Cup Care

Washing

A shaker holds sugar and protein residue, which is why one left in a bag for a week is the most common way a cup gets ruined.

• ◆Hand wash only, with mild soap. No abrasives anywhere near the decals.from experience
• ◆Rinse straight after use. Dried residue is what turns into a smell you cannot get out later.
• ◆A bottle brush reaches the base corners a sponge does not.
• ◆Keep printed and wrapped cups out of the dishwasher. Sustained heat lifts adhesive wraps and fades direct print long before it harms the plastic.unconfirmed
• ◆Skip abrasive pads and scouring powder. They leave a haze on clear plastic that never polishes out.
• ◆Dry upside down with the lid off, so the inside is not left damp and sealed.
• ◆For a lingering smell: warm water with a spoon of bicarbonate of soda, left overnight, then rinsed. Repeat before reaching for bleach, which can craze plastic.unconfirmed

Mostly avoid
Leaving a used shaker sealed. Every difficult smell starts there.

Leaks

Plastic Gamersupps shakers have no rubber gasket. The seal is the moulded lid against the bottle lip and nothing else, which is why a leaking one is usually a manufacturing fault rather than something worn out.

• ◆There is no gasket to replace on a plastic shaker. If it leaks, the lid or the bottle lip did not mould to fit.from experience
• ◆Tightening will not close a bad fit. It strips the thread and leaves you with two broken parts instead of one.from collectors
• ◆A replacement lid is the fix worth trying, since the fault is usually on the lid side.
• ◆Test a new cup with water over a sink before it goes in a bag with anything you care about.
• ◆Jugs and metal cups are different designs and do have gasket rings — those are covered below.

Lids and replacements

A cracked lid does not have to end a cup. Shaker threads are largely standard sizes, so a replacement is often a matter of matching the diameter.

• ◆Do not screw the top on tightly. Some lids are poorly moulded and leak regardless, and forcing them will not close a defect — it only strips the thread.from collectors
• ◆Measure the thread across the outside of the bottle mouth, in millimetres. That number, not the brand, is what a replacement has to match.unconfirmed
• ◆Keep the lid from a cup you have retired. It is the spare for every other cup with the same thread.
• ◆Hairline cracks around the thread spread under tightening. Replace at the first sign rather than after the failure.

Jugs

A jug lid comes off completely and seals with a gasket ring, so unlike a shaker it has a part that both needs cleaning and can be replaced.

• ◆The lid is fully removable and carries a gasket ring. Take the ring out every time you wash it — left in, it gets dirty.from experience
• ◆Dry the ring completely before putting it back. Reseating a damp one traps the water against the groove, which is the whole problem.from experience
• ◆Clean the groove the ring sits in as well. Residue collects underneath where a rinse never reaches.
• ◆A perished or permanently squashed ring is worth replacing before it leaks — measure it out of the lid, since sizes vary.unconfirmed

Mostly avoid
Washing the jug with the ring still seated. It looks clean and is not.

Metal cups and tumblers

Metal holds smell less than plastic but hides more places for water to sit. Nearly every complaint traces to a part that was never taken off.

• ◆A metal shaker lid has two gaskets, not one: the lid seal itself and a second under the spout cover. Both come out, and the second is the one people miss.from experience
• ◆On tumblers with a handle and straw, the rotating section of the lid has to come apart to clean. There is a rubber part inside it that traps moisture and turns grim if it is only ever rinsed.from experience
• ◆Treat those tumblers as you would a Stanley — the manufacturer instructions for those cover the same lid design and are worth following.from experience
• ◆Dry every part separately before reassembling. A lid put back together damp is the whole problem in one step.
• ◆Check both gaskets for splits or a permanent squash while they are out. Unlike a plastic shaker, these are wear parts and can be replaced.
• ◆Avoid soaking a vacuum-insulated body. Water forced past the seal into the wall cannot be dried out and kills the insulation.unconfirmed

Mostly avoid
Rinsing the lid without opening it. The part that goes bad is the part you cannot see.

Vinyl and decals

Collectors apply transparent vinyl over the printed side to protect it. Done well it is invisible; done fast it traps air along the cup bump.

• ◆Clean the cup with a microfibre cloth first. Anything left under the vinyl is under it permanently.from collectors
• ◆Cut the vinyl to the size of the included waifu sticker, then cut the four corners away so it does not fight the bump in the cup.from collectors
• ◆Peel about half an inch along the long side and fold the backing paper back, rather than removing all of it.from collectors
• ◆Lay it down progressively and push it on with the microfibre cloth, then work pressure across the whole panel.from collectors
• ◆ORACAL 751C transparent is the vinyl collectors report using for this.from collectors
• ◆Whatever is on top, keep abrasives off it. A decal survives washing far longer than it survives scrubbing.

Method from r/gamersupps ↗

Mostly avoid
Peeling the whole backing off at once. That is how the air bubbles get in.

Keeping the artwork

A collection kept on a shelf faces a different problem from one in a gym bag: light, not residue.

• ◆Keep cups out of direct sunlight. UV fades printed colour permanently, and pinks and purples go first.
• ◆A display shelf away from a window, or behind glass with a UV film, holds colour far longer than an open sill.
• ◆Wash before display, not after. Residue left inside a sealed cup on a shelf will stain and smell.
• ◆Dust with a dry microfibre cloth. Household sprays can haze plastic and lift print edges.

Mostly avoid
A sunny windowsill. It is the fastest way to lose the art you paid for.

What helps

Nothing here is special to Gamersupps — it is the same kit any shaker needs.

• Bottle brush set

  Reaches the base corners and the underside of the lid.

• Silicone O-ring assortment

  Replacement gaskets for metal cups only — plastic shakers do not have any.

• Replacement flip-cap shaker lids

  For a cracked lid on a cup you are not willing to retire.

• Bicarbonate of soda

  The overnight soak for a smell that survived washing.

• Microfibre cloths

  Dusting shelved cups without hazing the plastic.

• UV-filtering display case

  Slows the fading that sunlight does to printed colour.