Man it's Hot Outside!

Man, it's hot outside, but I'm not telling you anything new am I? One of the ways we cool off in the summer is taking a dip in the swimming pool. It's as much a summer tradition as hot dogs on the grill and home made ice cream. This summer fun can be risky to your jewelry though. Traditional chlorine based pool chemicals can attack your jewelry causing it to break or crumble for no apparent reason.

The chlorine used to treat the water will weaken and break down the alloys used in gold jewelry. Gold jewelry starts life as 24K pure gold and has certain alloys added to make the metal more usable and affordable. These metals are melted and become one metal that is fashioned into jewelry. Now, when the jewelry is exposed to chlorinated water, it's compromised by the chlorine and the structural integrity of the jewelry itself is compromised. This causes the granular nature of the gold to break along grain lines. Without getting into technical metallurgical jargon, the alloys that have been melted and mixed with the gold are suddenly breaking down, thereby allowing the gold to break along these grain boundaries. All you know is that you look at your ring and it's broken, a prong is broken off, or even a piece of your ring is missing. The telltale signs of this damage is a frosted, sometimes jagged look to the break. Now, a break at the bottom of your ring is one thing, but when you look down and a complete prong, or worse, the entire setting and your precious diamond from your wedding set is gone, your heart drops. The expense of the diamond doesn't compare to the emotional loss.


The cure for this malady is to not wear your jewelry when in a pool. If you own a swimming pool there are alternatives to chlorine based treatments under the trade names Baquacil and SoftSwim. These don't harm your jewelry and still treat the water. A few years ago Manufacturing Jewelers and Silversmiths Association did an laboratory study on this subject and discovered that heated chlorine water attacks the alloys in gold much more aggressively. These warnings also apply to hot tubs and using bleach for household cleaning.


So, on these hot afternoons, put on your swim suits and leave your bling at home.