How to Clean Silver Plated Items

Learning how to clean silver plated items properly can keep your treasures looking their best. Some polishing techniques used on solid silver like flatware or jewelry can damage silver plated items, which have only a thin layer of silver electroplated over another metal.

Use Warm Water

When washing silver plated items like tableware after use, wash in warm water, not hot. Hot water can remove some of the laquered finish. Dilute dish soap in a sink full of warm water before adding the silver plated items to avoid dark spots from concentrated dish detergent

Avoid Abrasives

Abrasive materials like baking soda scour off the tarnish, but take some of the silver plating along with it. Soft polishing cloths are gentler on silver plate, but even those may wear down the plating eventually, and do not reach into intricately etched designs.

Use Electrolysis Cleaning for Gentle Silver Plate Care

Instead of removing the black silver sulfide tarnish, electrolysis reverses the chemical reaction, leaving the silver intact. To clean silver plated items through electrolysis, place the silver plated items in a glass bowl lined with aluminum foil and filled with enough water to completely submerge the silver. Use boiling water for non-laquered items and warm water for pieces with a laquered finish. Add 1 tablespoon of baking soda for each quart of water and let sit for 10 minutes while chemistry draws the sulfur off the silver and onto the aluminum. The chemical reaction takes longer in cooler water.

Use fresh water and foil for each batch of silver plated items to be cleaned. Electrolysis cleaning should not be used on hollow pieces or silver plated items joined with epoxy or other adhesives.