How To Care For Your Tumbler
Did you know that a stainless steel tumbler can rust if not maintained correctly? Or that you can control how long your drink stays hot or cold in an Arctic Tumbler simply by changing where you store it?
On this page we’re going to outline all the best practices for tumbler care and maintenance, as well as the reasons why these practices are the best ones.
How To Clean a Stainless Steel Tumbler
Hand Washing:
We recommend using baking soda (two tablespoons) and white vinegar (two cups). Carefully mix the ingredients into your tumbler and let the mixture foam up and then settle for about five minutes. If the stains aren’t gone after a light scrubbing with a non-metallic brush, rinse and repeat.
Please note: Arctic Tumblers are not dishwasher safe. The lids are dishwasher safe on the top rack, but the tumblers themselves are not.
How To Get The Best From Your Tumbler
Keeping Drinks Colder, Longer:
There’s nothing like a cold drink to refresh you, and there’s one simple trick that can keep your cold drink even colder longer: store your tumbler in the fridge.
The typical refrigerator is kept at 36 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius), and the typical home is kept at 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Celsius). This means that if your tumbler is stored in a cupboard and then filled with a cold drink from your fridge, you’re already starting to warm up your drink when you pour it into a room-temperature tumbler. Instead, store your tumbler in the fridge and you can keep your drinks cold for up to two additional hours!
Keeping Drinks Hotter, Longer:
A hot drink on a cold day goes a long way, but if you want the heat to last in your drink even longer, here’s a tip that will help: fill your tumbler with boiling water and let it stand for 30 seconds, then empty your tumbler and fill it with your drink. By pre-heating your tumbler, you could keep your drink hot for up to another hour!
Keep Your Tumbler Looking Pristine:
Arctic Tumblers are tough, but not invincible. Dropping a tumbler full of your favorite drink would not only make a mess, but also might ding or scratch the finish on your tumbler. As a personal accessory, a tumbler should always look its best, so we recommend making it harder to accidentally drop your tumbler by purchasing a tumbler handle to go along with it. Plus, bundling a handle with an Arctic Tumbler purchase makes your order eligible for free shipping!
What NOT To Do:
Bleach Your Tumbler:
*Science warning* Household bleach contains sodium hypochlorite, which is a powerful oxidizing agent that will strip chromium oxide from stainless steel. Once chromium oxide has been stripped from stainless steel, hypochlorite can transfer monoatomic oxygen to the metal, forming iron oxide - otherwise known as rust.
The stainless steel used in Arctic Tumblers is 18% Chromium, so washing your tumbler by accident with bleach once or twice won’t be enough to cause rust, but each time stainless steel is exposed to bleach, it gets weaker and closer to rusting. So play it safe, and use natural soaps or a classic baking soda and vinegar solution.
Use Metal Brushes on Your Tumbler:
Steel wool is fantastic when it comes to cleaning glassware, but when it’s used on stainless steel, it can scratch and etch the metal. Those scratches then become stain magnets where residual coffee can’t get scrubbed out, tainting the flavor of any future drinks you put in your tumbler.
Not only that, but those scratches can also produce rust over time, making your tumbler look and taste nasty. Instead of using anything metallic, we recommend using a plastic brush or stiff sponge to clean your tumbler.
Microwave Your Tumbler:
This warning is more for the safety of your microwave than anything else. When a microwave is running, it sends microwaves to whatever you put in the microwave chamber. These microwaves are normally absorbed by food molecules through a process called dielectric loss, which heats up the molecules and thereby heats your food.
This works great for food, water, ceramic, and other non-metal items. Metal, however, has free electrons that move very rapidly when hit with microwaves, which prevents the wave from entering the metal and ultimately reflects the waves back at the source: your microwave.
Essentially, microwaving something metal is equivalent to microwaving your microwave itself. So although an Arctic Tumbler will likely survive a round in the microwave without issue, we can’t say the same for your poor appliance.
Freeze Your Tumbler:
To be clear, an empty Arctic Tumbler on its own can be frozen, and our tumblers are freezer safe. This only becomes an issue when you put any kind of beverage into your tumbler and then freeze it. Fluids expand when they freeze, and there is a risk that a tumbler full of fluid could get distorted as the fluid freezes. We haven’t seen this happen yet, but we would hate for you to be the first, so we recommend playing it safe and only putting your tumbler in the freezer if it’s empty.
That's All, Folks!
Follow these guidelines and you’ll be on your way to enjoying your Arctic Tumbler for years to come. Bonus fact: These tips also work for other stainless steel products you may already have in your home. Enjoy!
