The Effect of Water on Hand-Washed Glasses: The Need for the Three Sink System

It's probably happened to every one of us. You pick up a glass, fill it with your favorite drink, you put it to your lips... and taste tomato sauce? Glassware is extremely susceptible to the transfer of unwanted tastes and smells, and where does that happen? In the sink where it's being washed. It has been allowed to sit in a sink that filled with water that contains the remains of hundreds of meals, soups, salads and desserts.And all that stuff is floating around and mixing with the water that is being used to wash you glassware. No wonder that glass of ice tea tasted like goulash. But what's even more important is the implications of glassware that tastes and smells funny – your cleaning system isn’t getting everything off, and because of that, your glassware and everything else you put into that water isn’t getting entirely sanitary.

There is an easy way to avoid this cross-contamination of tastes and smells onto glassware during washing: the use of a three-sink system. This method not only ensures that your glassware won’t acquire the flavors of yesterday’s soup du jour, but keeps them completely sanitary. While this method is especially recommended for beer glasses, it is useful for pretty much any glass that regularly comes in contact with food particles while being washed. Each of the three sinks has a specific duty; the first one washes, the second one rinses, and the third one sanitizes. You can shop for a three-sink system here.

The first sink is your washing sink, and should only be used to wash. DO NOT dump the excess liquid in the glass into the first sink; it should be dumped into an open drain, and never into any of the sinks in the three sink system. To return to the matter at hand, the washing sink should contain clean, warm water and a solution of odorless, low-sudsing, non-fat, cleaning compound, which you can shop for here. It is recommended that you use a nylon, three-spindled brush to wash the glasses. They are available in both manual and automatic versions, both of which can be placed directly into the washing sink. Using a triple brush enables you to clean 2 glasses at once while also cleaning the glasses exterior. Regardless of what brush you have, you should wash all surfaces, inside and out including the bottom. You can shop for a glass washer here.

The second sink is the rinsing sink. There is a particular way that glasses should be rinsed, called "heel-in, heel-out." This method involves placing the bottom of the glass in the water first, totally submerging it and removing it from the water bottom first. This prevents air pocket from forming in the glass when it is submerged, and allowing parts of the glass to avoid being rinsed out completely.

The third sink is the sanitizing sink, and should be filled with water and a sanitizing chemical that is effective and safe on glassware. Glasses that are placed in this sink should be sanitized with the same method as they were rinsed, "heel-in, heel-out." You can shop for a third sink sanitizing chemical here.

Lastly, the cleaned, rinsed, and sanitized glasses should be allowed to air-dry, upside-down on a stainless steel drainrack or a deeply corrugated piece of plastic. All available three-sink systems come with two drainracks, on either side of the three sinks. These are only the cleaning and sanitization benefits of the three sinks themselves. The entire unit is made of 304 stainless steel, which is composed of 18% chrome and 8% nickel. This alloy provides extra resistance to corrosion and rust, two things you really don’t want to be washing your glasses with.

There are places other than a sink that glasses could come into contact with unwanted or objectionable tastes and smells. Glasses stored in overhead racks are prone to gaining the scent of tobacco and smoke, and glasses placed in refrigerators and freezers will take on the flavor of whatever else is located in there with them. Towel drying of glasses can spread lint and germs to the glasses, ruining the sanitization process you’d just gone through in the third sink.

A few other problems you may encounter when washing glassware have been addressed in this article. You can also find out if an automatic glasswasher or automatic dishwasher is right for you in this article.