hot hot does water have to be to kill germs when im washing my dishes?

Question

does it have to be at a steam?

Answer 1

No. Without soap, only boiling water (212 degrees) would kill germs. When you wash dishes, you're relying on the detergent, not the temperature. The same goes for your laundry.

Answer 2

To actually kill germs even 300 degrees F is often not enough, on the other hand ordinary dish soap breaks up the bonds germs use to stick to surfaces, and washes away bits of food that might have them.

In any case the germs will alight on the plate or whatever minutes after you put it away. If this were a life or death matter, humans would have died out very long ago before they ever knew about germs.

As it is, humans have a lot of built in defenses and so your body takes care of these things naturally. It is only if your immune system is extremely compromised that you should have any worries at all. And then it would be your Doctor who could best advise.

Answer 3

If the water is hot enough to sanitize the dishes, your hands are cooking.
The bleach answer is best-- however I put the bleach in the wash water-to reach all surfaces.- 10% bleach water will kill the HIV virus- and just about anything known at this time.

If you are attempting to break a cycle of germs in your family-- do the bleach thing-- mark glasses for family members (or buy paper cups)-- change all the toothbrushes-- I use dollar store type since all brushes should be changed frequently-- have a batch of kleenex or the equivilient-- if you use handkerchiefs-- bleach them, too-- teach everyone to cover their mouth when blowing, coughing or sneezing--and to WASH, WASH, WASH their hands with soap and running water.
Get some bleach wipes or use dish cloth with wrung out bleach water-- throughly wipe down telephones-- computers( monitors, keyboards)-- tv remotes-- any items more than one person uses--Put the toothbrush holder in that bleach dishwater--
good luck

Answer 4

Are you referring to the water in your dishwasher? If so, it has to be over 120* to kill germs. That's because there is no friction taking place in the dishwasher, just the movement of soap and water over the dishes.

If you're referring to hand washing dishes, you can't get the water hot enough to kill germs and still be able to tolerate it on your skin. Therefore, you must rely on the friction of scrubbing the dishes to remove the germs, which you then rinse down the drain.

Same goes for your hands. The action of rubbing your hands together, then rinsing the germs down the drain is what gets your hands clean. The type of soap you use, or the temp of the water you use isn't as effective in ridding your hands of germs as the friction and rinsing away is.

Answer 5

If you have a dishwasher the dishwasher soap has chlorine in it so that will kill the germs regardless of how hot the water is. When handwashing you should have a sink of bleach water (1 gallon water and 1 capful of bleach) to rinse the dishes in.

Answer 6

Actually, the temperature in the dishwasher needs to reach 180(deg F) to properly sanitize dishes. You will not be able to handle this water temp if washing by hand. If you want to sanitize by hand, use either a Quaternary sanitizer or 50ppm Cholrine (bleach) in the rinse water.

Answer 7

I always add alittle bleach in my Dishwater to wash my dishes

Answer 8

As hot as you can stand it.