I'm honestly not sure and have wondered about this for a long time. Thank you for the post!

All the plastic toys we have include motors so I haven't used the dishwasher, but when the kiddo was little I used to throw his Legos in (in a net bag) and they were made of the same type of plastic (ABS) so I'm sure it wouldn't hurt non-motorized sex toys either.

I can't answer your other questions, but I've often wondered if I'm too paranoid about toys being "germ free." I mean, I'm fluid bonded with my partner, so we don't use condoms for vag sex. You can't sterilize human skin, which is porous, so is a freshly-bathed cock really any cleaner than a toy I've scrubbed with just antibacterial soap and water? The only time this logic doesn't work for me is with toys that go from ass to vag, and everything gets a condom in that case.

The only thing I can think of is that toys that are considered non-sterilizable are porous... microbes can get inside the material itself, and a wipedown with bleach or rubbing alcohol isn't going to get the toy completely clean.

As for plastic plates, cups, baby bottles, etc... have you ever smelled them after they came out of the dishwasher? They still smell like dishwater. It's gross. I can't stand it. Aside from that, the microbes that get picked up through food use aren't the same as the microbes that could be picked up through sexual contact, and the former may be less resistant to heat than the latter.

Just guesses, though.

Porous toys can't be chemically sterilized, since there is no way to guarantee that the sterilizing solution can get everywhere.

There's another reason why toys might not "be able to be sterilized" - the sensitivity of the material to means of sterilization.

The two main methods are heat and chemicals. Heat that is sufficient to sterilize can cause toys to melt or break down - Acrylic and Delrin are in the break down category. You can do it a few times, but after a while your toy falls apart.

The same thing can happen with bleach or other chemical solutions. Bleach works to kill germs because it's very reactive, and it can react with your toys in ways you don't want. Dilute solutions put on for short times won't do much damage, but a strong enough solution put on long enough to guarantee sterility can cause problems, not only with plastic but also with things like stanless steel.

Disinfecting is a different ball of wax, and most toys can be successfully disinfected with things like alcohol, spray-and-rinse with a bleach solution, or a good antibacterial soap such as Hibiclens. The reason why disinfecting is not really brought up is that it only takes a few nasties (such as hepatitis or the bacteria that cause syphilis) to make your life very unpleasant, so if you're sharing toys sterility is important. Talking about disinfecting makes it sound like you might be able to share the toy safely, but really disinfecting is only applicable to your private toys or toys shared in a known-safe relationship. Again, porous toys can't be really disinfected, but in general hard plastic is nonporous.

Also, FWIW, few dishwashers can be said to really sterilize.

EF lists plastic as non porous yet only an 8 on the safety meter. This confuses me!

ScottA,

Thank you so much for taking the time to write out all of that information! That is so helpful to all of us who don't really know about this stuff in detail.

Thanks, ScottA! A lot of people don't know that disinfecting and sterilizing aren't the same thing, and it's an important distinction to make. Also, plastic tends to vary. If I remember correctly, ABS plastic is ABS plastic is ABS plastic, but not all plastic sex toys are made of the same kind of plastic. For instance, Aneros toys are made of a medical grade plastic that can be safely sterilized. Rubbing alcohol is generally safe for most plastics, though.

For those who really want to sterilize their jelly toys there is a third option that I remembered as I was putting on a bandage after slashing my finger.

High-intensity gamma rays.

It's the way many companies sterilize porous and other difficult-to-sterilize materials.

Probably would work on most sex-toy materials, and since gamma rays are not particulate radiation it won't leave you with a radioactive/glowing toy.

Not generally practical, though.

So um.. is sanitizing akin to disinfecting?

This is all super interesting! I'm glad to be finding all this out. Especially about the gamma rays. LOL!