Double walled travel mugs are great.
They keep your hot drinks hot and your cold drinks cold much longer.
But they have one big weakness. Somehow, water always manages to get in between the two walls.
And getting it out can be near impossible.
You could take apart a double wall tumbler, but most models aren’t built to be taken apart.
So what do you do?
How do you get water trapped between the two walls out?
How To Get Water Out Of Tumblers
The best way to get the water out will depend on the type of travel mug you have. And with some, there’s unfortunately nothing you can do. You may just have to get a new one.
Let’s start with the easiest.
Ceramic
If you have a double layer ceramic travel tumbler, it likely has a hole in the bottom. That obviously makes it easier for water to get in, so you’ll have this problem more often, but luckily it also makes it easier to get the water out.
If the hole is plugged up, open it up and then turn the cup so the hole faces upward. You can let it sit like that, but it dries out a lot faster if you help out.
One way to help is to use something that absorbs water. I’m sure you’re familiar with the trick of putting a soaked cell phone in a bag of rice. The same thing works here. The rice absorbs water, sucking it out of the mug.
Another option is to add heat to help evaporate the water. If you have a heater in your place, you could place it on that. Another option is putting it in the oven on a low setting. A microwave could work as well, assuming you have a microwave safe travel mug.
Stainless Steel, Plastic or Glass
If you have water stuck in your tumbler and it is made from one of these materials, getting it out will probably be much harder. Since the water gets in somehow, usually through the cracks, it stands to reason that it can escape the same way.
But it doesn’t always work like that.
Nevertheless, you should give it a try. Just like with the ceramic mugs, put the cup in a bag of rice (or add heat) and see if the water is pulled out (or evaporates out) through those invisible little cracks.
If it does not, your only option may be to drill a hole in your mug. That way the water can escape. Once the inside is dry, plug the hole up again with some kind of sealant (like silicone).
That is clearly a last resort method, but if you can’t get the water out any other way and you don’t want to just throw the cup out, it is probably your only option.
How To Prevent Water From Getting Into Your Mug In The First Place
The easiest way to get water out from between the two layers is not to let it inside in the first place. This is obviously easier said then done, but with a few precautions, you can drastically reduce the chance of water getting in.
The most important one is to never wash your travel mug in the dishwasher, even if it is labeled as dishwasher safe. Always wash it by hand. Head here for much more on cleaning your travel mug.
And when you hand wash it, do not submerge it in a sink-full of water. Instead, only put water in the inside when washing. Try to avoid getting the outside wet at all. Naturally, it will get wet. And that should be fine. But the less water that gets on the outside the better.
To clean the outside of the tumbler, simply wipe it down with a damp cloth. That should always suffice, since there is no real reason the outside should be getting overly dirty anyway.