Melamine table ware
HI all,
We've just moved up to a bigger 4 berth van and i am getting a bit concened about the weight we carry and was looking at areas to save.
We have always used china plates etc till now but a melamine set seems and obvious area to start. My question is there seems to be a huge variation in price - 16 piece sets varied in my local dealer from £16 to £50 - are the more expensive ones any better
or just but 3 cheap sets??
I will retain china mugs as i've read too many reviews of mugs splitting when filled with boiling water to risk using melaine cups for hot drinks!
Comments welcome.
Regards
Paul
Comments
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We've had the same set of melamine plates in our five caravans - dating back from 2000 And they are still in really good condition. Unfortunately I can't think of a good enough excuse to give my husband to change them! We got rid of the mugs as we prefer
good mugs and went for bone china as much lighter. I suppose the price maybe depends on the thickness/quality/pattern. Some shops seal the boxes so you can't take the plates out to see what they are like, which is annoying.0 -
Hi Paul and welcome to Club Together. I'm going to move your post into the Parts and Accessories Section as this is where more people will see it.
Corelle seems to be the preferred option for tableware although I still have a set of Melamine which is still perfectly good so I'm reluctant to pay out to replace it just for the sake of it. I use china beakers as I don't like the Melamine ones, even though
I've never had a problem using them for hot drinks.
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Paul
We have been using melamine for years. In the past we have purchased from John Lewis who used to do a really good quality but they don't seem to do the same extensive range they once did. I think you will find the cheaper versions are quite thin and light
weight. Better to go for the best quality you can find as they will last longer. Most caravan accessory shops seem to have a range to select from. Just a case of looking to find the one that suits. I would agree about keeping to china cups as melamine gets
very stained with tea and coffee and you end up having to clean them with a mild bleach solution to get them clean. We also have proper glasses for drinking wine but do us polycarbonate glasses for water or beer.David
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Just wanted to add that, apart from the concerns regarding weight, you also increase the risks of breakages the more china/glassware you carry but I agree with David that wine/bubbly/whiskey needs a 'proper' glass.
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We moved to Corelle about 12 months ago and have been really pleased with it. Like others, we are also getting more aware about the weight of the items we carry and when we change the van in May we hope to get rid of some oF the stuff we currently carry.
Like David and Jill though, we'll be keeping the glass wine and beer glasses.
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Ikea do some good toughened glass crockery a bit like Correlle. It was mentioned on another thread and is a very reasonable price, wish I had found it before we bought a set of Correlle.
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There is a thread on the Ikea OFTAST tempered glass product here:
http://www.caravanclub.co.uk/community/discussions/welcome-hobby-talk/tips-for-making-caravanning-touring-cheaper/IKEA-Toughened-glass-crockery/rt/1421090/?p=2#index4
We changed from melamime to OFSTAT recently and have just had Easter away using it. For 50p per item it's great value. Elegantly simple, easy to keep clean, microwave proof.
We use traditional crockery mugs and tempered glass wine glasses from arcoroc, similar to Corelle.
Moderator Edit:
Link now active.
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Here's a link to a previous but different thread discussing crockery.
The name of the IKEA plain white crockery is SOMMAR but it would appear that they don't do a full range; just three sizes of plates at £2.25, £3.00 and £9, a bowl at £2.25 and a beaker at £1.50.
My Melamine survived an RTC when the caravan was written off but there are comments on the thread I've mentioned where people have had their Corelle shatter.
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We have been using melamine for years now. We did by a cheap set from a show once but it didn't last long. Best to spend a bit more, you get what you pay for. I would quite like to change to Correlle but the price puts me off. We also use proper mugs,
the malamine ones are a bit naff.0 -
Try your local TK Maxx if IKEA isn't local they often have a decent selection of Melamine tableware at a lot cheaper price than the local caravan dealers.
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Like others we started out with Melamine, didn't like drinking out of the mugs so changed them. Then of course your can't use Melamine in the oven/grill/microwave so had to have a glass plate for that. So 3 years ago we moved to Correlle, lighter than normal
tableware heavier than Melamine but IMO much better to eat off/use they are hardwaring, don't appear to chip and some members have been using them for far longer than we have.0
