Deep Cleaning the Zojirushi Stainless Steel Mug

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Courtney and I use our Zojirushi stainless steel mugs every day. I have the 16oz model with SlickSteel interior and use mine for coffee while she has the 20oz model with non-stick interior which she uses for water since we have a professional liquid spiller on duty 24/7. We LOVE these vessels as they keep our drinks hot for hours or cold for days and keep spilling to a minimum. The only complaint I have about the Zojirushi mugs can’t really be registered as a formal complaint as it all has to do with how I care for my mug (or the lack of care in this case). I tend to leave my empty or nearly empty mug in my bag or on the counter overnight during the week more often that I’d like to admit. Recently I noticed that my (artis-anal) coffee was sour and the inside of my mug was coffee stained and was no longer that beautiful polished chrome steel that I originally unpacked. I turned to the internet and found I wasn’t alone. While the image below is 10 stages beyond what the inside of my mug looked like, I was seeing similar staining as the bottom of the mug in this picture.

One heck of a stained Zojirushi mug Source: Tested

“That’s dis-gusting”.

I know you’re thinking it and I couldn’t agree more. With that said there is the issue of how to clean these mugs when they get stained. I started to take a crack at it and found myself getting nowhere when I tried due to two factors.

  1. Washing the center and bottom sections of the inside of these mugs is a major PITA. I broke a spatula handle by applying more pressure than it could handle in my attempts to clean it.
  2. The stain can become partially infused and layered onto the stainless steel of the mug.

After 30 minutes of dish soap, paper towels, elbow grease and scalding hot water I had barely made a dent in the overall staining and wanted to give up on trying. Then I realized I had a cleaner that no stain or dirt is immune to and that it just might be worth a shot to bring out the big guns. Yes, of course I’m referring to an extra strength Mr. Clean Magic Eraser! I gave it a dunk in scalding hot water and forged ahead full strength in my attempt to restore my beloved coffee mug as replacing it isn’t an option due to it’s unique branding.

RelayFM Zojirushi

After another 45 minutes of continual washing, rinsing and repeating I was able to get my mug back to full health and beauty. This worked like a charm and was a mere dollar worth of hardware[1].

So fresh and so clean

As long as you follow up with a dish soap hand wash and multiple rinses you should be golden using this method if your mug has gotten stained from long term use. I’m no longer risking this possibility and am cleaning my mug nightly which takes a mere 60 seconds of my day to do. I’d recommend doing the same.

  1. If you don’t count the spatula that gave it’s life in service of a greater good.  ↩

Simple: The SETA Smartphone Stand

The SETA Smartphone Stand in Action

I first found out about the SETA smartphone stand through Tools & Toys when it was just a Kickstarter project. The SETA smartphone stand (which I’ll refer to as the SETA) is a simple stand with a simple purpose; to hold your device.


Nanosuction™

The SETA uses two Nanosuction™ pads to keep the stand in place and let your device adhere to the stand. It’s pretty cool technology and from what I’ve read, it’s basically microscopic suction cups that adhere to whatever they’re pressed up against. It’s advertised to adhere without having a sticky feeling to the touch and I can attest that this isn’t false advertising. The SETA comes with a third Nanosuction™ pad to attach to an external object or the back of your device (or case) so that you can stick it to things when out and about. I took mine and applied it to my iPad car mount from RAM Mounts thinking I could slap my iPhone up against it when needed and avoid placing it on my iPhone directly. Unfortunately this didn’t go so well and I wouldn’t recommend cutting the additional Nanosuction™[1] pad as it seems to be the right size to distribute it’s magical powers when holding a device and anything less, well, doesn’t work.


Design

The company behind the SETA, 1.0 Innovations, went the ways of minimalism and functionality with the design. The SETA design mimics a reverse implementation of the foot from the most current line of iMacs and is made from aircraft grade aluminum[2]. There is a patent pending T-shaped cutout in the stand so you can slide your dock, lightning or micro-USB cable through the top of the cutout and it won’t slip backwards and fall on the floor. It’s simple and brilliant and it just works. I purchased the black version which, unlike the iPhone, isn’t anodized but rather has a smoothly gritty coating over the aluminum. It feels like it’s just the right amount of thickness to avoid chipping and I can’t see this coating getting scratched easily (unlike anodized aluminum). While the SETA is designed to be minimal, the Nanosuction™ technology is really the most important piece of merging that minimalism with true functionality. The thoughtfulness of the SETA’s design may be proven most by the second Nanosuction™ pad on the bottom of the stand. It has held up to my moving it multiple times without losing it’s grip and it may have the biggest impact on my enjoyment of the stand. I’ve owned plenty of stands in the past that did 101 things but staying where it was put wasn’t one of them. The fact that the SETA pulls it off without the Nanosuction™ pad being visible when the stand is placed is even better.


Conclusion

While there are a multitude of uses for the SETA smartphone stand I’ve found one in particular that I find very useful. I’m using my SETA mainly on my night stand. It’s proven extremely handy to use my iPhone as a night lamp by flipping the LED on the back on. It’ll be even easier once the handy new Control Center is available in iOS 7.

A $600 Nightlight

All said, I highly recommend the SETA stand and am looking to buy myself two more for my office and home office desks. It’s just that good.

The SETA smartphone stand starts at $29.95 and can be ordered via it’s website.

  1. Copyright David Co. 2001  ↩

  2. Or as Sir Jonathan Ive might say  ↩