Cleaning Hydroton in Oven...what container to use?

For me....I try not too over fuss the old roots too much.

I remove any large root matter by hand; with gloves.

Then I soak the hydroton in an H2O2 solution using plastic laundry baskets as strainers.

Let them soak, then I rinse. Then soak my hydroton in a 5.8 ph bath of H2O.

By that point; at least 90% of the small root matter is gone; the 10% remaining (of imbedded roots) are disinfected. When the hydroton goes back in the bed the really tiny shit will dry up and turn to dust...and soon end up down the drain during my next res change.

but yeah it's a bit of work, not too bad though.

When I re-use my hydroton I put it in a laundry mesh bag, and toss it into the washing machine on regular wash with just bleach. I remove any large roots but the small stuff I don't sweat. In summer I use an old washer and just toss it all in and then leave it with the top open for a day to dry out then use the shop vac to get it all out. I hate the shit but it does work great and you can reuse.

Woods, I did the same thing. Picked up a used washer on craigslist for 30 bucks and fixed it to run on the garden hose. I set it on a couple milk crates and dumped a 5 gal bucket of used really dirty hydroton in, set it on delicate and added a cup of bleach and half container of peroxide. Let it soak for a couple hours then ran a cycle. It worked great. I can rinse as many times as needed. At 40 bucks a bag and 6 to 7 bags per cycle I'll use this method every time. One thing I did notice is that it does start to ware off the outside layer of the hydroton a little. I think I could reuse a batch about 3 to 4 times before replacing.

the clay colored outer layer being worn off doesn't hurt its usability, i have some thats completely black