White gold and Windex

[song]

I can''t, for the life of me, find the post that someone wrote about using Windex to clean diamonds set in white gold. The author (was it Mara?), felt Windex might harm the gold. Is this true? I use Windex and a baby toothbrush to clean my ring and once a week I give it a good run in the Ultrasonic I have.

My white gold rings are showing a buttery yellow hue lately. Is this due to the Windex? The chemical I use with the Ultrasonic is just a generic brand I picked up from a jewelry supply outlet and it offers no warning against using it with white gold, so I assume it''s fine.

Please, any advice is welcome..I''ve been doing this to my rings for close to a year. ~song

 

[jenibear]

It's likely not the windex or the ammonia in it but the usual wear of white gold. Almost all white gold is dipped in rhodium to give it that shiny white hue. Natural white gold has a pale yellow tone. What you are seeing is the wearing away of the rhodium.
My e-ring is white gold and a ring my FI bought me when we first started dating more than 3 years ago is white gold. I never noticed the color change until I got my e-ring. White gold still looks whiter than yellow gold and it still shines, its just not AS white.
It's easily fixed by bringing the ring to a jeweler to have it re-dipped. It's very inexpensive - at least where I am. I had that old ring cleaned, resized and redipped for $30. And it's good as new!
I never used ammonia on the old ring and it still faded.

 

[song]

The problem is the hue is quite evident and I'm surprised it started showing through so quickly. The rings are 18K white gold. If I am to keep them looking great, it would mean leaving them every 6 months for a rhodium dip. A friend of mine has had her white gold ring longer than me and there is no yellow showing through at all. I wear my rings every day, never take them off, so does she. Is it possible that my skin is more acidic than most. A jeweller once mentioned that and I do change yellow gold darker very quickly. ACK.

As long as it isn't the Windex, I don't feel so bad. I'll probably have them dipped once and if it happens as quickly I won't bother again. I don't mind the buttery colour, but that wasn't the idea when I bought white gold. If I had wanted yellow gold, I would have purchased it. Platinum is out of the question right now for us.

Thanks Jenibear! ~song

 

[glitterata]

I'm pretty sure it's not the windex that's making your ring yellowish--I'm pretty sure it's the wear. In fact, I've never before heard that ammonia could hurt white gold. (Ammonia is what gives Windex its cleaning power.)

I HAVE heard that chlorine is bad for gold--both strong chlorine in swimming pools and chlorine in bleach. Apparently it can react to the alloys in gold and make the metal brittle. Could that be what Mara was thinking of? So don't wear your white gold ring in the pool, and don't soak it in bleach.

 

[glitterata]

P.S.: It's possible that your friend's ring hasn't turned yellow because it's made from a whiter form of white gold--with palladium in the mix instead of nickel, or something like that.

 

[song]

That could be it, thanks. If that's the case, I'm a little ticked off that the jeweller who sold us the ring didn't mention I could have had a higher quality white gold mix, than the one we bought. We certainly would have sprung for the extra cost. As a matter of fact, I have never run into a jeweller who even mentions the different alloys used to make white gold. The only place I've read about it is here and at another site. Why do you think that is? Do Canadian jewellers use just one mix? Is there a different law here, compared to the US or other countries that specify the mix used?

Sorry about all the questions, but this has really got me thinking! ~song

Edited to add, my friends ring came from a very high end jeweller located in the US. Mine was purchased from a high end jeweller, but here in Canada. Hmmm

 

[jenibear]

Hey Song -

While Glitterata is right about the different alloys of white gold you may be right to assume your skin is more acidic. That could be very possible.

Both of my rings are nickel alloys. I never heard of palladium until this board. If I ever want to change my e-ring setting I'll get palladium alloyed white gold.

That being said it took a good year for my ring to change to that yellow hue. However, it never got THAT yellow. It still looked white next to a yellow gold ring.

Bear in mind that platinum is not perfect either. It can take on a dull look after wear and needs polishing to brighten it up. Of course different alloys of platinum make it stay shinier longer. Alas, there are many things to consider when dealing with the white metals. None is perfect.

 

[tomatoe]

white gold turns yellow cos of acidity, ammonia is alkaline, so its not the ammonia. ur body and maybe the environment u are in is most likely very acidic thats why ur ring is turning 'yellow' so fast. I have a wg ring and the bottom part has turned yellow.

below is something i found by doing a search on google about acid ph...

"What causes ph imbalance?
The bulk of the Western diet consists of foods that leave an acidic residue within the body. This occurs when food is metabolized and broken down, leaving certain chemical and metallic residues which yield either acid or alkaline potentials of pH for the body. It is these residues from our daily dietary choices that appear to most strongly influence body pH levels. When the diet is imbalanced with an excess of these acid or alkaline residues, which most western-world diets are, body pH is directly and immediately impacted, causing body fluids to lie constantly within the acidic range. And, just like acid rain upon a forest, an imbalanced pH can slowly but steadily corrode your body and lead to numerous health problems."

 

[Mara]

I don't recall the specifics, but I do recall that some of the experts (Cut Nut? Rich?) noted that you shouldn't use harsh household cleaning products to clean non-platinum items and also some colored gems (or non-diamonds). Now what designates 'harsh'? Not sure really. I know that platinum and diamonds can pretty much withstand all sorts of harsh household chemicals...but I am not sure about the other products. You may want to run an archive search on 'cleaning' because there have been alot of posts on that--I bet it was in there that I recall seeing something about that.




I personally would not use Windex for white gold if it was an e-ring. I clean my earrings about once a month with a quick swipe of the brush and some Windex and feel really guilty while doing it.

 

[song]

Thanks everyone! I'm going to be more careful with using Windex on my diamonds set in white gold and see if that makes a difference once I have them rhodium dipped.

Mara, I read in one of the posts your stone was reflecting the scratches from the metal..WHEW! Glad to hear all is well. I'm terrible at finding my way around this site so I wasn't able to find your original post about the situation and instead read about the outcome on another thread!

Jenibear, the yellow hue isn't as yellow as yellow gold, but it's very noticeable. I'm with you, next time around I'll inquire about a pallidium mix instead of nickle or set it in yellow gold and be done with it. I did hear yellow gold is making a comeback.

Thanks for the info Tomatoe! Like I said earlier, I change my yellow gold jewellery to a deep, almost orange colour..I can't imagine what I'm doing to my internal organs! *l* ~song