How to clean a stainless steel thermos inside?

Stainless steel inside the thermos easily absorbs various odors, it is also prone to the formation of plaque from tea or coffee. Contamination leads to the fact that the storage of drinks and food in these dishes becomes almost impossible. Scale, deposits from drinks and an unpleasant lingering smell will spoil the taste of food. It is important to know how to clean a stainless steel thermos inside without damaging the surface of the product and extending its service life.

Tea plaque is the most common type of staining on stainless steel cookware. On the walls of a thermos, it can form in just one hour. If the thermos is not cleaned of dirt in a timely manner, the plaque layer will become thicker, and it will be much more difficult to deal with it.

Hard water or irregular care of thermal dishes are also reasons for the formation of unpleasant dirt. There are many simple tools that will help in the fight against plaque from tea or coffee, as well as clean the thermos from scale and food debris without damaging the inner surface of the product.

Food acid is a fairly effective and at the same time affordable tool for treating stainless steel products. A solution of citric acid is able to cope not only with a touch of tea or coffee, but also eliminate the musty smell. You can clean the thermoware with such a tool as follows:

• Pour two teaspoons of citric acid crystals into the vessel.
• Crystals should be poured with boiling water, and the thermoware should be closed with a lid.
• Leave the liquid in a thermos for 24 hours.
• After the cleaning procedure with food acid, the flask must be thoroughly washed inside with soapy water and dried.

Vinegar will quickly and effectively help get rid of tea plaque. The process of cleaning a thermos with vinegar solution is quite simple:

• 9% vinegar should fill one fourth of the flask.
• The remaining three fourths are poured with warm water.
• Close the thermos tightly with a lid and shake a couple of times.
• The vinegar solution must be kept in a thermal dish for at least 2 hours. In this case, every 20 minutes it is necessary to shake the vessel.

Baking soda will help not only clean the product from plaque and scale, but also save it from bad smell and germs. To wash a thermos with soda, we need:

• soda (3 tablespoons);
• steep boiling water;
• coarse salt (3 tablespoons).

Pour sodium bicarbonate into a thermos, pour boiling water over it, tighten the lid and hold for 6 hours.

Baking powder contains substances such as baking soda and citric acid. Due to this composition, baking powder is an effective tool in the fight against plaque. In order to clean the thermos in this way, it is necessary to place baking powder (3 tablespoons) in a flask and pour warm water.

The thermos is closed and infused with the solution for 2-3 hours. After that, the liquid is drained, and the flask must additionally be rubbed with a sponge and rinsed thoroughly.

Rice has abrasive properties, so the groats can be used to clean a thermos. Pearl barley also absorbs dirt well and removes plaque. Clean the thermoware with cereals as follows:

• Pour half a glass of clean rice or barley into the flask.
• Groats need to be poured with boiling water to the edges of the flask. To the resulting mixture, you can add sodium bicarbonate (1 teaspoon with a slide).
• Screw on the lid, shake several times and leave for 2 hours.
• Every 15 minutes it is recommended to shake the thermos, which will help to clean the walls from scale.
• Pour out dirty water with cereals, and rinse the thermos well.

There are quite non-standard means for cleaning stainless steel thermoses, such as soda. Due to its composition, Coca-Cola easily copes with the removal of tea plaque. There are two ways to clean a thermos with soda:

• Coca-Cola should be filled to the brim with a thermos and left in a warm place for 10 hours without covering the dishes with a lid.
• Soda must be boiled, then poured into a flask. Close the thermos with a lid (not very tightly) and shake several times. Leave the liquid in the thermos for 10 hours.

Another non-standard tool that can be used to clean a thermos from heavy dirt is "Whiteness". You can wash the thermos with "Whiteness" as follows:

• Bleach is poured into a thermos. The liquid should occupy three fourths of the total volume of the flask.
• To "Whiteness" add warm water to the edges of the flask.
• The thermos is tightly twisted with a lid, shaken thoroughly and left for an hour.
• Then it is necessary to drain the solution, wash the flask with soapy water and rinse thoroughly.

Another significant disadvantage of this method is a sharp, difficult to remove chloride odor. Thorough rinsing of the flask with cold water can help to get rid of the smell of bleach after cleaning the Beliznaya thermos.

Old, stubborn stains can be dealt with with ammonia. This method of cleaning a thermos is a little more complicated than the others, but it is quite effective. To clean the thermos with ammonia, you must first build some kind of dropper.

To do this, take a plastic bottle, which should be smaller in volume than a thermos. Three small holes are made in the cap of the bottle through which threads are passed. At the bottom of the bottle pour ammonia. Such a semblance of a dropper must be lowered with a lid down into the flask. Alcohol will slowly flow down the threads, and, evaporating, will corrode strong contaminants.

Almost all the products that are used to clean the flask from plaque additionally fight bad odors.But sometimes, after cleaning stainless steel thermoware from plaque and scale, an unpleasant odor remains inside the product. In this case, it is necessary to resort to additional processing, using other cleaning methods:

• Salt. Salt can also be used in the fight against tea plaque, but still this tool is more suitable for eliminating unpleasant odors. To prepare a steep saline solution, you need to dilute 4 tablespoons of salt in 1 liter of boiling water. The required amount of liquid is poured into a thermos and kept for 10 hours. After that, the solution must be poured out, and the thermoware thoroughly rinsed.
• Lemon juice. From one lemon you need to squeeze the juice, finely chop the pulp, and grate the zest. The resulting mixture is placed in a thermos, poured with boiling water, tightly closed with a lid and left to infuse for 2 hours.
• Soda. Drinks such as Sprite or Fanta do an excellent job with the smell of dampness. To do this, boil the lemonade, pour it into the flask to the brim, close the thermos with a lid not very tightly and leave for 12 hours.

• Dry mustard. Three tablespoons of mustard powder must be poured into a thermos, pour boiling water, close the lid and leave for 10 hours.
• A solution of soda and vinegar. Each component is separately used to clean the thermos from plaque. A more aggressive and effective method will help to cope with the stubborn odor. To do this, baking soda must be mixed with vinegar in a one-to-one ratio (for a small thermos, it will be enough to take 3 tablespoons of soda and vinegar). The resulting mixture is placed in a flask, poured with boiling water, closed with a lid and kept for an hour.

If the thermos is kept closed for a long time, mold can form inside. The fungus is one of the most unpleasant and difficult to remove types of pollution. You can remove the fungus in thermal dishes using household chemicals.

There are many dishwasher cleaning tablets and gels on the market. Such funds will help get rid of fungal formations in a thermos. But it should be noted that this method is not suitable for all thermal dishes. This method should be used with extreme caution and only when absolutely necessary.

Using this method to remove mold, it is not necessary to subject the inside of the flask to additional mechanical stress. In other words, do not rub the thermos from the inside with a brush or brush. After treating the dishes with a cleaning agent, it must be repeatedly poured over with boiling water and rinsed thoroughly.

To prevent the formation of plaque from tea and an unpleasant smell from food in a stainless steel thermos, such a product must be regularly looked after. After each use of thermoware, the flask and a cover need to be washed out carefully. You can wash such a product with ordinary soapy water or dishwashing gel.

It is necessary to carefully monitor that after washing in a thermos there are no particles of food or tea leaves left. After processing the thermoware and removing contaminants, it must be dried well. Keep the thermos with a loose lid or open.

There are a number of products that are not recommended for cleaning a thermos, as they can damage the flask or the internal rubber and plastic parts on the lid:

• hard brush made of metal;
• metal brush;
• eggshell powder;

• powdered cleaning products;
• high concentration acids;
• sand.

For information on how easy and simple it is to clean a stainless steel thermos, see the following video.