In a New Jersey summer, and between the pool and the ocean, there’s plenty of swimming to be done. But can you get your jewelry wet? The answer depends on a few things, namely, what your jewelry is made out of and what kind of water will be coming in contact with your jewelry (sweat, fresh, salt, or chlorinated). Read on to find out if your jewelry can’t or shouldn’t be worn in the water so you avoid damaging your precious jewelry. If your jewelry does suffer any damage, bring it on in to our Denville NJ jewelry store’s showroom and we can take a look to see how to repair it.
Above all, you might consider the worth/value of your jewelry when asking yourself if it’s ok to get your jewelry wet. Regardless of whether or not a hot shower or a dip in the pool would affect your jewelry, you should consider whether or not risking the jewelry falling or slipping off is worth it. If you’re comfortable with the idea that your ring may slip off (and you may or may not lose it) then you can read on, but if it’s too valuable (a family heirloom or some piece of jewelry with personal significance), then we recommend you take it off before you are exposed to water.
Showering/Bathing with Jewelry
Generally, it is ok to shower with your jewelry. If your jewelry is gold, silver, platinum, palladium, stainless steel, or titanium, you’re safe to shower with it. Other metals like copper, brass, bronze, or other base metals shouldn’t go in the shower as they can turn your skin green.
Tap water rarely, if ever, has harsh enough chemicals in it that would react with your jewelry. That being said, if you take a bath, submerging your jewelry may not be the best thing for it, so try not to do that. But taking a regular shower or getting some tap water and soap on your jewelry is fine.
Water does oxidize silver, but it happens over a long period of time, and normal aging of your silver jewelry will cause it to darken anyway so at best you can simply clean your jewelry yourself, at worst you can have it professionally cleaned.
Also consider if your jewelry has any crevices, mechanical parts and/or gems. Jewelry with these kinds of features should probably avoid water. Trapped water in crevices and mechanical parts can damage your jewelry and not all gems react well with water, in fact, some are porous so water can damage them fairly easily. But fresh water is one thing, chlorinated and salt water is another.
Swimming with Jewelry
Swimming with jewelry is much different that showering or bathing. When swimming, your jewelry is not only coming into contact with more water more often, but there are other chemicals in the water, namely chlorine and salt, that interact with your jewelry far more dramatically than fresh water (and soap) alone.
In the Pool
When swimming in the pool (or hot tub) you’re exposing your jewelry to chlorinated water and chlorine tends to react negatively with a lot of jewelry. Especially avoid swimming in chlorinated water if you’re wearing silver as this will damage your jewelry. Other metals could potentially dissolve and otherwise get damaged from too much chlorine and certain gems may get damaged from the chlorine in pool water. If you’re jewelry comes into contact with chlorinated water, don’t worry; a few contacts with chlorinated water is likely not enough to do any real damage. Just rinse off your jewelry with fresh water and should be OK.
In the Ocean
Salt water is different still from fresh water and pool water. Pool water is harsher for jewelry for than salt water, but salt water is still corrosive. Plus, if you drop your ring in the pool, you can swim down and retrieve it – if you lose your ring in the ocean, it will be much harder to retrieve your ring. Also, shiny jewelry might attract some unwanted sea creatures, so we recommend taking your jewelry off before swimming in the ocean.
Additional Things to Consider
Other sources of water, such as rain and sweat, can have an effect on your jewelry, but nothing significant that would make us urge you to take off your jewelry before it rains or before you sweat. In any case, be sure to take care of your ring, keep it dry when possible, but don’t be afraid to shower with it or take a dip in the pool with it on. If you do need it cleaned, we’re always here to help.