Can chemicals in hot tubs, swimming pools or cleaning products damage my jewelry?
Yes. Did you know that most prong breakage is caused by chlorine and bromine? Where does it come from? Hot tubs, swimming pools and laundry products. Hoover and Strong (a supplier of gold products) conducted a controlled experiment to determine the effect of common chlorine and bromine products on jewelry settings. They tested household bleach, hot tub chlorine and bromine solutions, and a chlorine-free dishwashing detergent. (Chlorine and bromine are commonly used chemical products used to prevent bacteria from growing in our drinking water, in swimming pools and hot tubs.) Too much of these compounds may cause a durability problem for settings. The higher the concentration and/or the longer the exposure, the faster the deterioration of the settings. Hoover and Strong’s test results: 1) 5% chlorine bleach heated to 110 degree F – prong failure would occur after 21 hours of exposure. Only the platinum and palladium white gold settings held their stones in the worst test solutions. (Sha
