Is it okay to clean heated sapphires in boiling hot water?

[LaraOnline]

I like to clean my jewellery in the ultrasonic, and I like to use the hottest water possible from the bathroom tap.
That water can be boiling hot!
Would this heat be a problem for heated sapphire?

 

[Smith1942]

Re: Is it okay to clean heated sapphires in boiling hot wate

Very hot water + ultrasonic?? I have a VERY bad feeling about that! I wouldn't do that to any of my jewellery. You don't need to - the electronic waves clean the stone with the friction generated.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Re: Is it okay to clean heated sapphires in boiling hot wate

I agree, I use water out of the faucet that is relatively hot (very warm!), but nowhere near boiling. It doesn't need to be that hot! It may not hurt anything, but I just wouldn't take the chance.

 

[davi_el_mejor]

Re: Is it okay to clean heated sapphires in boiling hot wate

Totally fine... I don't think your tap delivers 200+ water.

 

[chrono]

Re: Is it okay to clean heated sapphires in boiling hot wate

Theoretically, it is fine, but it's not something I would personally do just to be on the safe side. The change in temperature from boiling to room temperature isn't strong enough to cause shock (cracking) in corundum.

 

[pregcurious]

Re: Is it okay to clean heated sapphires in boiling hot wate

I wouldn't do it. Why do want to use boiling hot water? Warm water in your ultrasonic should be sufficient.

 

[aviastar]

Re: Is it okay to clean heated sapphires in boiling hot wate

They are cleaned with steamers at jewelers all the time; your tap water is fine.

 

[Smith1942]

Re: Is it okay to clean heated sapphires in boiling hot wate

I'm surprised how many are using quite hot water, even hot water from the tap, in their ultrasonics - the instructions on mine say it should be cold or only just tepid. The water heats up as it vibrates. Maybe jewellery won't break right away, but over time...I've also heard people say that they clean their jewellery in the ultrasonic every day. I don't think this would be good for the jewellery either, over the long term. I don't use my ultrasonic that much. In between times I clean my jewellery gently with hand soap and tepid water, rinse it and gently dry. Surely being frequently exposed to high temperatures and electronic waves would weaken jewellery over time, until one days it falls apart.

 

[JewelFreak]

Re: Is it okay to clean heated sapphires in boiling hot wate

At Tiffany's we didn't put pieces with very expensive or with very small stones, like melee, into the ultrasonic cleaner, in case the stones were loose in the setting & fell out due to vibration. I'm careful of that with my own. The water in the Tiff cleaner was hot but not boiling temp.

 

[aviastar]

Re: Is it okay to clean heated sapphires in boiling hot wate

On the other hand, if you lose a melee in the ultrasonic at least you know where it is!

I was curious so I looked up the temperatures for heating corundum; it's crazy high- like 1000C. Nothing coming out of your tap or straight out of a pot of boiling water is going to approach that. I even found an article that was talking about the uses of corundum in industry specifically because of it's resistance to extremely high temps.

It's my understanding that there are stones that are thermosensitive, like opals, and stones that are sensitive to the ultrasonic vibration, like emeralds and opals. But diamonds and corundum are not among them!