Your silicone ring just came in the mail.
You’re excited, you’re ecstatic as you open the package, you go to slip it on, and your thrill falls seriously flat.
It doesn’t fit. It’s not too tight, but rather just a little bit too big. Now you’re here – it’s time to learn what it takes to shrink your silicone ring.
It’s a tricky bit of business, but you absolutely can shrink a silicone ring. It’s just going to come with a fair amount of difficulty to it, so if you’re up for the task, you can get it done with the steps we’ve outlined in this guide.
You’ve been looking up how to shrink a silicone ring, and while this is a surefire way to get it done, we have some other suggestions later on. Don’t shrink your ring until you read this entire guide. Let’s show you what you need to know.
Contents
Can You Shrink a Silicone Ring?
Yes, you can! The thing is, it’s not really a proper practice for your silicone ring, for a bunch of reasons we’re going to go over.
If you ordered a silicone ring and the size was too big (most manufacturers recommend going one size down or a size-and-half down), then you can try this method to shrink it.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Shrink Your Silicone Ring
1. Clean Your Ring Off
Get any gunk out of engravings on the inside, and check the exterior for dust. Sometimes when you receive them in the mail after ordering them, there’s a thin layer of dust on them that can interfere with this process. It’s good to start with a completely clean (find out how to clean a silicone ring) and debris-free ring.
2. Boil Water Up to 230°, and no Higher
Silicone is strong, but it’s not invincible. Boiling it too high could seriously misshapen it, and then your ring isn’t going to be aesthetic anymore. While most silicone is safe up to 450°,we don’t want to push our luck here. 230° is still enough to shrink it.
3. Submerge for Five Minutes
All that heat in the boiling water is going to cause the silicone to retract and recoil. This effectively shrinks it down by half a size, all the way up to two sizes depending on how big the band was to start, and how long you boil it for.
I would recommend using a label or a metal spoon to hold this underwater. If it’s touching the bottom of the pot, one side of your band might not get as much water as it’s supposed to.
The heat could be more intense at the bottom right on the pot. With a spoon, you can move it around for a few minutes so that water gets underneath it as well.
4. Leave it to Set
After pulling it out of the water at the end of the five minutes, place it on a surface like your kitchen countertop, and just leave it alone.
You only have to wait about five minutes or so before it cools down, but for good measure, leave it alone and come back in half an hour or so when it’s had time to set with its new temperature.
Silicone is beloved for its heat resistance, but with this, the grade is different, so this trick will work. However, I have some cautionary tales I want to warn you about before you burst out the soup pot and get to work.
Should I Bother Shrinking a Silicone Ring?
The good thing about buying a silicone ring is that it’s cheap. You’re not going to run into any high costs associated with it, unless you go for truly high-grade silicone (which you don’t really need to).
Super high-grade silicone is almost exclusively used for electronics and industrial purposes, because it’s so intense and used as an insulator for electrical wiring.
Honestly, it isn’t worth it to shrink your ring for a number of reasons. Let’s go over the main issues with shrinking your ring (I told you I would guide you through shrinking; I never said it was a good idea).
Brittling
Silicone is tough. Most silicone rings handle up to 40-45 lbs of pressure before they snap, which is pretty impressive. If you boil your ring to shrink it, don’t expect those same numbers to hold out.
Because nobody can know how you boil your ring, shrink it, how much damage you do etc., it’s impossible to say how much lower that the pressure threshold will be, but it’s not going to be where it was.
You make the ring brittle, susceptible to tearing, abrasions, and eventual breakage under the right conditions.
Design Changes
Did you get the outside engraved rings with the logo like Qalo Q? Did you get an engraving on the inside?
This is going to change everything. Clean, linear designs are going to look distorted. The walls inside of your engraving might concave, warping the way the letters look in any phrases you might have inscribed.
It touches everything on your ring. The longer you boil it, the smaller you’re trying to make it, the worse this problem is going to be.
More Likely to Stretch Out
You’re manipulating the silicone, what did you think was going to happen?
It’s going to shrink… for now. If it shrunk, it can stretch. Silicone rings sizes stretch anyways, but under these conditions, it’s like you’re speeding up the rate at which it can be manipulated.
You might notice it stretches out to even wider than it originally was, and shrinking it again is going to double down on that first caveat I warned you about.
Early Signs of Wear
Silicone is supposed to last for a literal half a millennium, but it’s not going to do that if you push it past its limits. By changing the shape of your ring, you’re manipulating the silicone, which could seriously damage it.
You’ll notice earlier signs of wear and tear after resizing your ring than the standard timeline that you read about online. This is basically going to make your silicone ring, no matter what brand it is, become far less than what it was originally advertised as. This will affect everything.
Voiding Warranties
You ever heard the term “if not used for its intended purpose
