I need a good wine glass cleaner

Besides the good old fashioned bottle brush, give your best recs. I’m tired of washing them by hand every week.

I’m going to answer a different question :wink:

I switched to these a few years ago and haven’t look back for everyday use. Tossing nice crystal in the dishwasher has been wonderful.

Run a seperate cycle for your glasses. Extra hot.

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Lye (sodium hydroxide) solution soak overnight followed by a citric acid rinse works like a charm. But I basically never need that for the stems since we got our new Miele dishwasher. They go in the dishwasher every night. Lye still works great for decanters however.

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Best thing I’ve ever found for cleaning wine glasses:

https://www.mieleusa.com/product/12497130/built-under-dishwashers-g-7216-scu-cleansteel-front

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Submerge all your glasses completely in a tub of hot water and throw in one dishwasher pod. After a few hours, rinse and remove. The same method removes coffee and tea stains from mugs.

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Sodium percarbonate

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Any good alkaline cleaner will get the job done. Lye and sodium percarbonate as already mentioned are both up for the job. Sodium percarbonate has the benefit of being a strong oxidizer and so lifts material more effectively. I use Cafiza to clean my espresso machine, and when my wine glasses need a little extra love, a Cafiza soak works for them, too. It’s primarily sodium percarbonate.

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A dishwasher with the right racks

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Not exactly what you were asking but I found this polisher amusing:

An honest question for everyone here- what is going on that you need anything other than a rinse to clean your wine glasses? For me, a good long rinse with hot tap water followed by wiping dry with a lint-free polishing cloth is sufficient almost all of the time. And it’s the best option.

I guess the dishwasher is fine, but I don’t like the idea of exposing stemware to scented detergent or soaps. Even if you’re running a separate cycle without added detergent for your glasses, the porous rubber seals, plastic parts, nasty food trap at the bottom all ensure that the dishwasher is going to retain residual aromas. How much is going to carry over to the glass? Who knows, but why risk it if you don’t have to? Plus, at least for me, the dishwasher carries a much higher risk of breakage.

Also, @ Andrew_K mentioned lye. I would strongly recommend against this. As someone who has worked in chemistry research labs, is a former chemistry teacher, and home soap-making tinkerer, I can say from experience that lye is dangerous stuff. One moment of carelessness and you can give yourself a serious chemical burn. Also, lye will slowly but surely etch glass rendering it cloudy and eventually weakening its structural integrity. In the case of occasionally rinsing out wine glasses with a lye solution, the etching will probably take years, but still- why slowly damage your glasses and risk chemical burns unnecessarily?

In the case of fingerprints, lipstick, and the like, hot water and two or three polishes from a towel before moving on to the polishing cloth is sufficient. No detergent aromas, no potential for carryover dishwasher smells, no water spots, lower risk of breakage, no chemical burns.

btw, Andre Mack agrees (although my glasses don’t require the weird paintbrush maneuver):

Good dishwashers have much less risk of breakage than hand washing. Ours had no scent and no residue.

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“Best option” in what sense?

I’m using unscented detergent for anything (hand wash or dishwasher) and my glasses come out super clean, don’t smell of anything, and it’s much safer than handwashing.

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do we think samsung dishwashers are good enough or only more of the miele level? I just got some grassl 1855s but haven’t put them in dishwasher yet,

Idk, never used a Samsung dishwasher, but the bottom rack in the Miele is perfect

Just use your dishwasher. It’s easier, safer for your glasses and better. I doubt many are hand washing every time. You don’t need a fancy dishwasher either.

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We recently got a new dishwasher, so I did quite a bit of research. In terms of cleaning, they’re basically all the same. The main difference is the racks, finding one that fits the stems securely is a bit of a challenge, but there are also third party attachments you can buy…

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The Miele is great, but I suspect 95% of the reason it’s great for wine glasses is the racking, not the rest of the dishwasher. I would think that just about any dishwasher would be fine as long as it has racks that keep the glasses stable, and you don’t have any water or detergent issues.

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I have no experience with Samsung but my KitchenAid does an excelent job cleaning everything. I put wine glass on the bottom rack, even with mixed load of other dirty dishes and stuff the glasses come out sparkling clean with no odor that I can smell.

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why have i always been under the impression that using the dishwasher is bad for wine glasses? Something I’ve always ‘known’ but never questioned. Something I’m missing?