There have been quite a few Q&A's regarding bottle cleaning and sterilizing in the past. For each individual, the right answer is what works best for them. This is how I do it.
My best friend is the dishwasher. When I started brewing I did not have one. Molly thinks I actually bought a dishwasher to wash dishes.
Our dishwasher has two features that make it ideal for processing bottles.
1. It's Portable.
This means that I can plug the kitchen sink and fill it with the runoff. The hot water with dishwasher detergent is one of the best solutions for dissolving old labels or getting the crud out of an old bottle. Once a bottle is cleaned and de-labelled, I normally don't need to do this again; I just rinse out a bottle when empty and put it away until needed.
2. Water Heat Option.
My dishwasher has a water heat option. It will heat the water to the proper temperature, 140 degrees or so, before going through its cycles. I run the bottles through the dishwasher when I am ready to bottle, using the water heat option with heat dry, and no detergent. This will sanitize, but not clean, the bottles. If the bottles were rinsed after using, or otherwise de-crudded, this is all that is needed. It takes an hour or more to run through the whole wash and dry, but all I have to do is stack and unstack, and there is usually plenty to do while I am waiting. Beats the heck out of soaking and rinsing 50 bottles.
Some plastics, like racking tubes, don't fare too well in this heat. They survive but come out a little worse for wear.
I use this method with PET bottles that I use for root beer, but they take a beating from the heat. They aren't good for many re-uses, but they are easy to come by, so it's no big deal.
The suggestion a few issues back, about using the oven to sanitize, was a good one. I used that when I needed to sanitize a few bottles.
See you at the brew.
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