Ultrasonic

Continuing the jewellery theme, I've now acquired an ultrasonic jewellery cleaner. It's large enough to clean several items at once, including such items as metal-framed glasses if the arms are folded. I've set up a weekly personal ring-cleaning regime, so that the rings on my fingers, which tend to get dull and smeared from applying hand cream twice a day, can be restored to a pristine condition again. No doubt I will take it along in its box whenever I have an evening at a friend's home, so that they and other friends there can have a chance of cleaning their own crown jewels. (And to be frank, they have a lot more in the way of gold, silver and precious stones than I have)  

The notion of buying one of these ultrasonic cleaners popped into my head when at my jewellers Pruden & Smith in Ditchling recently. Proprietor Rebecca Smith, who made my 70th birthday ring last year, asked how it was, and suggested that she clean it up a bit in the shop's ultrasonic cleaner. A few minutes later, my ring came back much refreshed, looking as new, with the sapphire sparkling brilliantly. Gosh! What a difference! And so quick and easy. I had a look on the Internet that very evening, found a recommendation for one by a maker called Uten, and ordered it from Amazon. It soon arrived. That was just over a week ago. Now my rings look completely refreshed. I've also cleaned up my silver necklaces and pendants, although of course nothing with pearls in them.

These devices work by immersing the things to be cleaned in water - ordinary tap water - inside the device, which then agitates the water to generate tiny bubbles which loosen whatever kind of dirt or gunge that has accumulated on the items being treated. A little mild liquid soap can assist if the piece is particularly afflicted. My cleaner can be set to various timings, but so far I've stayed with the default setting of three minutes, which certainly seems to work well. 

This is the beast. It's a Uten UEA006.

You get the cleaner itself, with a stainless steel bath inside; the basket that holds the items to be cleaned, which fits into that stainless steel bath once it's sufficiently filled with water (about 400ml or so); and an instruction booklet. The odd items in front are for holding CDs and DVDs. The device is actually described as a 'household cleaner', implying that all sorts of suitable objects can be popped inside and brought to life again. Waterproof watches are mentioned as a possibility. I think they mean proper diver's watches, or genuine Rolexes. I'm not sure I'd want to risk anything less robust in water ultrasonically agitated for three minutes. 

Obviously nothing that might react badly to soaking should be cleaned in this way, such as pearls. I own a nice string of pearls, a pearl pendant, and a pearl ring. They shouldn't go near this device.

Well, once I'd unpacked the cleaner, I wanted to see what it could do. I began with my silver Slow-Worm necklace and my cherished but never-now-worn silver Ripple Bracelet.

You could watch what was happening through the blue plastic window in the lid. The thing made a slight noise, a kind of humming. I thought I might see a frenzy of churning bubbles, but no. Perhaps they were too microscopic to discern. 

With the three minutes done, I opened the lid, lifted out the basket, and inspected the result.

The necklace and bracelet certainly looked clean, and somewhat brighter. To be honest, it wasn't a complete transformation because I never let my jewellery get into a dire state. Only a small visual improvement would have been likely. That said, I could believe that the process had deep-cleaned these items, so that they were now free of ordinary detritus. 

One thing to note: although deep-cleaned, the bracelet, which was slightly tarnished in places, had not lost any of that tarnish. And why would it? That would need a chemical process, not merely ultrasonically agitated water. So I'm thinking that this would perhaps be a method of cleaning an item that had developed an attractive patina without affecting that patina. Such as you might get with anything made of copper. However, if you have (for instance) old coins or medals that need a clean-up, check what I have just said very carefully, as I'm only surmising what might be.

Encouraged, I changed the water and next popped in my Labradorite Pendant and Starfishie. They too emerged looking good, although really they were not in any way mucky before treatment, and little improvement could be expected.

Then the rings I wear all the time, and never normally take off. These would get regularly smeared with hand cream, and should come out of the clean-up more obviously sparkling and refreshed. And indeed it was so.

As an ongoing thing, I can see myself giving my 70th Birthday Sapphire Ring and my Wave Ring with the little diamonds in it - the items with a precious cut stone of some kind - a routine weekly whizz in my ultrasonic cleaner to restore the brilliance of the stone. But the rest of my jewellery only now and then. I'm not a person who engages in dirty activities, not do I swim, nor do I work up a sweat. I prefer to be personally clean and fresh at all times, and this means my jewellery is never in much danger of getting messed up in any way.  

Given that, I'm not sure that it was really worth spending £30 odd to acquire the means of safely cleaning most of my jewellery at home whenever I feel like it. But like many such purchases, you have to factor in convenience, and the sheer pleasure of having one's jewellery looking great at all times. Plus, as I have said, my friends can share in that too.

IMPORTANT FOOTNOTE

It wasn't mentioned in the instruction booklet, but the water poured into the stainless steel bath needs to be hot. I'd made the mistake of using cold water. 'Hot' doesn't mean boiling hot: water from the ordinary hot water tap ought to be hot enough. Anyway, having very recently applied hand cream, both my rings with jewels in them were smeary again. So I gave them a go in the cleaner, but now using hot water. 

Still no obvious bubbles, but the surface of the water was more active! And the rings looked even better than before, gleaming nicely once wiped dry with a tissue.

Uh-oh. The Wave Ring, which had four little diamonds in a flush setting, looked odd. Yes, one of the two larger diamonds had popped out. Fortunately it had been safely caught by the stainless steel bath. I got out my tweezers and carefully put it inside a container. That diamond will have to be reset into the ring. This demonstrates a definite physical effect from the new ultrasound cleaner - albeit an unwelcome one in this instance. I suppose the little diamond was so jostled by those microscopic bubbles that it came out of its setting. And no doubt the hot water made the ring expand just a bit. Perhaps a warning to anyone else who might buy one of these devices. One needs to be careful, and always assess the consequences of cleaning any item ultrasonically! 

For these particular rings, lukewarm water next time.