it will work about as well as bleach - the issue is at a certain point bacteria gets deep in the styrofoam and most sanitizers wont get to it. the dishwasher idea sounds like a good idea, my wife wouldnt let me put incubator parts or any chicken related items in the dishwasher - so i cant say for sure.
i used to pull my incubators all the way apart and soak them overnight in bleach water, in a large tub with a block on the styrofoam to hold it down. it worked to an extent, but i noticed the hatch rate dropping even with the cleanings, alot of mushy chick issues once the incubators got so old. i did notice if i took one out of use for a couple of weeks, hatches would get better again. i always kept one unit just for hatching. and set 4 days apart in the other incubators. that helped a little.
i have been answering multiple threads and im not sure if i mentioned this on this thread: when the mushy chick issues got real bad, i built wooden boxes and moved all the electrical components across. i switched the thermostats out for wafer thermostats simply because i trust them more. for humidity i used aluminum brownie pans in the bottom. those worked pretty well.
