How To Care For Your Engagement Ring After The Proposal

One of the top questions that we get from our recently engaged customers is when and how they should be cleaning their diamond rings. Soaps and creams used daily will build up a residue on diamonds and keeps them from shining. That's why it's important to clean your ring often if you want it looking great all the time.

At home, clean your ring once a week with a soft toothbrush and a jewelry cleaning solution. If you are a Long's customer, you can stop into any of our five retail locations for a courtesy cleaning plus you can purchase home cleaning solution.

Periodically, you'll want to bring your ring to a jeweler so that they can use professional cleaning tools. Just like with your dentist, they can do a much more thorough job than you will be able to do with an everyday toothbrush. A professional ultrasonic bath and a steam cleaning will make your diamond shine like the first day you got it!

Know when to take off your ring

There are certain situations where you should consider taking off your ring in order to protect it from harm or danger. To read the full list that we've created, click here.

Some situations, like showering or doing dishes, could potentially cause your ring to slip off your finger (we've actually heard of this happening many times). The water and soap being used for both activities causes slippery hands and makes it possible for your ring to come off unexpectedly.

Situations like the gym are also troublesome because you could potentially damage your diamond when using weights, or your ring could fall off your finger if you are working out vigorously.

Get the prongs checked once per month

This is something that people often overlook when they think about maintaining their ring over time. But, as you wear your ring, the prongs that hold the diamond in place can sometimes get loose or weaken over time. This is especially true for metals that aren't as durable as platinum. Metals like white or yellow gold may cause the prongs to get weaker over time because they are not as structurally strong and durable.

Many jewelers will allow you to come in and get your prongs checked at any point. For any Long's customer, we would always check their ring prongs whenever they came into a store to make sure that the diamond was still safe and secure to prevent any future problems.

Maintenance repairs are sometimes needed

At times, you'll want your ring to look new again. Normal wear and tear will start to show with time, such as scratches in the metal. This is very normal! When you feel like you are at a point where it's time to do some maintenance or repairs to your ring, you'll want to stop by your local jeweler.

There is going to be a small amount of work involved with the maintenance. For instance, you could get your ring re-polished to bring it back to its original shine. This will have your ring looking shiny and new like the day you got engaged.

Some other maintenance repairs you could get done in the future include:

• Re-tipping the prongs to ensure your diamond is totally secure
• Replacing any lost accent stones
• If the ring is white gold, rhodium plating the ring again to bring it back to bright white

Get the ring insured

Diamonds and engagement rings are both a financial and sentimental investment. Often times, it's one of the biggest first purchases made by any young couple. It's very important that you consider getting your ring insured to protect it in case of damage, loss, or theft. We always make sure that people are aware of some of moments where it would be safer to take off their engagement rings, but this doesn't always protect the ring from the unexpected. Trust us, we've seen it all!

We strongly recommend having your ring appraised every 5 to 10 years to ensure that your insurance appraisal is up to date and reflects the value of replacing your ring.

Choosing where you get your engagement ring appraised is also very important. At Long's Jewelers, we offer insurance appraisals by Certified Gemologists, which means all major insurance companies will uniformly accept your appraisal. The price that you pay for an appraisal will depend upon the number of items being appraised. If you think are ready to visit a store, take a look at our appraisals dates in the upcoming month.