Cleaning a Thermos

Use a bottle brush & soapy water and a bit of bleach.

You can also add alittle salt & chopped ice & shake, let sit and shake again comes out crystal clean! Also works good for your glass coffee pot.

I purchased a baby bottle brush and have found it to be very useful.

Add some uncooked rice & a little water & shake that should break up any sort of residue that formed. The chipped ice works really well on coffee pots.

Maybe a denture cleaning tablet and warm water placed inside the thermos could clean the inside.

Those denture tablets are not expensive at the dollar-type stores. They can be used to clean a number of items; such a a vase, even to cleaning the toilet bowl. (I learned about these denture tablets right here on Thrifty Fun!)

Let it soak in hot water and dish soap in the sink, then scrub.

Get "white magic". Available for a few dollars from supermarkets. With that and just water you'll be amazed at what you can remove without the need for scrubbing.

Put a small amount of soapy water in it. Then add about a teaspoon of dried rice in the thermos. Cover and shake well. This usually gets all the residue out.

Most thermos's come apart. If yours does then take it apart and wash it in hot soapy water. Use sponge on a stick to get down inside to scrub there good.

If it doesn't come apart, then fill the sink with hot soapy water and soak it for a while. You can pour some vinegar inside and shake it up good first if it has built up coffee residue in it. After you get all the residue out of it, put some baking soda in it and let it sit for about an hour. That will get the vinegar smell out. Then wash it good with hot soapy water.

After you get it cleaned good, be sure and wash it after each use. If it can't be washed right away (if you're on a trip) then pour hot water (almost boiling but not quite--like what comes out of a commercial coffee pot at convenience stores or truck stops) in it and shake it up real good, then empty it.

Soap, water, bottle brush. Done.

Try a heavy mixture of boiling water and 1/4 cup dishwasher soap and let it soak overnight, then rinse thoroughly the next day, until all smell of the soap &/Or mold is gone. This may take a few times to completely clean it out.

Kim, from Canada; I use baking soda and water,to get odors out of my thermos, it works everytime. Let it sit, for a while.

Try dissolving a denture cleaning tablet in the thermos with very hot water and let it sit for a while, overnight if possible. Then rinse, and the moldy odor will probably be gone. I use cheap denture cleaning tablets from the dollar stores for a variety of cleaning and deodorizing jobs. They are great for getting hard water stains out of flower vases and other glassware, too.

Tori from Pittsburgh, PA

Try filling the thermos with plain white vinegar and let it set overnight. Then empty it out in the morning and rinse well.

Thanks for the tips. I'll give them a try and will let you know what works.

What is the best way to remove coffee stains from my thermos?

The taste is probably not coming from the stainless steel. It is probably coming from the cap or plug which is lined with plastic or rubber. The best thing to do is not cap the thermos between washings. Leave it opened and the plug and cap opened to the air.

I have the same problem with a stainless steel thermos, and it is a stainless steel taste, not plastic or rubber. I'm hoping someone posts a good solution.

I have used a stainless steel thermos for years, and have no problem with metallic taste. I have found that decaf coffee doesn't keep a fresh taste and taste metallic, but that is the nature of the coffee. Regular coffee is fine. My son has a stainless steel water bottle; he has no trouble with off taste. What are you carrying in your thermos?

I have a new stainless water bottle that I recently used to put iced coffee in. I ended up dumping it out because it tasted so bad, bitter & metallic. This was a new bottle I'd never used either. I washed it & air dried it without the lid on it too. I'm disappointed, hope someone else has an idea on it, I just figured I wasn't going to be able to put coffee in it.