this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2025
140 points (93.8% liked)

Today I Learned

23985 readers
290 users here now

What did you learn today? Share it with us!

We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must begin with TIL. Linking to a source of info is optional, but highly recommended as it helps to spark discussion.

** Posts must be about an actual fact that you have learned, but it doesn't matter if you learned it today. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.**



Rule 2- Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding non-TIL posts.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-TIL posts using the [META] tag on your post title.



Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.

If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.

For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.

Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.



Partnered Communities

You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.

Community Moderation

For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I done fucked up. I know some of my drink cups say handwash only, but I thought that was due to their vacuum chambers.

I assumed (wrongly) that these two bottles would be ok. They are clearly not made from whatever Nalgene is made from.

Meanwhile, I have some cheap vacuum wall plastic tumblers from Walmart, going on 15 years now, that I've always tossed in the dishwasher.

Also, I'm getting strong deja vu from my shrinky dink bottles. Have I done this before? Or seen a post on here if the same? I can't recall.

Edit: hello adhd brain, I forgot to provide details. Red 1L Nalgene for scale. The two bottles beside it used to be the same size before yesterday. ☹️

top 38 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Sibbo@sopuli.xyz 59 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I just decided to buy glass bottles. The are nice ones with a removable rubber cover that can nicely go into the dishwasher. And they don't taste or smell like plastic after a while.

[–] KittenBiscuits@lemmy.today 27 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Perhaps, but I would be too hard on glass bottles while I'm adventuring.

These were free swag though at a volunteer thank you party. I'm only upset that I can no longer covertly signal to the other local volunteers that I'm part of the club. 😄

[–] happysplinter@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Ask for a stickers the next time you volunteer there. Slap that bad boy on the nalgene, and after it falls off in the wash, pop another on there! Stickers solve lots of minute problems.

[–] starlinguk@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago

I have metal ones. Much lighter.

[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

Yeah but lot of them use plastic seals. I have a glass water bottle wood top. But freaking plastic in the lid of that cup.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 31 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I’m working on ousting all plastic foodware from my life if at all possible. Glass, ceramic, metal, or silicone only pls.

It’s slow going, but there’s some wins.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I’ve done pretty well with this: stainless and cast iron pans, wood cutting boards, stainless or silicone utensils, glass food storage, stainless water bottles …… and I’m watching my rice cooker closely in anticipation for when I can rationalize replacing it with one having a stainless pan

[–] logicbomb@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think it's the heat that done them in. Sometimes, dishwashers have modes that don't use a lot of heat, and I think it might also help to put heat sensitive things in the top rack. But even if you do that, I'm guessing that the kind of plastic that melts in the dishwasher probably won't be safe to drink from, even if it doesn't look like it melted.

[–] KittenBiscuits@lemmy.today 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Yes, I assumed the heat was the culprit too. They were on the top rack, the cycle was normal not pots & pans, and I never use the dryer feature. My hot water heaters are in the attic though where it's a million degrees despite an attic fan heroically trying to provide some ventilation. I don't even need to have the water heaters turned on this time of year. When we first moved here a few years back in June, it took us 4 months to notice that the previous owner had turned the heaters off. I thought we had normal hot water all summer!!

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Dishwashers frequently have a heating element inside that heats the water as it cycles, and it gets pretty hot on most default cycles.

[–] datavoid@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 week ago

I had a cheap nalgene type knockoff that I put in the dishwasher a couple years ago. When I took it out, it was like 1/3 it's original size. Its transformed version was so small I didn't even register it, spent way too long looking for it.

[–] card797@champserver.net 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

Survival in the dishes 🎶

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You might wanna stop drinking out of plastic if you can avoid it. If you’re gonna buy a water bottle, you can buy one made out of stainless steel and it’ll survive the dishwasher. Of course you’ll have to make sure you buy a reputable brand, otherwise It’ll be full of lead.

[–] Pilferjinx@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

I prefer glass because the taste of metal is unappealing to me. The lids unfortunately has a bunch of plastic and rubber polymers though.

[–] ShawiniganHandshake@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)

There used to be a show called Street Cents on CBC that focused on consumer and media awareness. On one episode, they torture tested Nalgene bottles.

It's been a while but if I'm remembering right, I watched them survive:

  • being thrown off a building
  • being run over by a bulldozer
  • being dipped in liquid nitrogen and hit with a hammer
  • being heated with a blow torch

The lids broke in some of the tests, especially if they had liquid in them, but the bottles themselves are basically indestructible.

I've seen a knock-off bottle break when somebody set a backpack down on it too hard.

[–] SippyCup@feddit.nl 12 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Nalgene bottles used to be made out of polycarbonate, a particularly robust plastic that they use for all manner of industrial things. Most safety glasses are polycarbonate, for example. It's nigh indestructible and cheap as hell.

Nalgene now uses a proprietary plastic they claim to be bpa free. It's likely not as strong as it used to be but probably still quite tough

[–] KittenBiscuits@lemmy.today 2 points 1 week ago

Wonder when they changed the formula. Red is 22 years old. Maybe one of the OGs?

[–] KittenBiscuits@lemmy.today 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Btw, LOVE your user name! I call my trusty roadies sippy cups too. I have a shoe organizer full hanging on the pantry door. It's hard to resist an ultra cute sippy cup.

[–] SippyCup@feddit.nl 3 points 1 week ago

I am called sippy cup because after a drink or two I typically need one haha

[–] KittenBiscuits@lemmy.today 5 points 1 week ago

Calling "Will It Blend"...!

[–] GiuseppeAndTheYeti@midwest.social 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Nalgene uses tritan for their plastic bottles btw

[–] KittenBiscuits@lemmy.today 10 points 1 week ago

Also TIL, Tritan was developed by Eastman Chemical, the HQ of which is in a town not far from where I grew up. Old stomping grounds and the like. Good God if the wind was blowing the wrong way, the chemical factory would stink up the entire town. It didn't help there used to also be a paper pulp Mead plant there too, but Eastman was the biggest stinker.

[–] Elkenders@feddit.uk 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Shrinky bottle Yeah, nothing happens to all of the food containers but my bottles shrivel at a warm bath.

At least the base is flared

[–] tipicaldik@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

haha this reminds me of a pair of flip-flops my wife had. They were left in the car, and one of them somehow ended up in the back window where it got super-heated by the sun. It was curled up and half the size of its mate when I found it. Couldn't tell you what they were made of...

[–] derpgon@programming.dev 8 points 1 week ago

Always look for the "dishwasher safe" logo

[–] aarch64@programming.dev 8 points 1 week ago

Ha! Almost looks like it returned to the size it was as a blank, before blow molding.

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Now you have two bottle blanks. Here's how they're turned into bottles. https://youtu.be/kU_gH36GG58

[–] griff@lemmings.world 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] KittenBiscuits@lemmy.today 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's just like your opinion dude

(maybe I prefer crockery)

[–] griff@lemmings.world 1 points 1 week ago

true…do enjoy your crock, my dude

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Yeah I gave up on free swag for exactly this reason. If I have to hand wash it, it’s not free. If I only get one use out of it, it’s worse for the environment than a disposable water bottle. Sometimes “free” is just too expensive

[–] Errorcode7@programming.dev 4 points 1 week ago

lol I had this happen with one of mine

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Some plastic can be remolded because the molecules are long and sleek, others can't (thermoplasts?) because the molecules all attach together like Christmas trees.

[–] scytale@piefed.zip 2 points 1 week ago

I just don’t put any plastic in the dishwasher. I feel like the heat helps leech them into the rest of the items in there. To avoid handwashing, I’ve slowly replaced plastic containers with glass ones.

I just float the water in the air using the Force

[–] hsdkfr734r@feddit.nl 2 points 1 week ago

Oooh. Put it in the machine once more? :)