ok i need to ask if anyone one has used rubbing alcohol to clean your tips ???? not trying to be funny or crazy , just remember it being use to sanitize thermometers and was thinking ,maybe this would be good to use after washing the tips ?maybe soking them to sanitize them???
stacy,
I just soak mine in a bowl of hot water and dishsoap and rinse them off after a while and let them air dry on a towel!
yes, it would certainly sanitize. not so sure about degrease, but would imagine so.
However, you'd definately want to rinse very well in water to remove any residue.
Personally, I just clean mine in hot, soapy water and rinse well in very hot water.
Boiling them, if you're very concerned about sanitation, would definately remove grease and the "bad buggies."
I just want to throw in here that we discussed about cleaning tips in the microwave a while back. It works GREAT! Place tips in a microwave safe container and COVER with water add a drop or two of Dawn and remember to leave enough room at the top of the container for the bubbles. Neuk for a minute or two.
I will try to find that thread, and my apoligies to the person who told us of it, I can't remember your name right now.
I LOVE the microwave cleaning method! I have the bowl of soapy water on the counter and I throw my tips in there as I'm done using them so they never get crusty. Then when it's cleanup time I just microwave them for a minute or so and then rinse! If they don't seem completely clean I'll give them another minute, works great.
I boil my tips. I put them in a pan with water and some dishwashing soap and boil them 10-15 mins. Then I dump that water out and put in fresh water and do it agian. I usually let them build up until I have abunch to wash and boil them while I am washing other dishes. After the second boiling I'll check and see if they need it agian. Most of the time they dont. Next I rinse them with water and let them dry on a dish towel.
Good Lord, boiling your tips for 15 minutes?? Do you have germophobia or something? Sorry to be so incredulous but I have never heard of anything like that. 
Vanna, dear Vanna, please throw that stupid tiny tip brush away and stop wasting so much of your life. If you don't have a dishwasher, just get a plastic bowl with a good tight lid. Put your dirty tips and couplers in the bowl, fill halfway with the hottest water that will come out of your tap, put in a teaspoon of dishwashing liquid, put on the lid, and shake for a minute. Rinse in cool water & put on a paper towel to dry. The degreaser in your detergent will be plenty powerful to degrease your tips for royal icing.
Just use your finger or the business end of your flower nail to ream the icing out of your tips and couplers, and then give 'em a shake in the bowl. No metal in the microwave, no crazy acids or alkalies or solvents or caustics or alcohols or autoclaves or boiling your tips.
Jeez, girls! LOL! Overkill! 
Actually, surprised people haven't heard about boiling to clean but then maybe it is because I am a lot older. Yes, sometimes people have the purpose of sterilizing but this is also an old way of cleaning pots that had stuck on food etc and it works quite well. As do all of the other preferred methods that were mentioned. I still have to use the tip brush from time to time on, say, a number 1 tip or something like that, also some of the older fancy discontinued tips I own. Personally never put any of my cake decorating tools in the dishwasher, especially not the tips.
I don't believe any one method is wrong, just choice, whatever works for you is just fine with me.
Hugs Squirrelly
Hey folks, Wilton makes little bags to put your tips into to put into the dishwasher. Rinse out the frosting in the tips, put the tips into the bag, tie it up and put into the silverware container in your dishwasher. They cost about $2 for two bags. The tips stay together and get clean. That was one of the first things my decorating instructor told us about.
Leslie
I have a Kitchen Aid dishwasher which has a basket with a cover on it. I just put them in there and close the cover and it works great! I also have an inexpensive dishwasher in my cake kitchen and it also has one. They are wonderful. Sometimes are still a little wet and I dump them out on a towel and let them dry.
So, how many ways are there to clean tips? Do we ABSOLUTELY HAVE to discover each and every one so that we can make an educated choice on how to do it perfectly? And who gets to decide which one is perfect? I don't think a few minutes spent on this small, necessary task, however you choose to do it, will waste anybody's life.
Janice
If your dishwasher basket doesn't have a section with a lid, you can buy a 6" x 4" x 4" basket for the dishwasher in the baby section of most Wal-Mart and Target-like stores (for baby bottle nipples and rings). It works well for tips too, especially for stuff like the plastic scroll imprinters that you don't want to be down on the bottom rack near the heating element of your dishwasher...just put it in the top rack. Really handy for little stuff you want to get sanitized in the dishwasher.
Good Lord, boiling your tips for 15 minutes?? Do you have germophobia or something? Sorry to be so incredulous but I have never heard of anything like that.
To each their own. My method has worked well for me. Maybe 15 mins is overkill to you, oh well.
I hardly ever have to use the tip brush to clean them, and they are cleaning themselves while I am doing other things. Which is the part I love.
dang and to think i thought i had found something special when i saw the tip brush for the first time at the cake store...i am a gadget type of person in the kitchen so the dishwasher and bowlshaking stuff makes me fill cheated....just let me have my fun..lol
dang and to think i thought i had found something special when i saw the tip brush for the first time at the cake store...i am a gadget type of person in the kitchen so the dishwasher and bowlshaking stuff makes me fill cheated....just let me have my fun..lol
Haha, well kiddo, I bought a few extra and use them for other things. Like getting the crud that settles in the lip of where the stainless steel sink fits into the counter. Cleaning jewelry. Cleaning the tops of silver salt and pepper shakers. I have one specifically for my garlic press to clean out the little holes in it. Haha, so you can turn them into other kitchen gadgets too.
Hugs Squirrelly
I agree do what you thinks works best for you, if you have to boil them for an hour then boil them for an hour . If you enjoy ur tip brush then heck thats why you bought it, right? As for me I absolutely love the bowl with a couple of drops of soap and 3 to 4 minuets in the micro. Just remember to completely submerge the tips in water. Thats MHO. 
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