Thermos Needs Cleaning

36 Replies
Gitana said

I know this thread is old but I came across it while looking for info on cleaning my thermos of coffee junk. That thing was black, black, black on the inside. But now that I want to use it for tea the black had to go!
Anyway I had denture cleaning tablets but even the tablets only lightened the black in two tries (overnight soaks). So I read here about using Oxyclean and Smartsoak, but given my location in Mexico, those things arent possible just now. However, I saw that both Oxyclean and Smartsoak are primarily sodium percarbonate. After a little more research I discovered that sodium percarbonate breaks down into sodium carbonate and peroxide in water. Ah! I have baking soda ( Sodium bicarbonate) and peroxide! So I put about 2 tablespoons each into my stainless steel travel cup and filled the rest with boiling water. Instantly black gunk started foaming to the top. I soaked my cup for no more than 5 minutes before I got excited and decided to pour out the mix and check progress. WOW! My cup was as clean as new! No joke! Like new! Years worth of nasty, black, coffee grunge gone in 5 minutes!
Please try it for yourself. I am so excited by this discovery that I have to share it.

ashmanra said

Yay! That is a classic cleaning combination so I should have thought of it! So glad it worked for you!

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Ricky said

I was actually just trying to clean the tea stains from my stainless steel thermo earlier today! I’ve realized that the magic erasers do a really good job picking up the stains!

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onjinone said

Vinegar will solve your problem.

And one thing that’s worked with stains on glass is wetting the vessel and adding a bit of salt. Leave it for a few min. Then scrub off the stains with a sponge. But I’m not sure how well that’d work with the inside of a thermos.

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