I find it mildly upsetting that I can make my blender clean by putting some soap & water inside, and then turning it on.
If I put soap and water into the fridge and close the door, it doesn't get clean. It just makes a mess. If I put soap and water into the air fryer and turn it on things turn out even worse.
I can't clean my kitchen knife by mincing up a bar of irish spring. I soap up my frying pan and then put it in the sink, not on the stove. If I put dish detergent into the coffee maker and run it, that is going to improve neither the coffee maker nor the coffee mug.
Something just seems fundamentally wrong about the blender situation. Paradoxical. It is an inversion. Like digging up to get out of a hole.
I think the thing that I don't like isn't necessarily that I'm blending soap. What gets me is the implication that during its normal operation, I'm using the blender to clean food.
To be fair, descaling a coffee machine or similar device does often involve just putting descaler (e.g., citric acid) into the reservoir and then running the machine as if making coffee. Same with teakettles.
Cleaning the business end of an espresso maker often involves putting detergent in the part where the coffee goes and then pulling a shot of hot soap, just with a plug to make the soap go up into the machine instead of being dispensed into your coffee.
Cleaning a bicycle chain often involves surrounding the chain with degreaser in some way (they make weird plastic things that attach to the chain and you fill up, but you can also just hold a wet rag over the chain) and then pedaling with your hand to cause the chain to go around.
Not cleaning, but several of the steps involved in tuning a fountain pen nib are sort of like just writing but on abrasives instead of paper
