Thermos smells like mold how to get rid of it. How to wash a thermos: from tea leaves, coffee, smell

Everyone knows about the invaluable benefits of a thermos in the household. This is simply an irreplaceable thing that should be in every home. Unfortunately, over time, during operation, it may appear bad smell. There are several ways to remove it from a thermos. They do not require special skills and are available to anyone.

Flask odor removers

Not very thorough or irregular care of the thermos provokes the process of reproduction of microbes inside the flask.

They form a favorable environment for the development of mold, and, as a result, the appearance of an unpleasant odor.

You can remove it with the help of simple folk remedies:

Cleaning the thermos stopper

Even having perfectly cleaned the thermos flask, you may encounter the fact that the aroma still remains. The musty smell is often absorbed into the cork of the container and is quite difficult to remove. But there are still methods of struggle:

With any method chosen, the cork must be disassembled as much as possible and the rubber bands cleaned with an old toothbrush, since the maximum amount of bacteria accumulates on them. It is necessary to thoroughly wash all hard-to-reach places. Otherwise, it is simply impossible to get rid of the smell of mold in a thermos.

Methods of prevention

To avoid looking for ways to get rid of the smell in a thermos, you need to follow simple recommendations for using the product:

It is not difficult to remove unpleasant odors from the flask and the lid of the product, but it is best to do prevention. Regular cleaning of the container after each use and proper care will help to completely save the user from such problems.

A thermos is a necessary thing in the household. Sometimes, however, it stands idle somewhere on the kitchen shelf. And when his finest hour comes, some housewives shrug helplessly: how to remove the smell from a thermos?

Easier to prevent...

Immediately after use, do not be lazy to wash the thermos thoroughly. Don't leave this matter for later.

  1. Wash the flask and lid with hot soapy water. If the neck in the thermos is narrow, use a bottle hedgehog. All leftover tea leaves or food must be carefully removed so that there is no place for microbes to multiply.
  2. Do not forget to wash and dry the thermos case.
  3. Be sure to dry so that all moisture is gone from the flask. Turn over and place on a clean towel.
  4. If in the near future you will not use a thermos, do not close it hermetically, otherwise it will “suffocate”. It is better to wash it from dust before use than to rack your brains on how to remove an unpleasant odor from it.

But if that's already happened...

Tea

Sometimes it is enough just to wash the flask again and dry it well. The damp smell should go away. Did not help? At night, throw a bag of fragrant tea (mint, with bergamot) into a dry thermos. But do not pour water and do not close the lid. Dry brewing should remove all unpleasant odors.

soda and vinegar

It happens that you brew coffee in a thermos for your husband for work for several days in a row, and the next week he orders tea. He comes home from work dissatisfied: for several days now, tea with the smell of coffee has been obtained! What to do, how to remove a persistent smell?

  • Pour soda and pour warm water (in hot, oddly enough, soda dissolves worse) with the calculation of a tablespoon of the product per glass of water. Leave overnight, you can shake a couple of times. Rinse with cold water in the morning.
  • Instead of soda, you can pour vinegar essence (a teaspoon of essence in a glass of water). Leave to react for an hour or two, shaking occasionally. Rinse a few times.
  • Pour 3-4 tablespoons of baking soda into the flask, the same amount of vinegar. Pour boiling water to the top, after 40-50 minutes, pour out the solution and rinse thoroughly. Vinegar can be replaced with citric acid.

Lemon juice

Squeeze the juice from half a lemon and pour into a flask. Add some warm water (half of a thermos), close the bowl and shake for a few minutes. Let it sit with the solution for half an hour. Rinse.

Rice

Pour 4 tablespoons of cereal, a couple of tablespoons of soda and pour hot water half the volume. Screw on the lid tightly, shake for 2-3 minutes. Do several approaches. Pour out the contents, rinse. Rice here most likely performs the role of a sponge for washing dishes.

Mustard

To remove the smell from a thermos, use another proven method. Dilute 2 tablespoons of mustard in a glass of hot water and pour the mixture into a flask. Leave overnight, rinse first at dawn, and then boldly brew tea for your husband!

Salt

Pour the thermos overnight with a cool saline solution. The water must be very hot. In the morning, there will be nothing left of the annoying smell!

Coca Cola

Heat the drink well and pour into a thermos. Do not close the lid tightly, leave overnight. Rinse in the morning. You will be happy with the result!

If you often use a thermos, then you know about such a problem as an unpleasant smell from it. Even with proper cleaning, it can sometimes appear. The cause is most often the accumulation of bacteria that could not be removed with normal washing. They begin to multiply and exude a nasty odor.

To avoid such a problem, you need to carefully clean the thermos itself, the lid, as well as all small parts. This is done with a brush and a liquid cleaner. After you have cleaned the thermos, it must be left to dry upside down. But even after such manipulations, a musty smell appears over time, and folk remedies will help to cope with it.

Remove odor with lemon

The most affordable product for removing odor from a thermos is lemon. It perfectly disinfects and copes with the musty aroma. Cut the lemon into slices and put in a thermos, then pour boiling water to the top and screw on the lid. After that, wait 2 hours. If the smell is not repelled, you can repeat the process several times.

There is another way: squeeze the juice from one lemon, dilute it with a glass of water and pour it into a thermos. Then close it and shake vigorously. Repeat this several times, and then rinse the thermos with water.

Using mustard powder

Fresh mustard powder is also effective in combating this problem. Take 5 tablespoons of this product per liter of water, mix and pour into a thermos to the brim. Let the mustard work for 5 hours and then rinse the container well with water.

You can dilute the mustard powder to the state of gruel and rub a thermos with it, leave for a couple of hours, and then rinse with water. So you not only get rid of the smell, but also remove dried stains.

Vinegar will help get rid of the smell

If an unpleasant odor has appeared recently, then table vinegar will be effective in combating it. Dilute it with water in proportions of 1:10 and pour into a thermos. After that, leave to act for 2 hours, shaking occasionally.

If you do not have time, then moisten a cotton pad in vinegar, wipe the thermos well with it. Pay special attention to hard-to-reach places that are difficult to wash with normal cleaning. Then rinse the thermos with cool water. After such manipulations, the smell should disappear.

Removing the smell of baking soda

If you want to get rid of the smell in a thermos, use the following recipe. Take 5 teaspoons of baking soda and pour them inside. Then fill it with water and leave it overnight. When you wash the thermos in the morning, you will notice that the unpleasant smell has disappeared.

Adding vinegar to the recipe will help speed up the process. Mix it with soda in equal parts, and without waiting for the soda to go out, fill it with water to the middle of the thermos. Close it with a lid, shake well and leave for 1 hour. For effectiveness, you can shake the contents every 10-20 minutes.

Rice will help solve the problem

Rice is a very good odor absorber. You can use it not only for cleaning a thermos, but also as a sachet filler for cupboards and shelves with dishes, clothes and home textiles. Rice attracts moisture and absorbs it, and with it an unpleasant odor.

To get rid of the musty aroma, take 3 tablespoons of any rice, put it in a thermos and fill it with water. After half an hour, shake the container well and rinse under running water. If the cause of the smell was poor drying of the thermos, then try to avoid this, otherwise the products stored in it will deteriorate much faster.

We use table salt

This product is definitely in every home. Salt is good at removing dirt and odors, which is why many people underestimate its effectiveness. Take a handful and fill it in a thermos, fill it with water and shake. Then leave for 30 minutes and rinse well.

If you want to get rid of a strong smell, then mix salt with lemon juice, rub this gruel on a thermos and wait 30 minutes. Then take a damp sponge and wipe the container again with the mixture. Rinse the thermos under running water and dry well.

We boil a thermos

To get rid of harmful bacteria, which not only contribute to the appearance of an unpleasant odor, but also harm health, you need to periodically boil the thermos. To do this, pour water into a large saucepan, add a few tablespoons of soda and boil. Dip an open thermos into boiling water for 5 minutes, then remove and rinse.

Make sure the container and lid are completely submerged. You can add 20 ml of vinegar to the water, it will be even more effective. If you start to boil a thermos once a week, then a musty smell will never appear in it.

Aromatic tea in the fight for freshness

If you have fragrant herbs and spices, they will help fight off the smell left over from past dishes. Sage, mint, cinnamon, ginger or cloves are suitable for this. Brew them in a thermos together or separately and leave for 2 hours, and then pour and rinse the container.

What to do so that the smell does not appear

If you notice that an unpleasant odor constantly appears in your thermos, then most likely you are storing it incorrectly. Compliance will help avoid problems simple tips. They apply not only to a thermos, but also to all types of dishes, especially those with a lid.

Helpful Hints:

  • dry the dishes well after washing;
  • do not close it during storage in the locker;
  • timely clean from plaque or scale that has appeared, since this is where bacteria accumulate;
  • Always wash dishes as soon as possible, if not, do not leave them covered.

Avoid the appearance of cracks and dents on the thermos and other kitchen utensils, bacteria and germs like to multiply there. If your cookware is damaged, do not use it.

Now you know how not only to get rid of the musty smell from a thermos, but also to prevent its occurrence. Follow these simple rules, and you will not have to change dishes often because of their unsuitability.

Video: how to clean a thermos

Many have thought about how to remove the smell from a thermos. It is convenient to store hot drinks, soups, main dishes in this dish, brew herbal teas, make decoctions. After active use and improper storage, a musty smell appears, which is not difficult to get rid of. To do this, you need to find out the reason and only then choose exactly the remedy that can either absorb the smell or cope with the fungus that has bred inside the dark space of the thermos. In addition, you need to consider the material from which the product is made. Chlorine-containing products can corrode welds on stainless steel products.

Reasons for the appearance of an unpleasant odor in a thermos

To understand how to get rid of the smell in a thermos, you need to find the cause. There may be several of them, but they all come from improper storage, as well as from the fact that the dishes simply turned out to be dirty.

The smell in a thermos can appear for the most common reasons:
  1. The appearance of mold due to the ingress of water or food residues into a tightly closed thermos.
  2. An ingrained smell of any spice or spice. Due to the complex design, care for a thermos is not always limited to rinsing and washing with a rag.
  3. Scale formation.
  4. A new product often smells like plastic, which is also unpleasant.

If mold has formed, then liquid soap or dishwashing detergent will help in the question of how to remove it. It is necessary to dilute a small amount with water and pour the dishes with the mixture. Leave for a few hours. You don't even have to close the lid.

Baking soda is diluted with water. Such a composition will help get rid of a small plaque of mold and scale, as well as a musty smell of dampness.

Mold is a health hazard. How to get rid of moldy smell? Lemon comes to the rescue. It must be cut into slices and put inside. In addition to lemon, you can dilute concentrated lemon or lime essential oil. You only need a few drops.

Ways to get rid of the smell in a thermos


The fungus easily leaves the dishes if you dilute a little in it. chlorine bleach. But this method does not work if your thermos is made of stainless steel. The fact is that active chlorine damages the seams on the product.

Safe withdrawal methods:
  • remove the smell, if it is weak or the thermos is just new, an aqueous solution flavored with one of the essential oils lemon, citronella, mint or cinnamon. The choice of flavor is up to you. All of them are able to remove unpleasant odors and not only from a thermos;
  • coffee leaves a strong aftertaste and not only in the mouth. They smell like dishes. How to wash traces? To do this, soda or sand is applied to a sponge with a hard surface and rubbed until the spots disappear. The smell goes away with them.

Simple remedies will help get rid of the smell of mold in a thermos. The main thing is to prevent its occurrence. The smell of mold also disappears if the thermos is left open until the next use.


To know how to remove unpleasant odors, you need to have on hand detergents. You can even prevent them from appearing at all. It is not difficult to get rid of mold, but it is better not to have it. After all, these are spores of a fungus harmful to the respiratory tract.

Adviсe:
  1. After use, wash the dishes and put them away to be stored in a dry, ventilated room, removing the lid from the thermos.
  2. Boiling water with soda will help clean the scale. Rinse them after washing.
  3. The musty stench will also be removed by soda (Fanta or Coca-Cola). They need to be heated and poured inside.

For caring housewives, these recommendations will be useful. Moreover, a thermos is a very convenient dish. If you properly care for it and sometimes fill it with soda solution for prevention, then mold and unpleasant odors are not afraid of it.

A thermos is an indispensable assistant for transporting hot food and drinks, but if used and stored improperly, the product quickly becomes dirty, and a musty smell appears in it. All this makes its use unpleasant, as the taste of the dishes in it suffers. In order for the thermos to last as long as possible, you need to know how to remove extraneous odors from it using inexpensive improvised means.

A musty, stale aroma appears in a thermos for the following reasons:

  • untimely and poor-quality cleaning of the product from food and drink residues;
  • stagnation of air inside the flask due to the constantly plugged neck;
  • the habit of completely collecting a product that is not completely dry;
  • rotting of food remnants that they forgot to remove from the thermos in a timely manner.

Housewives often complain that even a thoroughly washed item smells unpleasantly of plastic. In this case, the root cause may be poor-quality materials from which the thing is made.

The main ways to get rid

When an extraneous odor is detected in a timely manner, its elimination will not require the use of potent household chemicals. It is enough to use improvised means that are in the kitchen of almost every housewife.

Soda

Soda will help get rid of plaque and unpleasant odors in a flask made of glass or ordinary metal. It is taken at the rate of 1 teaspoon per glass of boiling water. The mixture is poured into a thermos, shaken several times and left to act overnight. After that, the product is thoroughly washed with clean water.

Lemon acid

A small lemon is cut into medium-sized slices, placed in a flask and poured with boiling water. The product is left overnight for exposure. In the morning, the dishes are thoroughly washed and allowed to dry.

Vinegar

This tool is used to clean flasks made of glass or stainless steel. A few tablespoons of vinegar are poured with boiling water and left to act for 8-12 hours, after which the thermos is thoroughly washed with water.

Milk

The product perfectly eliminates the musty smell. For the best effect, milk should be boiled, then poured into a thermos and sent to the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, the flask is thoroughly rinsed and washed with detergent.

Denture cleaning tablets

The tool is used to cleanse the flask from plaque, in which pathogenic bacteria can develop. Several tablets are crushed to a powder, poured with a small amount of boiling water and the thermos is shaken vigorously several times. The mixture is left to act for a couple of hours, after which the product is thoroughly washed with water.

Rice

Rice groats are an excellent absorbent. 2 tablespoons of the product are poured into a flask, poured with boiling water and shaken several times. The mixture is left to act for several hours, after which the dishes are washed in running water.

Mustard

You can wash a bad-smelling thermos with mustard powder. The tool is ideal for stainless steel, glass and plastic, does not corrode the walls and quickly removes both unpleasant odors and dirt.

A little money is poured into the flask, poured with boiling water and left to act for several hours. Then the container is thoroughly washed from the remnants of the mixture, since mustard can give food and drinks an unpleasant aftertaste.

Salt

You can clean smelly dishes with ordinary table salt. To do this, take 4 tablespoons of the product per liter of boiling water. The resulting solution is left to act for 3 hours, then the product is thoroughly washed in running water.

Boiling with soda

This method is only suitable for a stainless steel thermos. You need to boil water, add 2 tablespoons of soda to it per 1 liter of liquid and wait until the powder is completely dissolved. The mixture is poured into a flask, the dishes are immersed in a pre-prepared pot of hot water and boiled for 60 minutes. Then the liquid is allowed to cool completely, the thermos is washed in cool water.

Boiling water and soap solution

simple and effective method. A tablespoon of dishwashing detergent is poured into the flask, poured with boiling water and left for several hours to act. After that, the product is thoroughly washed under running water.

Ginger tea

It is used to eliminate unpleasant odors from product corks. To do this, cut a little fresh ginger into a pre-prepared container, add a pinch of cinnamon and pour boiling water over it. The cork is lowered into the resulting infusion for half an hour, after which it is washed in cool water.

dry tea

An unpleasant odor can be easily removed from a thermos with a tea bag with any flavor, such as bergamot or medicinal herbs. Tea is left in a dry flask overnight, the product is not closed with a lid. The next morning, the thermos is rinsed with water and wiped dry.

The above products effectively cope with unpleasant odors and are inexpensive, which allows you to use them regularly to keep the product in good condition.

How to remove the smell of a new product at home

A freshly bought thermos always has a slight technical smell. Getting rid of it is quite simple: you need to rinse the product in boiling water, and then wash it in soapy water. If after a single wash the smell has not gone away, then the procedure is repeated several times, not forgetting to dry the thermos thoroughly.

If the smell does not go away and does not become less even after applying baking soda or citric acid, you should stop using the product, as it can cause health problems. To protect yourself from such a problem, at the stage of choosing a thermos, you need to examine several models and choose the one from which the smell is felt the least.

Features of working with different materials

When cleaning a thermos, it is important to consider what material the body and the flask itself are made of, since an improperly selected product will not only not solve the problem, but will also render the thing unusable.

Metal

If you need to get rid of an unpleasant odor in a stainless steel thermos, then salt, dill seeds or mustard powder are the best fit. A tablespoon of any agent is poured into a flask, poured into 250 ml of boiling water and shaken several times. The mixture is left to act for half an hour, after which the dishes are thoroughly washed with clean water.

It is important to remember that baking soda should not be used to clean stainless steel, as it corrodes the seams and leads to irreversible damage to the product.

Plastic

To remove a musty and unpleasant odor from plastic, you can only use a saturated soap solution. In some cases, the procedure will have to be repeated several times for the final cleaning of the product. If the smell does not go anywhere and does not weaken, then it is better to refuse to use such a thermos for safety reasons.

How to remove mildew smell

When a musty smell appears, the use of potent agents will be required, since its occurrence is associated with the activation of the vital activity of pathogenic microorganisms.

It is worth using the following tricks:

  1. Plain household chemicals. You will have to thoroughly wash the flask and cork with dishwashing detergent using a small soft brush. The use of pastes or gels with abrasives is prohibited.
  2. Saturated saline solution. Warm water is poured into a thermos and large table salt is poured to make a saturated solution. The mixture is left overnight to act, after which the flask is thoroughly washed with cool water.
  3. Combination of baking soda and lemon juice. 2-3 tablespoons of soda are poured into the bottom of the thermos, after which freshly squeezed lemon juice. When the mixture has increased in volume, hot water is poured into the flask and left for a while. After about 30 minutes, the mixture is poured out, and the thermos is thoroughly rinsed.

If the foreign smell has not completely disappeared, then the above procedures can be repeated, and at night put a dry tea bag in a thermos, which will absorb the remnants of an unpleasant odor.

Rules of care and operation

In order for the thermos to last as long as possible, it is important to use the product correctly and not neglect its care:

  1. Before the first use, the dishes must be washed with clean water and wiped dry.
  2. In a thermos, only liquid or soft products can be transported, which will not lead to its accidental deformation.
  3. All food intended for storage must be fully cooked, otherwise bacteria will multiply rapidly in it, which will lead to an unpleasant odor.
  4. You need to consume both warm and cold food 12-24 hours in advance.
  5. After each use, the product is well washed with water from food residues, then the dishes are washed inside and out with liquid agent without abrasive particles.
  6. It is important to dry the thermos thoroughly before storing and do not close the neck with a lid.
  7. Store the item in a closed cabinet, away from sources of heat, dust and direct sunlight.

Despite the apparent ease of use, the thermos is quite demanding on the conditions of storage and operation. Failure to comply with some important rules will cause mold or an unpleasant odor. In order for the product to always be in good condition and fully perform its functions, it is important to clean it from food debris in a timely manner and periodically rinse it using inexpensive improvised means. They will not only eliminate unpleasant odors, but also help remove scale and darkening on the flask.



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