I have a stainless steel thermos and had always cleaned it with Crystal dish soap and had no problem. I was always using tea, however this time I used liquid dish soap. The man used coffee with the cream in it and the coffee came out tasting sour. What happened?
W2W
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I wanted to be the third to say thanks for the tip on hydrogen peroxide and baking soda. I cleaned both a thermos and a baking pan (cookie sheet) that had Thanksgiving sweet potatoes residue stuck on it -- I didn't want to scrape off the non-stick on the pan, and the mixture worked great.
Do mix the hydrogen peroxide and baking soda in a thermos or glass or some other container so you can shake it and mix everything before pouring in on the baking pan. Otherwise clumps of baking soda might block the solution from cleaning parts of the pan.
Back to the thermos cleaning: I also experimented with how much hydrogen peroxide is needed. I found that about 1"+ of hydrogen peroxide, and then regular tap water combined with about 1/5 box of baking soda set over night would clean a moderately coffee-stained thermos just fine. I did what others suggested, and put the lid on and shake it first, and then remove the lid. I let the thermos sit overnight, and dumped the floaters and any undisolved baking soda in the toilet. It might not have clogged the sink, but I didn't want to take a chance.
Thanks again to those who gave this initial tip!
Went online this morning to ask if it was safe to clean a stainless steel thermos using bleach. What I got was suggestions to use hydrogen peroxide mixed with baking soda and water or, dishwasher detergent (Cascade) and boiling water. I chose the "Cascade" method. This worked wonderfully; cleaned my coffee blackened, large thermos to a like new finish in 15 minutes with just two rounded tablespoons of detergent.
do not clean vacuum bottles with bleach. the chlorine will allow hydrogen to penetrate the steel and enter the vacuum, and with time the hydrogen concentration in the previous vacuum will be enough to transfer heat between the layers, and your bottle will not keep things hot or cold for as long as it did new.
that's the real reason why the instructions that come with vacuum insulated products say don't use bleach, though often, only the guys making the products know that. they used to try to pickle (use a hydrochloric acid dip) vacuum bottles to clean off the impurities on the surface to make them look better, until they realized that ruined the bottles.
my understanding is that cascade has bleach in it, and if you do this often, you may find that the ability of the thermos to hold temperature may degrade over time.
Maggie is right. Start over and clean again with baking soda. It's a little bit abrasive, just enough to clean well.
I'm going to assume you know how to cleanse and rinse properly as you've been already doing that.
I'd say the cream was probably sour.
This turned into a teaching moment for my seven years old granddaughter, Mikae'lyn. I added vinegar to the peroxide and baking soda and foam shot out of the carafe.
I needed my Thermos cleaned quick! I used about a half box of soda and at least a pint of hydrogen peroxide and the rest water. I have the biggest stainless steel Thermos I could buy actually made by "Thermos." It really works!! In about two hours it looked like new on the inside!
I have several Contigo stainless steel mugs very similar in design to a stainless steel Thermos bottle. Despite what you may read to the contrary a small amount of regular household laundry bleach does the job. If there is a visible seal between the inner and outer walls that is a weld the bleach will not affect it. Some old products that have the seal made with plastic, rubber or other substance will require care to keep the bleach solution away from the seal while soaking. (The seal is usually at the top. Just don't fill the container to the top.) Stains from teas tannin or coffees brown colored casein residue from creamer or milk do not penetrate the stainless steel. They sit on top.
You do not need an exact amount or concentration of bleach. Pour in a couple of inches of regular laundry bleach. About 2" in a stainless mug of 12 to 20 ounce capacity and add hot tap water until it is about ½" from the top. Use a little more in a Large Thermos bottle. Stand it aside in a spot where it won't get knocked over. Leave it there for at least an hour. When you empty and rinse it out it will look like it came from the factory. There is no scrubbing, brushing or any physical effort on your part. It just works. Any caps or covers can be treated the same way in a Tupperware container.
don't use bleach. it allows hydrogen to penetrate the stainless steel and break the vacuum. over time, if you do this, you will find that the ability of the bottle to keep things at temperature will lessen, as more and more hydrogen gets into the space between the layers of steel. if that does not matter to you (you don't need to keep it hot for 8 hours, only 3 or 4), OK, but just know that long term, it's bad.
this is the real reason almost all vacuum products say not to use bleach (and, parenthetically, to hand wash, since many dishwasher detergents contain bleach).
just so you know.
source: my father, who was a past president of the American Vacuum Society, told a story where a guy who was making vacuum bottles flew into town without an appointment, desperate to talk with him about his vacuum bottle business which was failing: he was making and supplying vacuum bottles for manufacturers to finish and sell: his initial samples were great, but when he went into production, they were all returned defective. My father asked him what he did with the bottles after he made them, and he said, in order to clean them up, he "pickled" them in hydrochloric acid to clean off the residue from manufacturing and make them shine brightly. that was the problem: dipping the thermos bottles in hot hydrochloric acid allowed hydrogen into the vacuum between the two layers of stainless steel, broke the vacuum, and ruined the bottles. the guy had to find another way to clean up the bottles.
my father didn't spend more than 5 minutes with the guy, and didn't charge him anything for his advice.
I love Contigo: i think i have a sample of just about everything vacuum insulated they have made. but they, too, warn not to use bleach, and to hand wash their vacuum products. this is why, though the customer service reps may not understand what really happens.
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