Poll: Poll: Do you store glasses and mugs rim down or rim up?
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Soldato
Rim down, but only so I can place more mugs on top of them, which would be rim up.
Soldato
Man of Honour
Went into a restaurant yesterday and in the evening two pubs. Went into another pub today and all have rims down so I'm guessing the trade know what they're doing.
We also have rims down except on our mug tree.
We also have rims down except on our mug tree.
A lot of cafes and pubs store them upside down because they have mesh on shelves, they go through glasses so quickly that often they may not be 100% dry so any residual moisture will drain out. Additionally they tend not to be stored in cupboards (hence you can see them) so dust may potentially be an issue. Other situations in which they are stored upside down is when they are speciality glasses that are not often used, many pubs have glasses reserved for certain types of drink which will be stored upside down as they may remain unused for some time.
Man of Honour
The situation is different, though. Any place that serves food and/or drink should operate differently to a home and they will be operating on a different scale.
Take my workplace, for example. We have hundreds of glasses for the two bars. I'd guess about 500. Every shelf is sterilised weekly, and I mean sterilised. Not just cleaned. It takes ages. Bummer of a job. Every shelf is covered in hard plastic wide mesh spacers, so no glass touches a shelf. Stored rim down, only a tiny proportion of the glass is touching the hard plastic surface of a spacer - every other part is in air. The mesh spacers are sterilised weekly too. Every glass is also sterilised before being put away. Although they should air dry very quickly because of the heat, the rapid turnover on some types of glassware does mean that a glass might not be completely dry. The shelves are open to the air. Keeping them in a cupboard would be wildly impractical on a bar scale.
In that context, rim down makes a lot of sense. But it's a completely different context to glasses washed (and maybe not sterilised) at home, on a shelf in a cupboard. What's right in one context isn't necessarily right in another context.
lol you can't even give a normal reply to a normal thread without given a scientific method, wow just wow.
Associate
I have been thinking about this from the technical performance of the glass and container itself, and on balance think rims up for domestic, and rims down for catering, but it is not black and white as different glasses have different performance and durability characteristics (and are designed for different use). To answer this fully need a huge amount of writing, - which I will avoid, so apologies if my assessment below is limited.
1. There is usually a chemical and design difference between domestic glassware and catering / food service glassware
2. There are different types of finish to the rim.
3. There are chemically different types of domestic and catering glass.
Catering / food service glasses will often either contain more alumina than domestic glasses, making them harder and more scratch resistant / dishwasher durable. Scratches are the enemy of glass durability (assuming it has been tempered or annealed correctly). Some catering glasses, especially pint pots (by law) are also toughened, which makes them 4 to 6 times more resistant to failure. Catering glasses are also designed / shaped to be more resistant to failure, so the comparison of whether catering and domestic glasses should be stored rim up or down is actually not really relevant - not generally comparing like with like. Catering glasses are also designed for different use and environment, hence often thicker in section etc.
Rims - typically there are 2 types of rim, 'beaded', where the rim is effectively 'melted' to polish it, and 'cracked off', when the rim is basically, scratched and broken off before polishing on a wheel, (posher glass). Cracked off is more vulnerable to chipping and should always be stored rim up. Beaded (if done right) will be tougher, but is still no comparison to the strength of the base, so I would again still store rim up. If heat treated badly then storing down could result in annealing failure, where the whole rim could become detached from the rest of the glass, though this is just as likely to occur during washing etc.
Types of glass - You get soda glass, which is your general glass, crystal, which contains lead, or barium, and borosilicate, which is your 'chemistry' glass. Borosilicate is chemically the strongest and most resistant (of these 3 glasses), but rarely used in domestic bar-ware etc. crystal is very soft, easy to chip, easy to chemically attack (bloom) and usually has cracked off / polished rims. therefore crystal MUST always be stored rims up (and never dishwashed). Soda is your general glass. Basically soda is added to the silicon network to soften the glass, making it easier to work, and lowering its melting point, reducing production costs. Cheaper soda is beaded on the rim, and has more soda added to further reduce costs, but makes the glass less durable, (catering soda has alumina added to strengthen it). Thus technically some soda glasses will be fine to store on rims and others wont. therefore unless an expert, or not caring, I would store domestic soda glasses rims up. Catering is often stored rims down as, they are designed for it, are stronger and it allows them to dry and stay clean in a commercial and dirty environment.
As a by, the dishwasher can be used as a 'quality test'. Domestic glasses should never be washed in a dishwasher as the alkaline nature of the washer attacks and etches the surface of the glass over time. The speed of this clouding of 'blooming' of the glass can be used to determine the relative soda content of the glass, and hence quality of material. The higher alumina content of catering wear protects against this.
1. There is usually a chemical and design difference between domestic glassware and catering / food service glassware
2. There are different types of finish to the rim.
3. There are chemically different types of domestic and catering glass.
Catering / food service glasses will often either contain more alumina than domestic glasses, making them harder and more scratch resistant / dishwasher durable. Scratches are the enemy of glass durability (assuming it has been tempered or annealed correctly). Some catering glasses, especially pint pots (by law) are also toughened, which makes them 4 to 6 times more resistant to failure. Catering glasses are also designed / shaped to be more resistant to failure, so the comparison of whether catering and domestic glasses should be stored rim up or down is actually not really relevant - not generally comparing like with like. Catering glasses are also designed for different use and environment, hence often thicker in section etc.
Rims - typically there are 2 types of rim, 'beaded', where the rim is effectively 'melted' to polish it, and 'cracked off', when the rim is basically, scratched and broken off before polishing on a wheel, (posher glass). Cracked off is more vulnerable to chipping and should always be stored rim up. Beaded (if done right) will be tougher, but is still no comparison to the strength of the base, so I would again still store rim up. If heat treated badly then storing down could result in annealing failure, where the whole rim could become detached from the rest of the glass, though this is just as likely to occur during washing etc.
Types of glass - You get soda glass, which is your general glass, crystal, which contains lead, or barium, and borosilicate, which is your 'chemistry' glass. Borosilicate is chemically the strongest and most resistant (of these 3 glasses), but rarely used in domestic bar-ware etc. crystal is very soft, easy to chip, easy to chemically attack (bloom) and usually has cracked off / polished rims. therefore crystal MUST always be stored rims up (and never dishwashed). Soda is your general glass. Basically soda is added to the silicon network to soften the glass, making it easier to work, and lowering its melting point, reducing production costs. Cheaper soda is beaded on the rim, and has more soda added to further reduce costs, but makes the glass less durable, (catering soda has alumina added to strengthen it). Thus technically some soda glasses will be fine to store on rims and others wont. therefore unless an expert, or not caring, I would store domestic soda glasses rims up. Catering is often stored rims down as, they are designed for it, are stronger and it allows them to dry and stay clean in a commercial and dirty environment.
As a by, the dishwasher can be used as a 'quality test'. Domestic glasses should never be washed in a dishwasher as the alkaline nature of the washer attacks and etches the surface of the glass over time. The speed of this clouding of 'blooming' of the glass can be used to determine the relative soda content of the glass, and hence quality of material. The higher alumina content of catering wear protects against this.
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Neither - I avoid the obvious hazards involved in storing anything in the aforementioned rim up/down fashion by 3d printing a clean drinking vessel every time I need one. I'll never understand why so many people still live like savages.
Man of Honour
If words and thought are so offensive to you, ignore me.
Or carry on making yourself look silly.
Your choice.
See how I broke it up into very short sentences for you? Were they short enough for you to read them?
Give this some thought. You think I'm excessively competent with English. So why do you think it's a good idea to pick a war of words with me? If you're trolling me with your semiliterate replies, it's a rather minor trolling. Writing a few sentences in reply isn't a big deal for me.
I insist that my guests inspect the rim before putting their mouth on it. To date, nobody has complained. I think the boiling water probably kills anything alive in there anyhow.
In any case, there's the argument that you shouldn't deny your immune system any kind of challenge. Nobody is going to get sick from sucking on a dusty rim.
In any case, there's the argument that you shouldn't deny your immune system any kind of challenge. Nobody is going to get sick from sucking on a dusty rim.
That sounds like prison talk!
Man of Honour
I think that's a common misunderstanding of the hygeine hypothesis, which is essentially the idea that reduced exposure to germs in early childhood is a possible cause of an increase in allergies.
I agree with that...
Soldato
On drying rack - rim down
In cupboard - rim up
In Red Dwarf - Rimmer
In cupboard - rim up
In Red Dwarf - Rimmer
Man of Honour
With the emphasis on rim, like a toilet cleaner.
That was top quality humour. I think Queeg is probably the funniest program I've ever seen on TV.