Caring for your tiles, mat, and racks

Tiles

Wipe with a barely damp cloth and dry immediately. Never soak them — most American tiles are two pieces laminated together, and water gets into the seam and separates them. Store them out of direct sun; the faces yellow unevenly.

Acrylic racks and pushers

Soft damp cloth only. Alcohol, ammonia, and most glass cleaners will craze cast acrylic — a spiderweb of fine cracks that appears weeks later and does not come out.

Felt mats

• Spot clean with cold water and a clean cloth, working from the outside of the mark inward.
• Never machine wash a wool-blend mat. It will felt further and shrink.
• Roll for storage. A fold becomes a permanent crease.
• A lint roller across the felt before a game picks up the fibres that otherwise end up in the tile grooves.

The three things that ruin a set

• Sunlight, over months.
• Greasy hands, over a season.
• A loose bag in a car trunk, in one trip.