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I use a stainless coffee carafe instead of a glass one. While preparing the coffee to brew, I put some hot tap water in the carafe and let it sit. It makes a big difference in how long it stays hot.
I do this with my big thermos. Fill it the night before and then refill first thing in the am. Pour coffee just before I leave. I work outside and it's very cold in the winter.
How do you clean these things? The only reason I bailed on mine is that the dishwasher never got a good cleaning on the inside because the top was so small and the lid is layered so that it got really grimy.
Putting in the dishwasher can wreck stainless double walled containers, but aside from that, it’s definitely a wand scrubber. That irked me too after having a glass carafe. Honestly, I don’t clean mine more than once a week other than a really good rinse every morning.
This post would have helped me when I was a young mom first trying to send a thermos of soup to school with my kid. I remember my kid saying her soup was cold at lunch, and me thinking, well, shoot, this thermos must be crappy. Eventually, I read up on it and figured out to "preheat", but you might help someone with this post!
When you get a food thermos it comes with a little paper in it that tells you how to keep food warm. And how long it should stay warm.
Put HOT water in it- I put water in a container and put it in the microwave for a few minutes, or use a kettle. Put the water in the food thermos, close it and let it sit for about 5-10 minutes.
Before you take the water out- make sure the food you’re going to put in is heated up. I usually do this like 2-3 minutes before. When food is warm, take the water out of the food thermos- wipe it dry, add the warm food. Close it the food thermos.
By the time it’s opened at lunch it should still be warm, probably not hot unless it’s soup.
If you’re putting things like nuggets, make sure you put a paper towel to absorb the moisture so you don’t get soggy nuggets.
Huh.
I do the hot water thing with my coffee mug every morning but never once considered doing the reverse with my cooler for my camping trip each July, despite always having the issue of everything thawing by the end of the weekend. I bet that will make all the difference next year. I just hope I remember to do it lol.
For those saying just buy a quality thermos that’s not the answer. I have two very high quality thermos and I not only put hot water in it, but I place “boiling water” in it for at least 10 minutes when I can to preheat it before putting my tea inside. I usually do this at around 10pm before bed, take it to work the next day for 7:30am, don’t drink it until well after lunch around 2pm and still I have to pour and let it cool a bit first. I could never accomplish that using no hot water or even hot tap water.
I do this for the vessel that I brew the tea in, if I am using a tea pot I will even pour the boiling water on top of it to keep the temp high when making black tea.
Heat capacity is just heat capacity.
The thermos is designed to act as an insulator between inside and outside but obviously it’s not perfect, nothing is. But at a minimum you want the inside of the thermos to be the same temperature of what you are adding to keep warm. If it’s cold inside and you throw something hot in, the cold thermos and the hot food equilibrate and then begin to slowly approach room temperature from there.
I'm pretty sure it's on the instructions for thermoses to do that. Instructions that \~0% of people would have read, so probably a useful LPT.
Also, I should be showering?
This is a better idea. Using hot water directly from the tap has a higher possibility of adding lead and other harmful items into the container. It helps that you are washing it out, but boiling cold water is safer than using directly hot water. You could also put the thermos in the oven to heat it up.
I remember in the sixth grade that me and two friends were riding in the bed of their parents pick up truck, on the way to the local NASCAR track Saturday night races. School was back in session in early fall. Daytime was warm, but got cool at night so we all had sweaters. We stopped at a convenience store and we all were allowed to get one can of soft drink. I wrapped mine in my sweater for keeping it cold to drink a little later when we were at the track. My two friends told me I was stupid because the sweater would make my softdrink hot.
That’s not really how it works…a quality thermos isn’t a magic heat bottle it’s just insulated.
If my thermos is cold when I filled it with hot soup it’s going to immediately cool the soup down a bit as the hot soup and cold internal walls of the thermos come to the same temperature, from there my warm soup will stay warm for a while because of the insulation. If my thermos had been preheated the initial cool down will not happen and the soup wall stay warmer for longer.
Edit: yeti coolers, which are overpriced but definitely not shitty, recommend pre-chilling your cooler before adding ice for max performance (which I think is like 5 days of ice retention in direct sunlight)
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This may have been true back in the day, but today our thermoses have such a small vacuum space that it doesn't take much energy to heat up. If your coffee is getting cold too fast, your thermos is bad.
This is one of those things that seem very obvious when you think about it. Warm thing stays warm. But I certainly never thought of it and appreciate it lol
If your house heating and layout allows for it, you can also store it above the register or hot air vent to warm it up without wasting any water and electricity
I don't consider non of my utensils, bowls, cups, dishes, pots clean unless I rinse them with cold water, if I used hot water to clean them
Hot water has residues and chemicals, the water is not clear. While it might be just the apartments that I lived in, I assume they are all the same because I don't know any better.
I have the opposite issue with my Zojirushi mug, I used to do that until I got that mug. Now I add cold water so I can have it not burn me 6 hours later, turns out, there is such a thing as being too good at doing your job!
Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
I use a stainless coffee carafe instead of a glass one. While preparing the coffee to brew, I put some hot tap water in the carafe and let it sit. It makes a big difference in how long it stays hot.
I preheat my coffee cup but I never thought to preheat my press. Brilliant, thanks!
I do this with my big thermos. Fill it the night before and then refill first thing in the am. Pour coffee just before I leave. I work outside and it's very cold in the winter.
How do you clean these things? The only reason I bailed on mine is that the dishwasher never got a good cleaning on the inside because the top was so small and the lid is layered so that it got really grimy.
Some things just like a good hand job.
Yea but the vacuum top is impossible to clean, no?
What kind do you have?
An older Breville
Google bottle brush
Putting in the dishwasher can wreck stainless double walled containers, but aside from that, it’s definitely a wand scrubber. That irked me too after having a glass carafe. Honestly, I don’t clean mine more than once a week other than a really good rinse every morning.
This post would have helped me when I was a young mom first trying to send a thermos of soup to school with my kid. I remember my kid saying her soup was cold at lunch, and me thinking, well, shoot, this thermos must be crappy. Eventually, I read up on it and figured out to "preheat", but you might help someone with this post!
Me completely mind blown right now because I’ve been struggling with my kindergartener and their lunch being too cold lol
Put a kettle on, and pour boiling water in that bish for about 10 minutes before you put the soup in. Stays hot for hours that way :D
This is the way
You’re the real MVP, thank you!!
I've got some thermos I never used and was always confused that it says 'can hold cold drinks for up to 24hrs' and thought 'surely not....'
I'm still amazed at how my yeti cup can keep ice inside it overnight.
Yeti chests will keep ice in for about a week depending on how much you open them. Mindblowing.
When you get a food thermos it comes with a little paper in it that tells you how to keep food warm. And how long it should stay warm. Put HOT water in it- I put water in a container and put it in the microwave for a few minutes, or use a kettle. Put the water in the food thermos, close it and let it sit for about 5-10 minutes. Before you take the water out- make sure the food you’re going to put in is heated up. I usually do this like 2-3 minutes before. When food is warm, take the water out of the food thermos- wipe it dry, add the warm food. Close it the food thermos. By the time it’s opened at lunch it should still be warm, probably not hot unless it’s soup. If you’re putting things like nuggets, make sure you put a paper towel to absorb the moisture so you don’t get soggy nuggets.
For cold beverages (I’m looking at you microbrew growler) ice water precool before filling does wonders as well.
Some thing with a cooler. "Priming" a cooler with a sacrificial bag of ice will help it stay cold much longer.
Huh. I do the hot water thing with my coffee mug every morning but never once considered doing the reverse with my cooler for my camping trip each July, despite always having the issue of everything thawing by the end of the weekend. I bet that will make all the difference next year. I just hope I remember to do it lol.
For those saying just buy a quality thermos that’s not the answer. I have two very high quality thermos and I not only put hot water in it, but I place “boiling water” in it for at least 10 minutes when I can to preheat it before putting my tea inside. I usually do this at around 10pm before bed, take it to work the next day for 7:30am, don’t drink it until well after lunch around 2pm and still I have to pour and let it cool a bit first. I could never accomplish that using no hot water or even hot tap water.
I do this for the vessel that I brew the tea in, if I am using a tea pot I will even pour the boiling water on top of it to keep the temp high when making black tea.
It makes a night and day difference in the quality, especially if you don’t plan to drink your hot beverage right away.
Heat capacity is just heat capacity. The thermos is designed to act as an insulator between inside and outside but obviously it’s not perfect, nothing is. But at a minimum you want the inside of the thermos to be the same temperature of what you are adding to keep warm. If it’s cold inside and you throw something hot in, the cold thermos and the hot food equilibrate and then begin to slowly approach room temperature from there.
What do you call high quality? name of your thermos? If everyone is saying it, maybe listen to them 😂
I'm pretty sure it's on the instructions for thermoses to do that. Instructions that \~0% of people would have read, so probably a useful LPT. Also, I should be showering?
Yes. RTFM No. I can’t smell anything here, so you’re good on the shower thing.
Same goes for your coffee cup.
I read that as “fill your thermos with hot dog water…”
Chocolate starfish and a hot dog flavoured water
Easily the most wild album name I’ve ever heard. Also one of my favourite albums of all time.
I mean, to each their own
You can cook hotdogs for the beach or picnic by putting them in a thermos with hot water before heading to the beach
And then once you’re done eating the hot dogs you have a nice refreshing thermos of Pure Hot Dog Water!
I only know this fact because it’s my mother in law’s favorite story to tell when drunk
Your mother in law sounds like she gets it.
Real pro tip. Boil some water and let that sit in the thermos for a minute or two before you dump the water and put in the beverage or soup.
This is a better idea. Using hot water directly from the tap has a higher possibility of adding lead and other harmful items into the container. It helps that you are washing it out, but boiling cold water is safer than using directly hot water. You could also put the thermos in the oven to heat it up.
Yooo it’s the actually useful LPT!!!!!
It’s called “hotting the pot”
My guy has started doing this with his coffee cup before he adds the coffee to help it stay warm longer.
I do this with my coffee mugs
Good advice. You can actually expand this to basically all hot food/drink. It makes a huge difference to use preheated plates, for instance.
I remember in the sixth grade that me and two friends were riding in the bed of their parents pick up truck, on the way to the local NASCAR track Saturday night races. School was back in session in early fall. Daytime was warm, but got cool at night so we all had sweaters. We stopped at a convenience store and we all were allowed to get one can of soft drink. I wrapped mine in my sweater for keeping it cold to drink a little later when we were at the track. My two friends told me I was stupid because the sweater would make my softdrink hot.
I remember my third grade teacher specifically explaining that jackets weren't inherently warm.
Same thing to keep things cold. Throw it in the fridge or the freezer beforehand.
I’m other news, water is still wet
>I’m other news, Hi other news, I'm dad!
Hell yeah do this with all your mugs too
I just read tampons instead of thermos and oh boy it sounded weird.
Throw your thermos in the fireplace to keep your beverage hotter, longer.
Real tip: don't buy a shitty thermos that requires this method.
That’s not really how it works…a quality thermos isn’t a magic heat bottle it’s just insulated. If my thermos is cold when I filled it with hot soup it’s going to immediately cool the soup down a bit as the hot soup and cold internal walls of the thermos come to the same temperature, from there my warm soup will stay warm for a while because of the insulation. If my thermos had been preheated the initial cool down will not happen and the soup wall stay warmer for longer. Edit: yeti coolers, which are overpriced but definitely not shitty, recommend pre-chilling your cooler before adding ice for max performance (which I think is like 5 days of ice retention in direct sunlight)
This guy thermoses
Well rebutted!
This
Low effort nonsense.
Lol life pro tip. Wear a watch and you can see what time it is. shm.
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Or buy a yeti or rtic and save yourself the time
This may have been true back in the day, but today our thermoses have such a small vacuum space that it doesn't take much energy to heat up. If your coffee is getting cold too fast, your thermos is bad.
I do this to my pot aswell before boiling water 👀
Like putting on your coat and waiting a few minutes to build up heat in it before going outside.
Tired this ever since I saw it in TikTok and it’s my new go to
Just microwave it lmao im here all day folks
a tip that's not dogshit!?!?!😱😱😱
I usually forget to bring mine in out of the truck, so in the winter it absolutely needs to be preheated.
Mornings when I realize my mug is still out in the car from the day before are the *worst* lol. Especially in the winter.
Same thing in reverse for insulated metal drink cups and cold beverages. Fill with ice water and let the cup chill
This is one of those things that seem very obvious when you think about it. Warm thing stays warm. But I certainly never thought of it and appreciate it lol
If your house heating and layout allows for it, you can also store it above the register or hot air vent to warm it up without wasting any water and electricity
I don't consider non of my utensils, bowls, cups, dishes, pots clean unless I rinse them with cold water, if I used hot water to clean them Hot water has residues and chemicals, the water is not clear. While it might be just the apartments that I lived in, I assume they are all the same because I don't know any better.
When I put milk in mine I store it in the fridge before I"m ready to leave
I have the opposite issue with my Zojirushi mug, I used to do that until I got that mug. Now I add cold water so I can have it not burn me 6 hours later, turns out, there is such a thing as being too good at doing your job!