Yeti cups are great at keeping drinks hot but from time to time you might leave your drink a little too long and it's needs a bit of warming up.
If your drink has gotten cool in your Yeti tumbler cup can you put a Yeti in the microwave to warm it up or will it explode or not work?
I read mixed things online so I actually went and tested this out myself to see what would happen:
I tested it and YES, you can put a Yeti cup in the microwave without it catching fire or causing any real harm. The contents inside will still heat up, but they will heat up slower than if they were in a glass or ceramic cup.
Just be careful to watch your Yeti in case you do see a spark and check the metal isn't too hot to touch before getting it out of the microwave.
Watch The Video
In the video above I actually put my microwave on the line and test whether or not putting my Yeti cup in the microwave doesn't something bad!
I see what happens and then I put a glass cup of water in the microwave and see if there is any difference in how hot each drink gets.
See the latest price of Yeti Tumbler cups at Yeti.com
(or compare to price at Amazon)
What Happens When You Put a Yeti Cup In The Microwave?
A Yeti tumbler cup is made of stainless steel, so when it is hit with microwaves the free moving electrons in the metal can conduct electricity.
Because the Yeti tumbler cup is made from thick and mostly flat metal the electrons just vibrate back and forth and the microwaves bounce off according to SciShow.
The metal will begin to heat up over time and will eventually become extremely hot if you leave it in there long enough.
The thinner the metal (like tin foil) the faster it will heat up and this is where you can cause fires. Tin foil and forks with points and edges can shoot out electricity and ruin your microwave.
But Yeti cups don't have the same concentrated points like forks do, so the risk of electric sparks are much lower.
When you put a Yeti cup in the microwave the cup will slowly heat up, but the metal also reflects most microwaves making it hard to heat up the contents inside.
However, the microwaves can still get in through the top of the cup to warm up your drink and I think this is why in my experiment the water did warm up a little bit within that minute.
Even if you left the lid on I'm sure the drink would heat up a little bit but I assume for best results take the lid off your Yeti cup before putting it in the microwave.
Will a Yeti Catch on Fire In Your Microwave?
No, your Yeti cup is unlikely to catch on fire in the microwave. It may catch on fire if you leave it in there for an extremely long period of time without watching it.
I personally put my Yeti cup in the microwave for 1 minute and the cup warmed up a bit but was still very safe to touch and there were absolutely NO sparks or explosions.
The cup warmed up but not so significantly that it was even close to being too hot to touch.
Warming Up Food/Drink In a Glass Cup Is A Better Option
I put 60ºF (16ºC) water in a Yeti Lowball Tumbler cup and put it in my microwave for 1 minute.
After 1 minute the water had heated up to approximately 80ºF (27ºC).
I also tested a similar amount of water with the same starting temperature and put that in my microwave for 1 minute to see how hot the water got.
After 1 minute the water was much warmer at around 123ºC (50ºC).
So it's clear that heating up drinks in a regular cup works better and carries less risk then putting your Yeti straight in the microwave.
But if you just need to heat up your drink a little bit then putting your Yeti in the microwave for a short period of time should be fine.
What Do Other People Say About Putting Your Yeti In The Microwave?
I did a little bit of digging to try and see what other people were saying about putting their Yeti cups in the microwave.
Were there any stories of explosions, fires, sparks or breaking of appliances?
I couldn't find anyone who actually reported a bad story of putting their Yeti in the microwave and something bad happening.
There is this Amazon question and answer page where people ask if it's ok to put in the microwave.
While some people say no, the general consensus is that yes it's fine to put your Yeti in the microwave.
One customer even said they put their Yeti in the microwave for 1 minute to reheat their coffee and it was fine. No sparks and it heated up their coffee just enough to make it nice to drink again.
Another customer staid they put it in the microwave and while nothing bad happened it didn't warm up their drink at all. However, my test showed that my drink definitely warmed up so I don't know about this one.
See the latest price of Yeti Tumbler cups at Yeti.com
(or compare to price at Amazon)
