Food containers are kept indefinitely and used well past the point where they still work, which is usually only noticed when something leaks in a bag.
Chipped Glass Goes
Not negotiable, and the one item on this list that is a safety matter rather than a convenience one.
A chip or crack is a weak point, and glass under thermal stress fails suddenly. Even tempered glass, which granulates rather than splintering, produces a kitchen full of fragments and a ruined meal.
A chipped rim is also a cut waiting to happen.
Try the Gasket First
Before writing off a lid. A large proportion of apparent seal failures are a gasket that has bunched, been stretched out of its channel, or has debris underneath.
Peel it out, wash both parts, dry them and refit it evenly. Where replacement gaskets or lids are sold by size, of the kind offered at hom-berking.com, that is a small purchase rather than a new set.
The Other Signals
- A gasket gone hard, cracked, stretched or permanently flattened
- A cracked or broken latch, which unbalances the seal
- A warped lid or rim, usually from dishwasher heat
- Deep scratches inside plastic components, which harbour residue
- A smell that persists after the gasket channel has been cleaned
- Visible mould in a seal that surface cleaning does not remove
Warped Is Finished
The failure people persist with longest, because the lid still looks fine.
A rim distorted by heat no longer presents a flat surface for the gasket to seal against. It will leak, usually at the worst moment, and nothing restores the shape.
Test the Seal
Fill with water, latch it, and lie it on each side over a sink for a minute.
Doing that once a year across a set finds the failures before a bag does.
Smell After a Proper Clean
Different from a smell that goes when the gasket channel is cleaned.
A plastic component that smells after everything has been disassembled, washed and dried is holding residue in the material itself.
Disposal
Glass storage containers are frequently not accepted in kerbside glass recycling, because heat-treated glass has a different melting behaviour from bottle glass. Local guidance varies.
Retired containers make good non-food storage.
Check Annually
Gaskets, latches and rims. It takes ten minutes across a whole set.