Best thermos for hot drinks when boating

[ozscott]

Hi all...got a large thermos 1.8litre or so from Kmart a while back..looks sturdy, but even pre-heating at 5.00am with boiling water and then filling 15-20 mins later with boiling water to the brim and screwing lid in...tight and there is no air in there...it still runs out of puff too quickly. A tea on the water at 10.30 am and thats ok - not crazy hot but acceptable. By 11.30 its not hot enough to do the tea...its warm! NOT GOOD!

Ok,, do I need to go a good name brand like Aladin etc ...I like steel casings but wll I get good thermal life if the insides are all steel aswell or do I really need a glass inside to get the heat retention?

Cheers

[dogsbody]

Best to get one that uses vacuum insulation and has the inner outer silvered. My folks got those airpots that you push the top down and they seem to hold the heat well.

The glass ones are better i think.

http://www.alittleluxury.com.au/product_info.php?products_id=10023&utm_source=shoppingcom&utm_medium=cpc
Dave.

[GPB]

I believe you have a 'Thermal' or Vacuum Flask not a Thermos as that is a brand name like Aladin, if you buy a Name Brand you will get what you pay for .

[ozscott]

Yep - its a bit like calling an ice bin an Esky....I dont have a Thermos just a cheaper copy - Vacume Flask.

Cheers

[Leighton]

I use an Arcosteel one.
Pre heat it and it lasts most of the day.

[aussie_true_blue]

The best ones are the ones with the glass inner but dont drop them or you will get more in ya cuppa than what ya bargained for.

We use and old air-pot and it is great doesnt last forever but hot enuff for a overnighter out on the water

cheers Bob

[tunaticer]

I have a stainless one from mitre 10, it's good for about 4 hours before its starting to get too cold to be enjoyable. Glass liners are a lot better at keeping things hot.

Have you thought about a 12v kettle for the boat? Certianly will be hot whenever you want with one of those.

I remember years ago being able to buy a coffee mug heater like what the old kettles used to have inside and they were the ducks guts for boating or camping.

Aussie Bob, What is that in your avatar??

Jack.

[Outsider1]

........Aussie Bob, What is that in your avatar??

Jack.

Looks like this old hoax photo;

http://www.sfbayadventures.com/helicopter_sharks.html


Cheers

Dave

[Whitto]

I have for many years now used an Arcosteel 1.5lt stainless steel flask....in a word brilliant......early morning make coffee fish all day come home have left the flask overnight, pour into sink next morning steam come off the remaining coffee......it really is very good........Whitto

[jerson]

Mate you have to spend the money, thermos or stanley, stainless inside & out. People will tell you their glass inner has lasted for years, lucky, one bump will do it. Even the stainless ones will get punchered & loose their heat.
jerson.

[Horse]

I have two brand name stainless jobs and they both work well. Just remember to preheat with boiling water if possible

[poundalead]

Alladin or Stanley mate.

Cheers Benny

[ozscott]

Thanks all - I have bought a Thermos stainless 1.8 litre from Target for $38. I reckon that the the problem with my last big one was that it lost its vacuum - it transferred the heat to the outside very well :). I had a 1 litre IKEA one that didnt transfer its heat. I did a side by side between the 2 old ones this AM before I settled on the Thermos. I pre-heated them the same and filled them with boiling water the same. I then waited until tonight 9.5 hours later and stuck in a themoprobe...35 degrees for the big crap one and 70 degrees for the little IKEA jobby - ie steam still coming off and fine for coffee. I will test the Thermos and see how that goes.

Cheers all and thanks again

[Roo]

I have a 1.7l Thermos brand stainless vacuum flask....it worked great for a few months and now it is rubbish. I can't figure out what happened, no obvious signs of damage...just gets cold way to quick. I had a Glass cheapo one for years that had several tumbles out of my Landcruiser with out breaking( from over 1.5m)......then one day it fell off a low shelf onto grass (about 20cm drop) and it smashed. Go figure.

Cheers Roo.

[timddo]

Mate, i got a 12volt coffee maker from waeco , Cost a cool $20 and makes 8 cups of tea or coffee.

[ozscott]

Thanks all - i filled it last night with boiling after warming first and no signs of heat on the outside which is very good. The lids a bit warm though which is suss. Anyway we will see how it pans out..have kept the receipt for the 5 year warranty!

I just scored an old (60s) english Thermos off ebay for $9.90 in perfect nick so I am keen to give that a try - bet it outperforms the stainless one, but I need to look after it

Cheers

[Roo]

Thanks all - i filled it last night with boiling after warming first and no signs of heat on the outside which is very good. The lids a bit warm though which is suss. Anyway we will see how it pans out..have kept the receipt for the 5 year warranty!

I just scored an old (60s) english Thermos off ebay for $9.90 in perfect nick so I am keen to give that a try - bet it outperforms the stainless one, but I need to look after it

Cheers

mine has lots of heat on the outside......thats bad i gather.
buggered if i know why it has started to do this:-/

[ozscott]

yep its bad mate - the heat is leaching out...I dont know why they lose vacume - could be porosity in the steel or bad weld inside.

cheers

[ozscott]

Ok - we have a winner of my little shootout. 20 hours 15 mins after filling and without opening in that time, the new Thermos 1.8 litre stainless steel Target jobbie was...wait for it...62.8degrees C with the thermocouple...too hot to skull it back if it were coffee. So I am guessing that at the 12 hour mark she would have been comfortably up around 75 degrees...love it..hope that lasts.

Cheers

[bushbeachboy]

If I'm going to go on a longish trip, I always take the cheapie $20 butane stove with me. I use metal cups in the boat, so can just sit the two of them on the burner for a couple of minutes and they heat up nicely. Still keep the water in the flask, so it's not usually too cold to start with. Works a treat, and cheap.

[FNQCairns]

Ok - we have a winner of my little shootout. 20 hours 15 mins after filling and without opening in that time, the new Thermos 1.8 litre stainless steel Target jobbie was...wait for it...62.8degrees C with the thermocouple...too hot to skull it back if it were coffee. So I am guessing that at the 12 hour mark she would have been comfortably up around 75 degrees...love it..hope that lasts.

Cheers

Thank you for posting a benchmark comparison. I will test our old 1.8L here as I am not completely happy over longer trips.

Can you tell me the temp when poured in Jug or stove top boiled) and whether you preheated also the general ambient temp?

Will see if ours compares to your target one and post.

cheers fnq

[Peter4]

Great thread. I was just about to buy a vacuum flask when I happened upon it.

Thanks for the experiment and outcome ozscott!

Regs

Pete

[ozscott]

glad to be of some help fellas.

FNQ - I preheating each flask using hot tap water for 10 mins - its too hot to touch, but I dont know exact temp - guessing around 85 degrees or so. Then filled with water that literally was taken off the boil and straight in - kettle filled, boiled and as soon as it clicked off..straight in no wait and lid straight on.

Cheers fellas

[FNQCairns]

Cheers Ozscott,

Just preheated and refilled with jug water at 95deg at 12.50 both a 1.9L Stanley and a 600ml trudeau (dunno some generic wide brimmed brand we use for soup).

Using a multimeter thermocouple type arangement so fairly accurate.

BTW atm the Stanley's outside temperature is 36deg!!! and the other is at 29deg..doesnt' look good for the stanley. Air temp at the moment is 28deg and a guessed general 24hour ambient 22deg.

will update tommorrow

cheers fnq

[ozscott]

look forward to the next installment fnq - this thermos I got had no warmth at all on the outside which is pretty impressive. 36 is probably what my large kmart jobbie was doing.

Cheers

[Roo]

My 1.8l Thermos was feeling almost too hot to hold on the outside after preheating with boiling water and then refilling again straight from the jug after boiling. The bloody thing is less than 2 years old. no receipt as it was a gift. time for a new one.
Interestingly the heat transfer to the outside starts to get hot at the bottom first and then gradually moves up....with the whole thing being a scorcher in about 15 minutes.

[nigelr]

Big w has 25% off Stanleys atm, scored the 1.9ltr for $59.95 down from $79.95.
Happy with that, should last a long time.
Cheers.

[FNQCairns]

Ok the results in below:

Just preheated and refilled with jug water at 95deg at 12.50 both a 1.9L Stanley and a 600ml trudeau (dunno some generic wide brimmed brand we use for soup).

Using a multimeter thermocouple type arangement so fairly accurate.

BTW atm the Stanley's outside temperature is 36deg!!! and the other is at 29deg..doesnt' look good for the stanley. Air temp at the moment is 28deg and a guessed general 24hour ambient 22deg.

Results,

Stanley Aladdin at 11am, aprox 20hours later, ambient air temp 25deg....it was 32deg and the Trudeau 43deg.

Think I need another thermos!

Ozscott what is the brand of the Target bought one?

cheers fnq

[ozscott]

It was a Thermos brand FNQ - Thermos Duravac; Stainless Steel inside and out. I wonder if I have killed off my cheap on by pre-heating with boiling water. With my new one it says that sudden temp change is bad for it and it recommends hot tap water to pre-heat...which I am now doing. I wonder if the sudden heat up with boiling water causes problems with the internal welds and wrecks the vacuum ability.

Cheers

PS. $38 approx FNQ, my missus got it

[ozscott]

I did the same test with my 'new' ebay purchased made in England Thermos brand Thermos...must be 40 years old at least. Its steel outer and glass inner - back when the hand blown glass was thick. The precision given when it was made is amazing in fit and finish - eg between glass and steel at the mouth. Ok at 19.5 hours it was 64 degrees neat on the thermocouple and DMM - ie line ball with the new Stainless thermos as tested above. It is only 1.02 litres compared to the new thermos 1.8 so thermal efficiency isnt there compared to the big one...yet still same temp, so perhaps glass is a little better than steel. But it also says that the new SS ones are very very close. I will look after this baby with was about $14 inc postage and a great find in excellent condition. I suspect though that with care it should last well.

Cheers

[jerson]

Another thing i've noticed is if you leave a stainless steel flask in the sun, the outer layer heats up & seems to allow the heat to transfer out of the flask. Store them in an esky or at least in the shade & they will hold their heat a lot longer.

Jerson.

[Aunty Jack]

I've had a few now over the years stanley has been the best to date.
remember you dont have to remove only undo the lid to pour.
that way stops the cold air entering.

[ozscott]

Yep the Thermos are the same - just undo the lid a little and channels allow liquid to escape.

Cheers

PS. My brother had green steel Stanley for years and it did him well too

[ronnien]

we have just bought a dura vac thermos & i must say not bad at all, filled it up at 9am went fishing had a few coffee's than when i went to empty it at 10pm it was still hot. $40 bucks (bcf). so i'm happy with it.

ron.

[FNQCairns]

Noticed the Target thermos's and associated stuff are 30% off ATM-just the opportunity I like stumbling across:)

cheers fnq

[FNQCairns]

Last test bought a thermos brand from Target last night, filled it with hot water as per my last procedure and have just taken it's temperature after 12hours, 73degC which is a pass as far as I am concerned.

The lid surface temp was 31deg and the side was 1 deg higher than the surface of objects around it at 26degC.

So the lid is the culprit on these leaching heat but it's surface area is small compared to the rest of the flask inside.

It's a keeper! money well spent. I have trouble believing now that I battled on with my old one for so long!

cheers fnq

[ozscott]

Well done FNQ - seems from our comparisons that they lose most of the heat early..ie there isnt much loss from 12 hours to 20 hours - ie about 10 degrees.

Good buy mate.

Cheers

[ozscott]

Could always drill a small hole in the top of the lid and pump in natural cure silicon..make a nice insulation...might just try that

[ozscott]

...or would it conduct heat away from the vac flask more...can someone with an idea of physics help with this?

[FNQCairns]

Ozscot try chasing up it's and others thermal coefficient on the net to see what will do better than nothing.

I see where you mean, had to have a look at the lid, the lid would be good for keeping cold hands a little warmer on cold nights!

I think it works well enough for me as it is esp when comparing it to my last one, suspect the lid loosing heat is deliberate in design.

cheers fnq

[flybloke]

Ive started a test on my Stanley 1.05 lt SS unit.
Test started at 5 pm today, Gold coast weather.
No heat coming from the cylinder but just a little warm around the base of the double lid(cups).
Ive just realised that my Digytherm wil only read to 50 deg :'(
Im wondering if one of those electronic ear temp readers will read the surface temp of the water inside the thermas?
Bugga
Mick

[garman1]

ozscott, my uncle had your brand flask, and it was great, he had two of em. But he made a box...tight fitting one...which protected them and held in the heat as well, just an idea.

Oh they had hinged lids on the top,with foam on the bottom, all helped to stop heat loss.

cheers garry

[Aunty Jack]

look at all the data comming through
l thought i was reading a NCIS tv script
made me laugh tho all good

[Roo]

we picked up a 1.8L thermos yesterday from Target. 30% off made it about $28. This is the same as our old one which has failed. the lid is a bit trickier to get on. hopefully it last longer then the not quite 2 years we got from the old one.

Cheers, Roo.

[ozscott]

OK - the one that I got and posted about above, which worked really well when new has died. I pre-heated it and then put in the boiling water and its so hot on the OUTSIDE that you have trouble touching it!!! I hate bloody modern vac flasks. I purchased and old glass one on evil bay and its decades old and still works beautifully! Bring back glass!!!! Im taking the piece of poo back to Target to deposit it as a suppository.

Cheers

[struktcha_man]

Alladin or Stanley mate.

Cheers Benny

yep Alladin, one of the best.

I have owned a few but sadly have lost them one way or another, but you got to be careful because you can scold your mouth on the drink if you think it will cool off over a few hours.

cheers

[2manylures]

yep Alladin, one of the best.

I have owned a few but sadly have lost them one way or another, but you got to be careful because you can scold your mouth on the drink if you think it will cool off over a few hours.

cheers

Couldn't agree more, 10 yr warranty and no need to keep the receipt as the yr of manufacter is stamped on the bottom.

Alladin & Stanley are the same unit, made in the good old USA.

The only thing to be careful is to find a late model to get the full 10 yrs.

They'll take a shite load more punishment that kill other S/S jobs.