Over 8M Thermos jars and bottles recalled after 3 people lost vision

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Initially assumed it was due to some sort of contamination or production defect. Turns out people leave perishable and fermenting foods in the thermos, and after a while when opened, the pressure lifts the lid of the thermos at quasi-unimaginable speeds, striking the curiously unsuspecting humans straight in the face, with some instances causing permanent damage to vision. Coffee is hot, but a pressure release system is cool too..

pizza234

Happened to me once. I was emptying one of my child’s thermoses in the bathroom when it suddenly "exploded" and sprayed the contents all over the bathroom walls. Quite a remarkable day :) I didn't consider it a defect, though. I can hardly imagine cheap products adopting this solution.

traceroute66

I too from the headline assumed it was some sort of chemical contamination during manufacturing. But then I read the words "The malfunction is due to multiple models of containers missing a pressure relief function in the center of the stopper." How non-existent does your quality assurance have to be in order to miss such a critical, obvious and easy to identify flaw ? Looking at the published photographs, you don't even need training to identify that manufacturing defect. A five year old could spot the difference between "lid has a hole" and "lid does not have a hole".

globular-toast

So who decided to cut costs by "simplifying" the lid design? A case of Chesterton's fence perhaps? My partner has one of these so just checked it. It does have the pressure relief feature, but it turns out it's also missing all the seals anyway so never would have been a problem!

bilekas

This is wild.. It looks like they changed their lid to be a bit cheaper ? Looking at the version that's not recalled, I would guess it costs more to make.

kjuulh

Had this happen to me once, though totally my own fault. Was brewing kombucha, and left it out in the bottles a little too long before burping. Me standing there, kombucha and peach slices pulverized against the cap, kombucha leaving a large mark on the ceiling it all happened so fast, glad I was wearing my glasses. No injuries except my pride, but it did take some hours to clean up. I wouldn't do it in a thermos, but I guess those are mostly accidents?

_trampeltier

There is a well known solution. Look at most PET bottles. The thread (mostly on the cap) is not continuous. That's for the pressure to relieve before the cap is off, and that could happen from a coke bottle or so to you.

ZpJuUuNaQ5

I hate life a little bit more every time I stumble upon stories like this. Anything and everything can happen to you, suddenly, without warning, without planning, not necessarily because of any obvious fault of your own (from your perspective, at least). "Oh, you thought you already had enough problems and worries as it is? Congratulations, now you are blind in one eye, forever, because you wanted to keep your coffee warmer for a little longer."

roel_v

That sucks. I have both and the ones with the pressure relieve valve are a pain in the ass to clean. You have to pull out the rubber inner thingy, you can't get a towel inside the hole that thingy goes into, and in general the rubber thing gets lost easily. I wish Thermos would send me a few of those 8 million stoppers, I'll promise I won't be a dumbass with them :(

nirava

Any (sealed) container designed to hold hot things should have a pressure release system. It can be seals that buckle before the lid. It can be a tiny hole with a soft rubber stopper. It can be one of many things that cost a couple of cents extra and a bit more engineering and testing effort. The cheapest disposable coffee cups I've used have a tiny hole for the express purpose of not pressurizing and spilling hot liquid everywhere. There's a lot of conversation in the comments about "was there was an expectation that the pressure release valve would be there" There absolutely is a safety expectation that a sealed container of hot food is designed with a pressure release system. BTW the fermented food thing is a misdirection. The pressure release system should have released pressure way before it even reached ballistic territory.

deadbabe

Imagine the last thing you ever see is a Thermos exploding in your face… then you still have to live the rest of your life.

harrouet

Thanks god they don't do this with Champagne!

perarneng

Couldn't this affect other brands as well? I would not assume many have thought of this

dctoedt

This suggests a "knife skills" automatic habit to cultivate:† Whenever opening anything , point it away from your face, or at least move your face out of the line of fire. (Champagne, soda bottles, whatever.) † "Knife skills" automatic habits = things such as, • always cut away from yourself; • whenever holding something down with the non-knife hand to be cut, curl that hand's fingers under, so that the non-knife hand's knuckles serve as a guard for that hand's finger tips.

btach

This happened at the hospital I currently work at a couple years ago. A patient was brought some chicken noodle soup hot in the thermos but didn't open it. A few days later I was working night shift on that floor when we all heard a sound resembling a cross between a BOOM and a BANG (something you don't expect at 2AM). There was his thermos at the bedside table with no lid, still sitting upright. Scattered around (both floor and ceiling) was some fermented soup smelling of fermenting vomitus. And a lid-sized-and-shaped hole in the ceiling.

whackernews

At this point it’s basically a risk to buy anything new from a large company who’s products are most likely worse than ever in terms of cost-cutting materials, build quality, and design.

jadence

Walmart had a similar recall last year for their Ozark Trail bottles. https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2025/Walmart-Recalls-Ozark-Trai...