Vacuum Flash test #2

On April 22nd, a sample vacuum flask arrived at work and I was asked if I would like to test the flask. Who asks me a question like that? Of course I wanted to test it! Actually, there were about 5 flasks that needed to be reviewed, but only one was the proper size.... and by "proper size" I mean "a quart" (for all of my friends that use sane units of measurement, that's about a liter).

After my normal quart of coffee on April 23rd, I brewed a second pot and filled the 32oz flask. The filled flask was put in my NaNoWrimo tote bag. Normally the tote hangs out in the trap on my bicycle, but I thought it would be a good idea to use the tote to check for leaks and I didn't want to make a mess of a perfectly good t-shirt.

Anyway, the flask was packed up and I was out the door!

Oops

After managing to make it through my front door without a problem, the tote, which is normally very easy to hold on to, slipped from my fingers and took a tumble down the stairs. hmmmm how does that happen?

On the Road!

There is no soft squishy comfy seat in the back of my car. To be honest, there is no seat whatsoever; just steel and a bit of carpet. Since I didn't have time to dilly-dally, the tote and flask were hastily thrown into the car.

How to Make Everyone in the Office Jump

It has come to my attention that sudden loud noises tend to startle people, and a tote,containing a flask filled with coffee will make quite a bit of noise when it is tossed to the floor next to my desk. Who knew? Not I.

None the Worse for Wear

If it weren't for the few dents on the flask, no one would know about it's wonderful trip to work... and that makes me a bit sad. Oh well.

Hey guess what? The flask didn't leak any coffee and after a few hours, the coffee inside was still steaming hot. Woohoo! Now that is what I call a winner.

Who Wants it?

After the test was finished, the flask was just crying out for some stickers, and while I was applying a few choice decals, the proverbial lightbulb turned on. I need to give away the flask! So, if you would like to be the owner of this vacuum flask, you need to let me know, and.... you need to let me know by sending a postcard to me at my work address.

It's going to go like this:

1. Write some contact information on a postcard
2. Mail the postcard to my work address
3. skip step 3
4. wait
5. Sometime in the end of May, I will pick one of the postcards at random and I will send the flask to whomever sent the "winning" postcard.

Now quit reading, and go find a postcard!

Vacuum Flask?

Yea, I said vacuum flask. One of the most famous brands of vacuum flask is made by the Thermos® company. Not all flying discs are frisbees®, not all facial tissue is a kleenex®, and not every vacuum flask is a thermos®. Back to the point, at work we are trying to find that perfect beverage holding vacuum flask. Recently, a new flask was brought into the office and I decided to "take it for a spin" so to speak.

Test 1: Does it leak

No one wants a leaky flask, so the obvious first test will be to determine if the flask can hold some coffee. I have a very short fuse when it comes to wasting coffee. Anyway... on with the test.

The Flask

What we're talking about is a 16 fluid ounce steel vacuum flask with two little cups for a lid.

Oh hey, it's a nice almost clean NaNoWriMo Staff shirt.

Wrap It Up

All wrapped up. The mostly white shirt has been wrapped around the therm...uh vacuum flask. Sorry, I'm so used to calling a vacuum flask a "thermos" that I sometimes type it that way.

Why did I wrap the flask in a almost white t-shirt? Because it would be fairly easy to spot leaks.

Pack It Away

Can you guess what is in that motorcycle saddlebag? If you guessed "a vacuum flask wrapped in an almost clean shirt", give yourself a gold star!

Unwrapped

About 40 miles of bad road later, the flask was removed from saddlebag and unwrapped.

Uh-oh, there appears to be a bit of coffee leak. Upon further inspection, I determined that leak was caused by me not rinsing out the little lid cup before screwing it back on the flask. Shame on me.

So... um... how do I get that stain out? Oops. Seriously, I rarely wear white clothing because the chance of me not spilling coffee on white clothes is slim to none.

Two Lil Cups

What did I tell you? Two little cups!

This actually may be a problem with this flask. How is it possible to have a flask with two cups and not share coffee? It is difficult and I couldn't do it. Fortunately, I had already had my morning quart of coffee before I shared from the flask.

Now... what to do for the second test?

On May 2 I took my first picture of my sweet Camp NaNoWriMo mug that I got from my work, and I said I would be "testing" the mug that weekend. The last time I tested a coffee mug from work, I had a great time, but I ended up with a broken, unusable mug. With that in mind, I decided not to go out of my way to destroy the new mug and I instead opted to do "camp" type things with my mug and bring the mug with me while going on adventures (which will probably result in the mug being destroyed: win/win!)

Welcome to the first Camp Mug Adventure

What happens at camp? boats!

At the River Heritage Center, maintained by the Friends of the Petaluma River, one can borrow a boat on Sunday morning and enjoy a paddle on the river. Guess what I did on my Birthday with my sweet Ladyfriend? ;)

Sturgeon General

Within the Heritage Center, there are quite a few canoes and rowboats to choose from, but with a name like "Sturgeon General", how can you not pick this boat?

On the Bow

I almost lost the mug in a very non-destructive way due to a clumsy fool trying to take a picture of a mug on the bow of a canoe.

People Enjoying the River

This guy was out for a paddle with his son. In hindsight, I should have waited a bit before taking this picture so that people could actually see the two people in the boat.

Dirty Litterbug Bastards

I like to put trash in it's place and I also like to enjoy nature in a semi-trash free way. This aerosol can is one less piece of trash in the river.

Give a hoot! Don't pollute.

Hi Sweety!

Trying to take a picture over my shoulder of my sweety, while trying to control a canoe, didn't turn out as well as I hoped.

P.S. sideburn

The Trash Haul

After 30 minutes or so on the river, we pulled in 2 plastic bags, a plastic soda bottle, a candy wrapper, a can of Steel Reserve, and a Jack Daniels bottle.

Ewww bourbon.

Garrrrr, Where Be The Booty?

There was some crinkly money in my pocket before I saw the donation box. Now the box is a bit more full and my pocket is empty.

Oh wow! I totally missed that sweet 80's style boombox when I was giving a donation.

Hoot Hoot!

The River Heritage Center is located in a historic barn and is the home of a barn owl. When the owl drops feathers, they are collected and displayed within the barn for all to see.

Who doesn't think the volunteers named the owl "Hedwig"?

Bookmark!

What can I say? I like books and all books need a good bookmark. Thanks to the Friends of the Petaluma River, I now have a nice new bookmark.

Eclipse

After returning home from the slightly cleaner Petaluma river with my new bookmark, sunburn, and fond memory, it was time to stare skyward at the eclipse.

With my eclipse glasses covering the camera on my Nokia n900, I took a few snaps of the eclipse, and I think this one was the best of the bunch. Hopefully I will have some better shots of the transit of Venus in June.

Ahhhhh, it's time for me to find some aloe or vitamin e for this sunburn.

Note: I am an employee of the Office of Letters and Light and we sell this mug in our store. As the saying goes, please take all references to the mug with a grain of salt (or with a nice non-sodium based flavor enhancer).

P.S. "Sturgeon General" hahaha ;)

Last Fall, I reviewed four different styles of coffee cups and decided that the diner style was the most likely to survive a fall off of a desk or counter. Now that I have one of these sweet cups as my very own, it is about time to test my theory.

Note: The opinion and research described here is my own and in no way represents the opinion of my employer. However, should any viewers choose to replicate my finding by purchasing a NaNoWriMo diner mug (or two), I'm fairly certain that my employer would be quite happy. So go buy one now.

32 ½ inches

My counter, where I prepare coffee for the morn, is 32 and ½ inches from the floor. If I were to accidentally drop a coffee cup anywhere in my home, it would be from this counter.

So as not to harm any real coffee, a pot was brewed using previously used grounds. This faux coffee was poured into the cup and the cup was slowly pushed to the edge of the counter until the cup and it's contents tumbled to the linoleum.

Check out that sweet postcard on my fridge. The postcard was custom made by my friend in Switzerland; you are jealous.

The Aftermath

There are a few things one should take note of:

• The coffee cup was unharmed
• my kitchen floor sure is dirty
• 7 fluid ounces of faux coffee can make a large mess
• it's a good thing I kept my mop at the ready

Well there you have it, the diner cup can easily survive a tumble off of my counter onto the kitchen floor. Whoa, hold on a second there tiger! Don't coffee cups do more than just fall off of the counter? Why yes, yes they do.

The Next Test

Remember that time you left your coffee cup on the roof of your car, and the cup came smashing down as when you pulled out of your parking spot to go to work? It's never happened to me, but it could happen so I decided to test the cup this way.

Just a Little Dribble

After backing up and slamming on the brakes nothing happened; the cup wouldn't budge. After two more attempts I had the same result: the cup didn't move, but a bit of "coffee" spilled out.

The base of the cup was quite grippy and wouldn't slide at all, so I did what any sane person would do to their favorite coffee cup... I got out of the car, and pushed the cup off of the roof.

Aftermath Part Deux

Oh crap, there goes my favorite coffee cup.

Apparently, pushing a coffee cup off of the top of a car and letting it bounce over a 40 horsepower engine, will cause the cup to break when it finally stops on the hard unforgiving macadam.

Broken? I Think Not

Broken cup? What broken cup? With my wide selection of adhesives to choose from, "broken" things rarely remain broken for very long.

A bit of jb-weld later and the cup was (mostly) as good as new!

Conclusion

There were a few things I learned while testing this cup:

• the cup has a nice grippy base
• I love this style of cup
• pushing a cup off of the top of a car and onto a very hard parking lot may in fact cause the cup to no longer be one piece, and will requires the use of an adhesive to make the cup whole again.
• my coffee tastes a bit off

Everything breaks. Now quit reading and find an object's breaking point. (or send me something to break) haha!