It seems like such a waste of electric, water, chemicals and time to do it this way. It seems easier because you’re putting it in a machine, but it’s not.
Old ice cream tub (or any old tub) and some white spirit and all the muck and cack will fall off, and after a quick rinse will look like new. Quick floss with a rag and it looks amazing. Only a small amount of chemical used, less faff.
Well what you describe is more “work”, admittedly not much more and certainly a more efficient use of resources but yeah the lazy modern man likes to chuck things in a machine and pull them out a bit later all clean and sparkly…
I normally use an Old Celebrations Tub and white spirit for Cassettes or an old milk bottle for the just chain, basically the same method, I just thought I’d try the dishwasher myth out, and it did actually work for me.
The one thing I tend to find soaking and shaking drivetrain bits about in tubs of white spirit, is that while it shifts a lot of the crap it never quite gets it all, and you will still end up needing to scrub a bit more, the dish washer seemed to shift more of the detritus and left it in a pretty much fit to use state when finished…
I’m not really advocating it, I’m just saying it is possible and it really does require almost no effort or thought (other than evading the missus)…