My 2008 Seattle mug went from hairline crack to full split in 3 weeks and I blame the dishwasher
Okay so here is the debate I keep having with myself. Three weeks ago I noticed a tiny hairline crack near the handle of my 2008 Seattle mug, barely visible, no leak. Then after maybe 9 or 10 runs through the dishwasher on the top rack, that thing split almost a full inch down the side. I think it was the heat cycles and the water jet hitting it at a bad angle. My sister says no way, a crack like that just gives out on its own no matter what you do, and the dishwasher is innocent. So now I am torn between babying my other chipped mugs by hand washing them forever, or just running them through and letting fate decide. Is there any real proof that dishwashers speed up cracks, or am I just looking for a scapegoat for my own laziness?
Did the crack start right where the handle meets the mug? That spot is usually the weak point on those old Seattle mugs anyway. I had a similar thing happen with a 2005 mug and I started hand washing just the ones with any kind of crack or chip, mostly because I was tired of losing them one by one to the dishwasher. What worked for me was putting the cracked ones up on a shelf as keepsakes and only using the dishwasher for the solid ones. The heat and the water jets might not start a crack, but they sure seem to make an existing one worse. So your sister might be half right and you might both be right, the crack was going to give out but the dishwasher probably sped it up.