So, the wife likes stuff in her morning coffee, whereas, I take mine black.

As a result, over time, her stainless mug gets stains on the inside...not very attractive over time.

I looked around for ways to get it clean, because nothing was working, and found a solution that worked beautifully....

In a nutshell, someone came up with a way of cleaning the inside of a steel tea kettle by putting a dishwasher pad in it, pouring boiling water in, & waiting a half an hour....


Soooo, since it wasn't a kettle, but just a steel coffee mug, I cut a tab in half, and put one in her travel mug, and one in mine...

I boiled water, poured it in each 'til full, and decided to wait 45 mins...

After 45 minutes, there was gunk floating, so I rinsed them, ran a sponge through, and both came out pristine

I highly reccomended this.

I used Finish Tabs, which have a plastic wrap around them, that I took off.

Also, if you don't use tabs, the article says a 1/4 cup of dishwasher detergent works. Mind you, this is dishwasher detergent, not dish detergent.

Here's the article, the comments are good, too:

http://www.simplyorganized.me/2012/08/h ... e-pot.html

Denture cleaning tabs work great too. We've got a couple of Stanley flasks we use for tea that slowly build up grunge. They're about due for another cleaning.

Good to know...whichever is cheaper & you have on hand, I guess

Didn't know about the dishwasher soap trick, and I read about the dentures tabs. They're dirt cheap (like a buck or two for enough to last you the rest of your life, I think the box I bought had 40 tabs in it?). Plus there's no boiling of water, just drop them in and let them sit for an hour or so, then the accumulated crap mostly just rinses away, with a tiny bit of scrubbing. I should probably do it more often.

I've used a splash of bleach, and topped off with water.

Bartender's friend and a cloth works great.

As a young man in the USN I had a lot to learn about traditions and "sea routine." Most veterans are familiar with their branch's peculiar little practical jokes played on the new guy. For instance, sending the new guy for a bucket of steam from the steam chest.

Well, there are ways to really get under the skin of the E-7s and above as well.
We had a particularly lazy and ah, kind of worthless EMC who always drank out of a coffee cup so terrifically stained with coffee that the stains had some dimension. One time on maneuvering watch I offered to wash it for him as I was heading up to pour a cup for myself. It was an honest and rather innocent suggestion. His snarl was visceral, "Don't you dare fucking wash my cup."
Alright. I didn't understand why, but E5s normally follow E7s' directions on things like this.
2.5 months later as we were getting ready for the maneuvering watch back in to port, one of the other chiefs had a wicked smile as he handed me the EMC's cup and asked me to wash it.
I did so.

The wailing and gnashing of teeth, as well as blue wall of hateful speech filled maneuvering for DAYS. The two chiefs who had put me up to it told me to NEVER admit that I had been the one to wash it, at least not while I was still in the service. Every time that he was on watch for the next two weeks (until my crew went on a short vacation) he kept a bitter, angry and resentful expression on his face.

Turns out that he had been saving that coffee stained cup since his first patrol on a submarine 12 years prior.

We all hated out Chief so bad that once we found out he was taking a certain day off we took his coffee cup, put it in a paper bag and smacked it into the cement wall. Then placed the bag on his desk.
He was pissed when he saw all of us the next day..

Vinegar will usually eat anything off there to.

This whole thread is a lie.

We live in the same area and I see his rig at the bikini barista every morning.

Nice try


Even my wife knows I'm too damn picky about my coffee...

Serious answer?

NaOH, sodium hydroxide, lye - cleans organic crud off stainless quite nicely.

More than 30 years ago as a student at the UW, I was waiting for a cashier or a food service attendant or something like that ... but I was standing waiting near the kitchen. There was a notice to the kitchen workers posted there from UW food services management which stated that workers who washed the stainless pots and pans were not to be overly aggressive at removing the discoloration.

The memo stated that it was much like the polymerized film that developed on cast iron cook wear, and over-zealous scrubbing would merely allow nickel and cadmium(?) from the stainless to leach into the foods.

Don't bitch at me. I didn't write it.

This ^^^

I had a sink years ago that one side was plugged when I moved in. I filled it with drano and left it for a week. Never did eat the clog, I had to remove the pipe and poke it out.

But the Stainless sink was BRIGHT and SHINY from the water/drano line down tho!

Almost like it had been polished.

pic required....


tell here starlight black is the way shit just vinegar and baking soda or straight scotchbright to clean it


PMB you'll never see my cup black is the new brown