How to clean gold with ammonia?

Each of us has our favorite gold jewelry. But unfortunately, over time, gold jewelry begins to fade and lose its primary attractive appearance. If you notice that your jewelry has begun to lose its radiance and beauty, do not be upset, because gold jewelry is easy enough to clean.

The most effective method for cleaning gold jewelry is ammonia. The most important thing is to properly prepare a cleaning solution that will return your jewelry to its original appearance.

There are a number of advantages to cleaning gold jewelry with ammonia:

• Accessibility - the ammonia well-known to all of us can be easily bought at any nearby pharmacy, and for many people it can always be found at hand in a home medicine cabinet;
• Low price - ammonia is very affordable;
• Simplicity and speed of the cleaning procedure;
• Using different versions of liquid ammonia solution recipes, it will be possible to clean even those products that contain some types of precious stones;
• Pristine perfect appearance and beautiful shine after cleaning;
• This cleaning method is completely safe.

Of course, this cleaning method has certain disadvantages:

• Unpleasant smell - ammonia has a rather sharp specific smell, to which some people may have a very acute reaction;
• The smell of ammonia can remain for some time on gold items that have been cleaned. But within a couple of days the smell will disappear without a trace;
• Hard-to-reach areas of jewelry will have to be cleaned by mechanical methods, which is almost impossible to do at home;
• This method should not be used for products with a matte finish, since ammonia can damage it;
• If your jewelry also contains precious stones, it is best to refer these products for cleaning to the master, since solutions containing ammonia can damage some types of stones.

There are many different recipes with ammonia for cleaning gold. However, before proceeding with their preparation, it is advisable to follow a simple recommendation that is common to all cases and cleaning methods. Initially, the product should be washed in water with the addition of a soap solution. Thereby you eliminate dirt and dust adhering to the outside of the product.

There are several ways to clean gold items:

1. The easiest way to clean gold is to use ammonia in its purest form. It must be applied to a cotton sponge and wipe the product, you can also use cotton buds for this procedure. At the end of cleaning, the jewelry should be washed under water.
2. Another fairly gentle method for light pollution is a solution of water and ammonia - 1 tablespoon of ammonia must be used for 1 glass of water. Decorations must be left in this product for half an hour, and then rinsed under running water.
3. Also, a solution that includes ammonia, pure water and washing powder is considered to be a safe and careful option for gold purification (you can use baby powder, since it is not aggressive, it does not have all kinds of flavors and other components we do not need).

The recipe is very simple - you need to take one teaspoon of ammonia, one tablespoon of washing powder, one glass of water. Mix all the ingredients well. It is necessary that the washing powder is completely dissolved in water. The resulting solution will be especially effective for the first half hour, until ammonia has evaporated. With this tool, you can clean yellow gold items that may contain precious stones. The solution copes with obsolete greasy contaminations.

25-35 ml of peroxide, one teaspoon of ammonia and half a teaspoon of liquid soap are dissolved in one glass of pure water. The resulting product should stand for a quarter of an hour. This recipe is not advisable for cleaning jewelry if they contain semiprecious stones, since hydrogen peroxide can adversely affect their condition - stones can tarnish.

Any jewelry should be cleaned very carefully so as not to spoil its beautiful appearance. Which cleaning solution is best to use will depend on the type of gold.

So, for yellow and red gold, you can use solutions that include ammonia. And the concentration of ammonia in the cleaning product should match the sample of the precious metal. For yellow gold, the following ratios must be used:

• 375 sample - up to 17% alcohol;
• 585 sample - up to 30% alcohol;
• 750 sample - up to 50% alcohol.

For red (pink, orange) gold:

• 375 sample - up to 15% alcohol;
• 595 sample - up to 13% alcohol;
• 750 sample - up to 5% alcohol.

For other types of gold (green, white, etc.), the use of solutions containing alcohol is completely undesirable. Also, self-cleaning at home is not advisable for jewelry containing precious stones. But if you still made the decision to clean the gold item decorated with stones yourself, replace ammonia with ammonia solution - it is not so dangerous, has a lower concentration, so it will not spoil the color of the stone and its faceting.

To prepare the solution, take six parts of water and one part of ammonia, it is also necessary to add a little detergent. The jewelry should be kept in the prepared solution for 15 to 20 minutes, during this time ammonia will cope with the impurities on the jewelry, but will not cause them any harm.

As you can see, it is very easy to clean gold jewelry at home with ammonia, the main thing is to properly prepare the cleaning solution. However, gold is a very capricious metal, sometimes it is quite difficult to remove pollution from its surface. And if you were not able to clean the gold product at home the first time, in such situations it is better to take the product to a jewelry workshop. A professional will cope with this task very quickly and efficiently, and your jewelry will please you for many, many years to come.

See even more ways to clean gold.