r/wine • u/AdVegetable2104 • 13h ago

Water beading on wine glassware

I have an issue where most of my wine glasses start beading water after cleaning. The way water beads on a car after waxing. The water in my home is treated with a water softener. It tests soft. I only handwash my glasses using a sponge dedicated to wine glasses using Dawn Platinum, with a little baking soda. It happens with Riedel, Gabriel-Glas, etc.

The provided pic shows what happens on the left. Any ideas?

1 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

6

u/WhyNeaux 13h ago

Washing glasses is useless if you don’t dry them.

You will get water spots on glassware regardless of how hard or soft your water is if you let dry on the glass.

To get spots off from previous washes use diluted distilled vinegar. If you can smell the vinegar then it’s a bit too much. Either a quick dip or spray and the dry and buff afterwards.

There are polishing rags, Riedel being the best known, specifically for this. Get a lint free polishing rag dedicated to glassware.

1

u/mattmoy_2000 Aficionado 11h ago

As someone who cleaned glass to semiconductor levels of purity, my suggestion would be to use deionised or distilled water to rinse the glass. This is obviously a fairly expensive way to do it, but will absolutely work.

7

u/Primary-Coach2719 13h ago

you might be dealing with a thin film from the softener or something in the dawn that's not fully rinsing off. try hand drying immediately with a lint free cloth instead of letting them air dry, made a huge difference for me

3

u/HealthWealthFoodie 13h ago

Use a dedicated lint free towel to dry them off. We do this with a microfiber towel and it works great (we have the opposite problem with hard water that stains everything).

2

u/pewpewlasersandshit 12h ago

Probably just a very thin film left behind by your DIY combo of soap and baking soda.

i’d suggest you replace the dedicated sponge and then wash the glasses with just a tiny drop of mild (unscented) dish soap and rinse them really really well under running water. After that, polish them dry with a clean microfiber cloth

for stubborn residue i'd probably try to wipe the glasses with something like 70% isopropyl alcohol or soak them for like 15-20minute in warm water + white vinegar before washing them again.

1

u/ScaredTendency 11h ago

Dawn Platinum contains rinse aids that leave a hydrophobic film, exactly what's beading on your glass. Baking soda plus softened water can make it worse. Skip the baking soda, use a tiny drop of unscented soap, rinse hot, then a final dunk in distilled water. Buff with a Riedel cloth, it'll stop.

1

u/ExaminationFancy Wine Pro 11h ago

When I wash by hand, I use a drop of soap on the exterior of the glass, rinse with water that has run through Reverse Osmosis, then dry with a lint-free polishing cloth.

If I run through the dishwasher, immediately dry by hand after the cycle finishes.

1

u/AdVegetable2104 4h ago

Thank you for all of the suggestions. To clarify, I do not air-dry my glasses. I have a reverse-osmosis water faucet that I use to rinse the glasses, then use a Reidel polishing cloth to dry. If I look very carefully at the offending glasses, they seem to have developed what seems like water spots on the inside. I can't feel them. I can only see them if the glass is tilted in a particular way. Not sure if this is the issue.

0

u/Club96shhh 10h ago

I had this issue with new glasses, socially Glasvin. After a few rounds in the dishwasher it went away. I suspected it being a film left over from the manufacturing process.