I'm an aged widower, with no She Who Must Be Obeyed to argue about my housecleaning solutions (no pun intended), and me and my dishwasher are best friends.
No joke, I have used my dishwasher to clean both my S&W 659 (stainless) and, when that worked so well, I used it to clean my STI Edge. It worked just fine both times, with no subsequent rusting.
Yes you want to tear down the gun before you run it through the dishwasher. You set the water temperature on HOT! Whether you run the dry cycle is up to you, but I never did. Of course, you don't run wood or rubber grips, or electronic sights, through your dishwasher! Don't put soap in the washer, all you're trying to do is sluice the grit out, using a great amount of very hot water. You aren't really TRYING to remove residual oil.
Before you wash your pistol(s), clean them normally with a decent solvent, such as Hoppe's. This will remove the powder residue from slide, frame rails, etc. Here's a hint: try Simple Green cleaner, instead. It's cheap and removes powder residue quite handily. Besides, you're going to wash it anyway ...
Don't put small parts in the washer (you can clean them easily by hand) because (a) you might lose them and (b) if you have more than one pistol in the wash, you might get them mixed up.
If you have only a few pistols to clean, put them in the silverware basket. Ideally, they will drain completely.
After the HOT WATER wash cycle is completed (let them sit for 5 minutes or so to drain) pull the pistols out and spray them thoroughly with brake cleaner while they're still hot. This WILL remove the water, as well as any grit which may still be in the action. If you regularly use brake cleaner in normal cleaning, as I do, you know it takes only a few minutes to evaporate. Note that you want to use brake cleaner only in a well-ventilated area.
Finally, lubricate the pistol thoroughly with the finest (thinnest!) oil you can find. I highly recommend sewing machine oil, and in fact I use sewing machine oil normally during very cold weather and when breaking in a new pistol. Unless you're working with a Glock, the rule of thumb is "if a little oil is good, more is better." Did you put too much oil in the action? Fine, tip it on end and let it run out. Wipe off the excess, reassemble the pistol and store it wrapped in rags to absorb any oil which may seep out.
I found this to be an effective and efficient method of cleaning pistols which have been used in especially gritty environments. I used it after major IPSC matches in Bend, Oregon, and Reno and Las Vegas, which ranges are notorious for blowing dust and fine sand.
Note that this allows you to clean the action without detail-stripping the frame. However, there is no substitute for periodically tearing the pistol down and cleaning & inspecting them. I shoot in excess of 1,000 rounds a month, every month, for the past 15 years. I've never found rust in the pistol due to this technique. More likely, I find rust on the outside of the frame with parkerized, blued or "kimber-crap (tm)" finished pistols because of perspiration from my hand during hot weather. Living in Oregon, I get water on my pistols on a weekly basis, eight months out of the year, only because I shoot them in rain and snow and wind.
Clean your pistol, remove the water, oil it thoroughly, and store it in a safe with dessicant. What more do you need to do?
Oh, by the way, the use of compressed air to remove both water and particulate matter from the inside of the frame is ALWAYS a good idea. Don't have an air compressor? No problem; buy cans of compressed air from art stores, computer stores, office supply stores ... lots of places sell it. I also used compressed air to clean spilled gunpowder from my reloading press.
Jerry the (I swear I am not making this up) Geektrying
