Cleaning Zalto glass with metal pellets

I recently bought a Zalto decanter along with the Riedel metal pellets to clean it. I usually clean my Zalto glasses by hand, despite advice to clean them in my dishwasher because I have an awful dishwasher. A friend of mine recently cleaned my glasses by hand, and broke one of them. So I’m a bit worried about cleaning them.

Would it be better to clean them with the metal pellets? Or do I need to buy some sort of dishwasher insert?

First post here!

I doubt the pellets will eliminate the risk of breakage. You still have to dry them.

Either find a dishwasher solution or have someone more gentle than your friend wash them. Don’t do it at the end of an evening of consumption (rinse and leave until the next day), and no torquing the stems. I’ve hand washed many without incident.

And welcome to Berserkers!

Welcome to WB. I have cleaned Zaltos by hand hundreds of times same in dishwasher and have broken 1. They are sturdier than they feel. I have never used the metal bead products but I thought they were designed for decanters where you have little or no access. I just don’t see how they would get a class clean enough on the inside and outside.

George

If you rinse a decanter several times before wine dries in it, you don’t have any issues keeping it clean. I don’t use any soap except on the outside.

this. ive always wondered why things like the beads were needed in the first place. I just rinse my decanter thoroughly right after use and hang upside down to dry and never have an issue.

I clean Zaltos by hand and have never been worried about breaking them … I use a Wine Enthusiast brand brush and grasp the bowl between my middle and ring fingers (so it’s basically like center palm) while cleaning it so I never twist the stem.

Metal and crystal just doesn’t seem to go together. I wash my glasses and decanters all the time. If they get a little discolored, use some bleach. It’s probably not a good idea to clean after you’ve killed a few bottles of wine, so if you’re not washing the glasses, rinse and leave some water in the glasses. But I don’t like waking up to dirty dishes in the sink so usually wash before going to bed.

And the more expensive glasses will break. That’s intentional.

Anyhow, welcome!

Add a large hand full of ice cubes. Pour a couple tablespoons of salt in. Swirl the mixture. Salt will act as a scouring material

If you really want to avoid spots, rinse it with demineralized or distilled water after this.

I usually clean them by hand and have had only very very few broken glasses over several years. It helps to have a zen-like approach to it and use your hands very gently. I wouldn’t give them to a friend or anybody, in fact, to wash them: very few people are used to such a thin glass.

I do that also.

Aldo Sohm on polishing a wine glass: How to polish a Zalto glass - YouTube
Never ever twist the stem, you’ll break their necks.

Drop a denture cleanser tablet in there with warm water.

You can get some crusting – sediment that adheres to the decanter. As Alan says, that’s not generally a problem if you rinse promptly, but I find it on decanters where I leave some wine overnight in the fridge. I can see the metal pellets for a decanter for that reason, but I’ve never seen that kind of build-up in a glass, so I can’t see using them on glasses.

For decanters, at the suggestion of someone here some years ago, I used denture tablets. They work very well for film that doesn’t wash off.

Sadly, in a moment of Absentmindedness I broke a GGG stem today.

I just need to be mindful with Zalto while cleaning and polishing. I broke one while drying three years ago because I was in a conversation, and had a winemaker snap one while I was out of the room. He bought me a new one! The only breakage since was while packed in their boxes, in another box in the back of my wagon. Three of them in shambles. WTF? I use them every day for tasting and wash 3 - 5 times. I have not tried the dishwasher because I don’t have glass rack.

I have washed by hand for years. The only breakage came from a guest helping and they twisted the stem.

I haven’t had any breakage from washing or usage, but without fail whenever I moved (three apartments over the past five years) I always break at least one Zalto