Dishwasher Safe - Mug Question

I have never put my mugs in the dishwasher, but then it occurred to me - if people used them in restaurants wouldn't they have gone through the dishwasher there? SO are mugs dishwasher safe or no?

I would not want to find out! Why risk it when it takes a minute to wash them by hand?

It takes a minute to wash ONE. But when you have 60 or more, it's another story!

Oh, you lucky people with dishwashers who even get to ponder this question...

i have always been cautious about putting anything remotely collectible into the dishwasher... it's not the hot water, but the detergents that are so caustic as to do damage. The typical dishwasher detergent will eat the silk screening off of glasses, wear off the gold rims off of expensive china and put a dull haze on colorful pyrex - actually it's removing the gloss finish off of it.

Then I think it was my mother-in-law that hipped me to putting a special load in after an event (where you are looking at a lot of dirty china) with no soap.

So now I have done that on a rare occasion when there is an overwhelming amount of dirty good stuff to wash. Just give everything a quick rinse to remove anything noticeable dirty, then once through the washer with no soap for a short cycle for sterilization.

Of course for anything really old and valuable - just bite the bullet and hand wash...

[ Edited by: Futura Girl on 2003-05-26 16:41 ]

I've heard that repeated dishwashing can cause (or hasten) the crazing that is commonly seen in the older mugs. Never tested it, but it makes sense that repeated wide temperature changes could cause superficial cracking in the glaze. Of course, I kind of like crazing in the older mugs--- I think it gives them character.
Modern glazes might be more durable than those from the past.

Not sure if you're needing to wash 60 after a party or just wanting to shine up your collection. But if the latter is the case, here's what I do to keep the task from becoming too daunting. Clean and polish only one mug per day until the cycle is complete.

Why wash them at all?? If you put enough alcohol in your drinks it will kill all the bacteria

Dishwasher detergent contains alkalais which will chemically react to some of the components of the glaze, namely the ones which color it, if the glaze is not formulated properly. Many factors which you have no way of determining include, is there enough silica?, was it fired to the proper temperature (matured), is the glaze overloaded with metal( copper, iron, etc.)

It is sad that most commercial ceramics producers rarely pay attention to these things. I would treat all ceramics as dishwasher safe, unless it holds some value to you. You never know how durable the glaze is. Also keep citrus away from your mugs. Lemon will turn a nice green mug into a lemon wedge- shaped, colorless spot if the manufacturer didn't formulate or fire the glaze properly.
My mugs are dishwasher safe. (except the gold ones!)

THis is an interesting discussion I have started. So far, opinion is divided. But how did the restaurants wash their mugs? Surely not all by hand?

I was asking because I just packed them all to move, and noticed they are all verrry dusty. When I unpack them at the new home (aka the saucer house) I would like to have them all sparkly clean.

Maybe it's "Lailanis in the washer, Munktikis in the sink!"

tikifish wrote:
THis is an interesting discussion I have started. So far, opinion is divided. But how did the restaurants wash their mugs? Surely not all by hand?

Actually TikiFish, alot of bars do wash by hand! There are Sani-tubs and sanitizing detergents in the bar industry for hand washing right at the bar and in the kitchen area. If you ever see the hand washing system, it looks like a bunch of hand washing bottle brushes mounted upside down on a board. You take the mug and invert it onto a "brush", give a few good twists, and then dip & rinse in the clean-water basin.

There are also high-powered, high efficiency dish washers for the hotel & bar industry that can actually do a whole load of glasses in less than three minutes! Alot of them are in high use in Las Vegas.

Just FYI and my 2 coconuts worth!

On 2003-05-27 06:33, tikifish wrote:
But how did the restaurants wash their mugs? Surely not all by hand?

Even if they did wash the mugs in a machine, the restaurants had to constantly buy new mugs anyway, and wouldn't have considered them beloved collectibles like we do.

I'd spend the hour hand-washing.

I'm with Futura Girl on this one, rinsing them in the dishwasher should be fine. Don't most dishwashers have temperature controls, so you don't have to risk crazing with the extreme heat and I wouldn't ever trust the harsh detergents with something that was important to me.

When I first began collecting mugs, there was plant dirt, cigarette butts, bugs and insects, and I felt hand washing was not going to get all that crud out, so I stuck everything in the dishwasher. Welllllll, what I learned was, if it has been "cold-painted" like the old Bali Hai mugs, you get a clean mug but it has no eyes or lips. Or a Fu Manchu mug has no fu or manchu left. So I stick the solid-colored ones in the dishwasher and hand wash all the cold painted ones in cold water.

By the way, I found the answer to "What is the difference between a cup and a mug?" A cup always has a saucer, but a mug is put directly on the table. Courtesy of Barbara Conroy, author of "Restaurant China".

On 2003-05-27 22:53, tigertlily wrote:
Or a Fu Manchu mug has no fu or manchu left.

Sorry for the frivolous post, but I just thought that sentence was really, really funny for some reason.

-martin

I have no fu!

I'd like to propose 'Fu' to mean some sort of feminine attractive power, and 'Manchu' is the masculine attractive power. As in "I didn't really want to sleep with that girl, but her Fu was too powerful". Or, "That Gorilla X has some serrrrrious Manchu!".

It just seems to fit, for some reason... just like '"Zazz" HAD to mean cool. It was just too Zazz not to be!

As for my dusty mugs, I still haven't unpacked them. I don't have any real handy shelves put up in the saucer house that will display them yet, so not sure whether or not to unwrap them. The debate of whether or not to make the world's smallest tiki room or not out of the computer room is still ongoing... I would like to, but in all fairness it IS the room my husband will be spending most of his time in working on the computer, and he may want to put up some of his stuff too. The clash of techno geek decor vs. tiki decor may be too much for 6.5 feet by 6.5 feet to handle.

Surely hand-washing a few mugs isn't such a hardship? Just get the gloves on, dip the mugs in the warm, soapy water and caress them clean. Mmmmm, just feel those smooth contours....pay special attention to the rim......splash....whoops!

Trader Woody

I like gadgets, so I had to try it($10 at most grocery stores).
Use with discretion. I won't use it on the outside, but excellent on using for the deep/tall mugs.

http://www.homemadesimple.com/dawn/dish_brush.shtml

Martiki-I also giggled at the "no fu or manchu left"-Tigerlily,welcome,and keep those gems a comin'!

Don't know anything about detergent, or the effects it will have on tiki mugs, but I do know this: You take a chance of the mugs shifting in a dishwasher and chipping....so don't take the chance.
http://www.bartiki.com

Haven't you sat at a bar watching the bartender wash glasses and mugs" They have a sink setup with a Brush sticking up. dip in soapy water,,, up and dpwn on the brush, dunk in the rinse water a couple times and back to the glass storage bin. They all do it.

On 2004-07-12 18:33, Benzart wrote:
have a sink setup with a Brush sticking up. dip in soapy water,,, up and dpwn on the brush, dunk in the rinse water a couple times and back to the glass storage bin. They all do it.

When I worked at Round Table Pizza (in high school), we had three sinks behind the bar:

1. hot soapy water with the brushes sticking up (clean)
2. cold water with a little bleach (sterilize)
3. warm clear water (rinse)

That's what I did in between serving pitchers of Bud to drunken Lomita white trash. :roll:

What about washing "Peanut" style mugs such as the PMP, since there's no glaze on a considerable portion of the mug? What success have others had with dishwasher or hand-washing?

I've never washed a bisque finish mug, only wiped them with a damp cloth, but I've never used any for drinks. I'd say avoid harsh detergents and all soaps, stick to mild detergents & use a bottle brush for the inside, a cloth for the outside.