Don't put water in the microwave.  

PSA: Don't T-Bag superheated water. I know how the internet works, and I feel like this has to be said

The first time I had water explode in the microwave, it definitely got my attention.

"Ferb, I know what we're gonna do today."

i always knew microwave water was a tea crime, now i know why

there’s also supercooled water, which i personally find to be more fun of a reaction because you can pretty much instantly freeze it by shaking it, hitting it, etc

Water is so hard in my city that I've never had to worry about this.

A restaurant deep fryer is the best way to heat a plastic bottle of water.

From my experience the container is what gets hot most of the times instead of the food

You can also just stick a wooden chopstick or bamboo skewer in the water while it goes through the microwave, which provides plenty of nucleation points.

You can, in fact, superheat rough pressed apple juice in the microwave

Things he forgot to mention: it takes about ten minutes of microwaving to make water explode into steam, microwaving your water for 5 minutes for your easy mashed potatoes tonight will boil the water fine and won’t cause you any harm

'dont cast spell of instant steam' Who are you to tell me to to become a wizard

At first I was like "Whoop-de-doo, you dipped a paper towel in water", but after the explanation, I realized what was happening XD

My dads a doctor and said a kid came into the hospital with his entire face severely burned. The kid had put a bowl of water in the microwave for several minutes but the water still looked completely normal. Kid went to touch it, then bam it exploded all over him.

I got this just after the how do you heat your tea meme, good to know 😂😂

Microwaves are banned from my house

Mythbusters tested this and could only get superheated water using distilled water. If you're using tap water, there're plenty of nucleation sites and it'll start boiling when it's hot enough.

it’s all fun and games until one water molecule decide to go supernova

The way he said "tea bag" in italics like that made it definitely sound like something else

I have witnessed this with a tea bag and always wondered about it. Thank you for getting to the bottom of things that I forget to get to the bottom of.

I learned this the hard was as a teen. I put some water in to boil and then got distracted and walked away. When I came back I was disappointed because it looked like the water wasn't boiling yet, so I ran it a little longer. When I came back again, I opened the door to figure out what was going wrong with my water and the jostle of opening the door was enough to trigger nucleation and the entire measuring cup full of water exploded outward giving me a nasty scald on my arm. Please be careful with water in the microwave.

Never in my life have I imagined boiling water in a microwave.

dude i saw this dudes videos in science istg😭🙏🏽

we got edging water molecules before GTA VI

I boil water in my microwave. I use a very old glass measuring cup that has lots of minor surface etching. That nucleates well enough that the water boils smoothly every time.

Turntables also help. By vibrating and swirling the water, the surface tension is occasionally broken and the pockets of heated water are mixed more homogenously. Also, when making a gallon for sweet tea, I personally add a pinch of baking soda, which nucleates any remaining pockets

This is the most Bill Nye video that Hank has ever made. And I’m here for it 😂😂

mythbusters microwaved distilled water and dropped in a sugar cube, damn 2008 feels like it was yesterday... miss u grant imahara

For YEARS people have been telling me I’m lying about having superheated water in my microwave, I’m glad to know I wasn’t crazy

This happened to me using the stove once. The water was taking forever to boil and then all of a sudden the water exploded out of the pot and hit the ceiling. I had just put my face over the pot to check for boiling only seconds before so I'm very thankful i didn't get my face burned.

I tell people this all the time and they look at me like I'm crazy.

Oh okay so I can still microwave my ramen in the cup that says do not microwave, sweet

Back in the 80's when we first got a microwave, the instructions said to put a mug of water in and watch the water boil. So dad did. There were loads of sparks and he quickly turned it off. He'd only gone and picked the Charles and Diana wedding mug with a gold rim!

This seems like an important PSA that should have been taught to us alongside metal in the microwave.

You can actually prevent this by microwaving with a spoon in the cup (no, your microwave won't explode as long as you have water to absorb the energy)

I hope you are doing well these days I know how tough it is it really can burn your brain metaphorically speaking over thinking bless you for sharing pray your doing well 💕💕

Title: «Dont put water in the microwave» Video: «Man puts water in the microwave»

So this is why microwave instructions usually tell you not to just put straight water into the appliance.

Thanks for the new word(s) added to my vocabulary. Nucleate and Nucleation.

I solve this problem by just never having clean enough glasses to wory about it.

This is like saying don't use q-tips to clean out your ears when lots of people will still do it anyway. It is better to say how to safely do so (like with the q-tips make sure you don't put them too deeply in, don't push wax in deeper). With water in the microwave, make sure you put an object in the cup to let it bubble like the wooden spoon someone suggested in another comment. Or, just let the water cool some, the super heated molecules will disperse and cool some as they're warming the other molecules around them (and heating the cup) and eventually be safe. Or cover the cup as you bring it out of the microwave or use something to shield yourself while you put in the tea bag or hot coa coa mix. It is important to know how to be careful with hot water but still handle it since a lot of cooking requires bring water to a boil.

Instructions Unclear. I T-Bagged the microwave.

I cant wait to do the ultimate prank to my freinds with this knowledge

That's why you only heat the water, not bring it to a boil...

I learned about this in a FranLab video. She talked about how early on microwaves used to not have the spinning tray, the heated objects would sit still. Part of the trays purpose is to disturb liquids enough as they spin to prevent superheating. So without the tray there were rare cases where, if the cup was smooth enough, microwaving water could super heat it, and when they grabbed the cup, boom. The whole thing exploded into steam all at once. Pretty crazy

Thats why my tea bags make the water spontaneously boil! I knew there was a reason but I never ACTUALLY knew the reason.

I definitely won’t be breaking the surface tension with my tea bag! That’s a fact, Jack!

Fun fact. Microwave rotationally excite water molecules and they spin around hitting eachother and flying off like beyblades

Lifehack for the impatient: when I make spaghetti or rice I put 1/3 of the water on the stove, 1/3 in the kettle and 1/3 in the microwave. That gives me a gallon of boiling water in like 4 minutes.

Just because I now know it’s dangerous doesn’t mean I’m gonna stop. I still need me some cup noodles

That explains why the water in my mug explodes from time to time.

I learned about this danger from Alton Brown and his show "Good Eats" many years ago. To prevent this, place a chopstick in the water (I use the short wooden kitchen skewers). This provides a surface for bubbles to form, and the water is not capable of super-heating.

Funny, because in the cleaning instructions for my microwave, it says to heat a bowl of water, so the steam softens the gunk on the sides.

Getting an eletric kettle is a game changer. I almost neveruse the microwave. Its kinda useless to me these days.

This is where my strategy of having all my containers beat to hell pays off

that explains why sometimes my heated water seems to explode on me hahaha

Every chemist knows it's not the microwaves but the smoothness of the container that prevents nucleation. If the container is heat resistant enough the same would happen if you'd put it on top of a flame. That's why in the lab they often use boiling chips. Especially newer glassware can be so smooth a liquid almost always tends to superheat. Boiling chips prevent this by introducing an uneven surface on which nucleii can form.

Had me scared for a minute. Reheat my coffee in the microwave every single day. Glad I watched to the end, lol.

Laughs in electric kettle

Doesn't this only happen when heating distilled water, since the minerals in regular water prevent super heating? I seem to remember a Mythbusters episode covering super heating, and I remember they had to use distilled water to make it happen.

Also as my high school chemistry teacher harped on us "hot glass looks like cold glass".

This is one of the many reasons you ALWAYS mix the drink BEFORE heating it.

Quick tip, Google how long to microwave your water based on volume of water and your microwave wattage so you don't make an explosive skin meltor. Or just run experiments until you got the right amount of time lol

I can remember a couple decades back when people were denying this could happen, and making all sorts of accusations against those talking about it happening.

This explains a lot about college cooking...

I've boiled water in the microwave a countless amount of times and next had a single issue...

i remember it happened to me once like 15 years ago and i was so confused, and there was no data on this stuff back then so no one believed me and i couldnt find anything on the internet. i was legit thinking i had gone crazy. but nope. a cup of water straight up exploded seconds after i removed it from the microwave one time. i was just lucky i had set it down first lmao

It’s 2024 and Americans still haven’t discovered the kettle

I remember years ago Mythbusters tested this and it was significantly worse if you were doing it with distilled water

Important safety tip: boiling water can consume what nucleation sites there are. So it's especially unsafe to boil water in the microwave, forget about it, and then come back and boil it again.

I learned this the hard way while making tea.

Thanks. Really appreciate your explanations.

“don’t put water in the microwave” *puts water in microwave*

If memory serves, Alton Brown talked about this on an episode and his “fix” was to place a wooden skewer in the water to provide a nuclear ion site.

90 seconds is all that's needed to heat water to tea temperature. Any hotter, and the tea gets bitter

This is generally something you’ll only have issues with if you use distilled water but probably good to be safe

Warning taken: "Don't teabag microwaved water" Got it.

Youve gotta have some pure freaking water and one clean freaking container, no?

This is why you're always supposed to wait 30 seconds before opening the microwave and actually USING the water.

Start of the video: what's so impressive? Restart of the video: ohhhhhhhhh

If any of you read the instruction manual of your microwave, they literally have a section about this. My microwave (Bosch) came with a glass rod specifically for boiling water in the microwave.

Man, I hate breaking tension with my Tea bag.

Edging water is crazy 💀💀

Sounds like an elaborate prank in the making rather than shaking up a soda can.

Oh, yes. My forgetful brain heated tea for water, found a forgotten cup of water in the microwave and heated it back up, then went to do chores, got a hankering for tea, went to put another cup in the microwave, found a cup already in there, heated it back up while contemplating the two mugs of cold water sitting on the counter and how could I be this forgetful? Tossed my tea bag in and got a lesson in science!

I actually learned something I'll remember for the rest of my life today

Happy to finally have an answer as to why my tea blew up on me once when I was sick.

Always wondered why the water started boiling after I dropped the teabag in it. Makes sense now

Protip: drop a clean toothpick in the water before you put it in. Nucleation sites for days

If you need to boil water in the microwave (like if you don't have space for an electric kettle), you can actually buy a thing called a microwave kettle that has a dangly bit on the lid that breaks the surface of the water and allows the water to boil properly. I had one in college!

My favorite way to make Jello is to superheat the water in the microwave then carefully pour in the jello and watch the flash boiling.

Cut to me as a kid boiling water in the microwave to make my ramen

I'm glad I use my kettle for tea, even though the kettle is older than I am (it's from the 80s, and I should probably clean it, but it's electric and works).

You also have to be careful using “microwaveable” mugs. Not all are created equal. I would always heat 8 fl oz of water for 1:30 in the microwave. I used a different mug than usual one day and the handle was so hot I got near instant second-degree burns.

Ok so microwave some water and grab some water balloons.... WATERBURST GRENADES

I learned that nucleation is important for both freezing and boiling

You can put a chopstick in while microwaving, and the surface of it will cause nucleation.

This perfectly explains why putting uncovered soup in the microwave sounds and looks like a miniature warzone or liquid popcorn, leaving behind a huge mess to clean up afterwards.

I've never heard of anybody having that problem.

Every time I do this my tea never explodes when I add the teabag so im not gonna believe you