This entry is long as we wanted to cover the subject well. Contact us if you are getting a mug or glass and want to make sure you are getting an imprint method that is designed to not come off in the dishwasher.

Having a custom printed logo on a mug or glass stand up to being in a dishwasher is surprisingly complicated. You need to make sure the ink used in the imprint will not break down, that its bond to the drinkware will not fail (scratch-off), and that the surface of the mug or glass will not wear off or break down in the dish washer. If someone is using a citrus-based booster/cleaner like Lemi Shine it can eat away at the surface of the mug and almost any type of imprint can come off with enough washes (or in some cases 1 wash). Because of this, we will not guarantee anything for being dishwasher safe, but we will help you find the item that will work best for your type of use and help you understand what type of washing it is designed to handle. If you need a cheap coffee mug to hand out at a low cost and don’t care if the recommendation is for it to be hand-washed, we have options for you. We can also get you a diner mug designed to be used in a restaurant and washed several times a day in a high temp commercial dishwasher or glassware sanitizer.

Here are the methods that most ceramic, porcelain and glass drinkware are decorated with:

1. Flash cure (low temp, normally under 300 degrees) and UV cured inks. They are normally not designed for ceramic and glass drinkware and should be hand washed only, but many cheap mugs are done this way as you can cure the inks with the same low-cost equipment that is used for t-shirt printing.
2. 2-part epoxy inks. These offer moderate dishwasher resistance but are still fast and cheaper to print with since they don’t require specialized curing equipment.
3. Digital dye-sublimation printing. This is one of the newest imprint methods and offers full color imprinting with a larger (sometimes full) coverage at a very affordable price. A polyester finish is applied to the mugs at the factory and a digital imprint of your design is printed on a transfer medium that is taped onto the mug. The mug is then run through an oven. At high temps, the inks are melted off of the transfer sheet and absorbed by the polyester finish on the mugs. Sublimation imprints are safe for washing on the top rack of a residential dishwasher with standard detergents. See our recommended Full Color Dye-Sublimation Imprinted Mugs & Glasses.
4. Kiln/Lehr high-temp fired inks. These inks are designed to be printed on ceramics and glass and are cured in an oven at 900-1200+ degrees after being applied by a screen print or ceramic transfer (used for multiple colors or full color logos). They will stand up to a normal detergent in the top rack of a residential dishwasher. See our recommended Ceramic Mugs Printed w/ High Temp Ink. 

Commercial dishwashers & sanitizers used in restaurants, diners, and some commercial buildings are very hard on drinkware as they use a much higher water temperature that can cause flash steaming in the pores of standard enamel and glaze mug finishes and imprints. This causes little explosions on the surface of the mug or imprint. Ink can not stick to a mug if the surface is flaking out from under it. To combat this problem we offer Vitrified Ceramic and Porcelain Mugs. These mugs use a purer clay mix and are kiln-fired to a much higher temperature when they are manufactured. This makes the ceramic body so much harder and dense, that it becomes glass-like, or vitrified. Most importantly, this high temp cure brings the glaze finish to a near liquid state that fuses/mixes it into the ceramic and makes the surface very smooth and free of pores that absorb water. A vitrified mug printed with a high temp cured ink will give you the most dishwasher-safe custom printed mug available. We also offer a Heat Treat Pint Glass that offers some of the same benefits as a vitrified tumbler.

If you have any questions or need help figuring out which imprint method is correct for your application and budget please contact us and we will be happy to help.