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My port related birthday present this year! It consists of small metal ball bearings that you swirl round the bottom of a decanter in water to clean it. They say 2 minutes is all that is required. Anyone tried them?

Never tried them myself, but have heard mixed reviews on those that have. Some love them and others think they are a waste of time. If my decanter gets that bad, a little bleach and water to soak, then rinse out really good. Works great and no little bearings to mess with.

I have tried them, on an old and very stained decanter. They do work, but it takes time.

Commercial brick cleaner (available from builder's merchants) will remove limescale, and bleach will take the colour out of stains; but in both cases, repeated rinsing is needed afterwards.

The best substance for cleaning glass is concentrated Nitric acid, but you will need to find someone with access to a laboratory, and, needless to say, great care and thorough rinsing is necessary.

Tom

If you only want to afford some cents/pence: Heat some vinegar, put it into the decanter, add 2 envelopes of backing powder, soak it, pour it except some rest, add a soup spoon of (dry) rice, shake it- and smile.

Michael

I use the same Riedel bottle cleaning ball bearings and find them very useful for the occasional use. I tend to use just one decanter, between bottles of port I simply rinse well with clean water and then leave it on a decanter drainer to dry off. Probably 2-3 times per year I decide that a more thorough clean is required and I will put a couple of drops of washing up liquid in with the rinsing water and drop the Riedel balls in there as well. A few minutes of swirling and shaking seems to get off all the stains that build up very slowly.

In the past, I have also tried using Steradent. This works, but does not get rid of the real stubborn stains.

The quickest cleaning solution I have ever used is a bent bottle brush, but this doesn't go into the edges of the decanter as consistently as the ball bearings.

Hey Ben,

I do like them as well, but think that a combination of the cleaning methods will provide the best results.

Axel