiple times a week and NEVER oiled. Still perfectly fine.

I got a spoon shape I loved from ikea, also beech. Oil monthly. Dish wash infrequently. Cracked in 6 months.

I also have some acacia from Walmart of all places that has held up incredibly well.

I agree with above that thinner pieces SEEM to survive better in my experience. Also bamboo does really well, that material simply does not care about the dish washer (at least the small things like spoons. The glue used in a bamboo board would probably die on the first cycle)

 

[coxhaus]

I also have some acacia from Walmart of all places that has held up incredibly well.

Yes, I bought some Pioneer Woman's wood spoon and flat scraper at Walmart. I like them and they are cheap. They are not bamboo which I like.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/The-Pioneer-Woman-Rustic-Olive-Wood-Spoon/168739865

 

[Jovidah]

So I got the 'Tramontina Landhaus 13 cm spatula'. I didn't read the specs properly... I assumed 13 cm would be the width but it's actually the full length of the metal part. The flat part is only 10cm long and 6 cm wide. It comes in different (bigger) sizes though... the interesting part is that they actually advertise the handle as both dishwasher proof and real wood.
The handle itself fools really smooth and glossy, as if it's coated in a resin or something. It feels a bit like pakkawood. Time will tell what it does for the heat resistance; the whole reason I'm going back from plastic to wood is because the plastic melts... if the wood is then coated in a resin that melts as well you're back to square one.

 

[stringer]

So I got the 'Tramontina Landhaus 13 cm spatula'. I didn't read the specs properly... I assumed 13 cm would be the width but it's actually the full length of the metal part. The flat part is only 10cm long and 6 cm wide. It comes in different (bigger) sizes though... what's interesting though is that they actually advertise the handle as both dishwasher proof and real wood.
The handle itself fools really smooth and glossy, as if it's coated in a resin or something. Time will tell what it does for the heat resistance; the whole reason I'm going back from plastic to wood is because the plastic melts... if the wood is then coated in a resin that melts as well you're back to square one.

That's the style of the one I had in mind. Those things are indestructible. I do think they must coat them in polyurethane or stabilize the wood or something but whatever it is it's very tough and handles machine washing fine.

 

[Jovidah]

Yeah I have no doubts this thing will survive the dishwasher. I'm more worried about it surviving the edge of the pan. I have a bad habbit of leaving utensils on the edge of my frying pans... Time will tell!

 

[Jovidah]

Bit of a followup after a few months:
-The tramontina stuff holds up really well; I think it's stabilized wood. But I haven't really tested its thermal properties yet (will it melt). But they basically come out looking the exact same as they looked going in, time after time.
-Bamboo stuff holds up surprisingly well. Similarly to the Tramontina stuff it doesn't even start looking particularly dry.
-Even beech wood does well but you can see it dryign out real quick. There's no point trying to keep it oiled as it's just swimming against the tide. But apart from looking dry most of the thin stuff holds up fine. The one that started cracking was a thicker one that had some more differences in thickness. My guess is the main problem is 'uneven drying' and therefore you're better off with the cheaper flat stuff, but that's just theory.

All in all I'm pleasantly surprised in how - against all expectations from the internet - my misconception that they'd all fall apart after 1 run in the dishwasher was wildly overblown.

 

[Jovidah]

So bit of a followup. The bamboo stuff seems to not give a damn; it still looks the same as it did when I started dishwashing it. The only real thing I noticed there - though it might not be dishwasher related - is that some of them started sounding scratchy in the pan. Can't really feel it on the spatulas but you hear it in usage. Who knows, maybe this is the silicates everyone is talking about when recommending against bamboo cutting boards?

On the wooden spatulas.... this was actually the most surprising. All the beech wood spatulas that are somewhat even in thickness (basically the cheap stuff) comes out just fine. Sure, all the oil comes out after 1 or 2 washings, but that's it. No tearing, no cracking, nothing.
The only spatula that cracked was one that was of very uneven thickness (basically the producers tried to carve a spoon into the spatula, resulting in thicker endpieces). My theory is that because of uneven thickness, it also dried unevenly.

Everything I have here is beech wood so I can't really say anything about other woodtypes, but so far I've seen little to discourage me to keep tossing it all in the dishwasher.

 

[boomchakabowwow]

my wooden stuff is either gonna burn on the stovetop hanging over the edge of a cooking vessel, or die in the washing machine. i dont own high end stuff anyways. i choose to worry elsewhere.

 

[stringer]

So bit of a followup. The bamboo stuff seems to not give a damn; it still looks the same as it did when I started dishwashing it. The only real thing I noticed there - though it might not be dishwasher related - is that some of them started sounding scratchy in the pan. Can't really feel it on the spatulas but you hear it in usage. Who knows, maybe this is the silicates everyone is talking about when recommending against bamboo cutting boards?

On the wooden spatulas.... this was actually the most surprising. All the beech wood spatulas that are somewhat even in thickness (basically the cheap stuff) comes out just fine. Sure, all the oil comes out after 1 or 2 washings, but that's it. No tearing, no cracking, nothing.
The only spatula that cracked was one that was of very uneven thickness (basically the producers tried to carve a spoon into the spatula, resulting in thicker endpieces). My theory is that because of uneven thickness, it also dried unevenly.

Everything I have here is beech wood so I can't really say anything about other woodtypes, but so far I've seen little to discourage me to keep tossing it all in the dishwasher.

The bamboo will split eventually. I just had to throw away a bamboo slotted spoon that was turning into a bamboo fork. The layers of bamboo at the end of the slots delaminated. This picture is from the web. For illustration purposes. I didn't get a photo.