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hand sanatizers and rings

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soontowed

Shiny_Rock
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Jul 28, 2009
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107
Does anybody know if hand sanitizers can cause damage to platinum or to diamonds?
 

T L

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Sep 20, 2008
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25,159
You can put a diamond in sulphuric acid, and it won''t harm it, so I doubt hand santizers would do any damage. I don''t think it would harm platinum either. It just might make the metal and stone look dirty (until you cleaned it).
 

HVVS

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Sep 30, 2009
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816
The ones I''ve used (don''t know brand b/c they are in a dispenser at work) are alcohol based and they strip off the soap scums & oils. I give my rings a spritz just to clean them, lol. (but don''t tell anyone)
 

marcy

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
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26,275
I try to never put my rings in anything - I carry a ring box and put them away when I have to wash my hands.
 

njmom8285

Rough_Rock
Trade
Joined
Aug 7, 2009
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14
I had a similar problem as your concern a few years ago. It was only a silver piece (the Tiffany heart bracelet) But they coat them with Rhodium after polishing. I was doing physical therapy in a pool that used a good amount of chemicals. I didn''t even think of it and went in and did my exercises. When I was getting dressed I noticed the bracelet was dull and sort of patchy looking for lack of better words.

Long story short~my son lived in Philadelphia at the time and took it in for me. Tiffany''s restored it but told him, no chemicals, no alcohol from perfumes, etc and no acetone. As it eats up the rhodium coating. I''m not sure about the sanitizers~but they do have alcohol in them. I would be careful with them. Maybe try a test piece of older less important jewelry and see what happens!!
 

LilyKat

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 8, 2009
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835
I highly doubt it''s a problem with diamonds or platinum, or unplated gold.

I''d probably avoid it if I had a rhodium-plated ring or a silver ring.
 

Lynnie

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Feb 17, 2008
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1,166
I''m a nurse, wear my platinum e-ring all the time (I''ve had it for 2 years now), and I use that handsanitizer about 50 times a shift... no problems whatsoever. I still need to polish it occasionally, though. I wash my hands a ton, too.
 

Mrs Mitchell

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Sep 22, 2006
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2,071
I''ve been visiting a relative in hospital recently and I''ve used these sanitisers a lot. The alcohol based ones seem to help rather than hurt the sparkle, but I do rinse off my rings when I get home. I don''t think they do any harm at all to the platinum, since I use alcohol to clean my rings anyway.
 

split_shank

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Jul 13, 2007
Messages
323
Not sure about platinum, but definitely will strip rhodium/white gold over time. Same goes for anti-bacterial hand soap from what my jeweler told me. And for as often as I have been going in the last 9 months to replate, I believe it!
 
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