UPDATE: Sur La Table Responds To Reader’s Hot Handle Incident
“Dear Consumerist,
On the bottom of Sur La Table (by Ceramiche Toscane) brand coffee/tea mugs reads “may get hot in microwave.” Now, we’ve microwaved coffee, tea, soup, and other food items in other-brand mugs before, and sure enough, the handle gets hot. Very often, one must put down the mug before enjoying its contents. But Sur La Table mugs, when microwaved, REACH TEMPERATURES HOT ENOUGH TO INSTANTLY BURN THE SHIT OUT OF ONE’S HAND.”
“My wife recently heated water for tea in one of Sur La Table’s mugs for under 2 minutes in our microwave and, when removing the mug from the microwave, received a nasty burn. The mug’s handle was OUTRAGEOUSLY HOT.
Furthermore, even after many minutes had passed (as we ran cold water over her injuries and applied burn ointment to her hand), the mug’s handle remained at a scorching temperature. I ran the mug under cold water in order to handle it safely and was amazed to find that, despite the bowl section of mug cooling appropriately, the mug’s handle retained considerable heat and was more-than-warm to the touch.
[To allay your cynicism, my wife can easily handle the hot water directly from the tap, which reaches over 120 degrees. We could not verify what temperature the handle reached, but it was way above that. Therefore, be assured that this is not a case of wimpy sad-sacks whining that they can't take the heat.]
We contacted the company’s customer service center and are awaiting their reply.
You’ve been warned,
HOT HAND”
Thanks, HOT HAND, we got a chuckle out of your letter and its tone of mock outrage. Still, odd that the cup handle would be hotter than the mug itself. Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? Just remember kids, when it says, “May get hot in microwave,” err on the side of caution and consider it, “will burn your hand up all crazy-like after a couple of minutes.”
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*taking a molten handled stab at it*
Looks like a ceramic mug, its very possible that the perticular ceramic that they’re using is very rich in ferrous metals (we all know why you’re not supposed to put metal objects in the microwave). As to why they’re using this ceramic mix, perhaps it adheres to their glaze better (makes it less prone to chipping) or is harder and more durable (less prone to your mug breaking). Could even be that it simply conducts heat better and is less prone to cracking or shattering under rapid heat changes). The glaze could be likewise metal heavy, for similar reasons. Its more likely however, that the mug is intended to be an insulator, so that the contents of your cup don’t heat the cup up rapidly. Anyone who’s tried drinking tea out of a small cup with no handle at a chinese restaurant knows just how hot boiling water can make a cup without a handle.
Now… as to why the handle gets so hot. Provided that it’s something in the glaze or something in the ceramic (metal content more than likely) microwaves heat things based on surface area, that’s why your food gets hotter at the edges than it does in the middle when you’re nuking it. The handle, being low volume and high surface area compared to the cup, would get -very- hot, and (if its a good insulator) would -stay- very hot for quite some time.
I microwave things in mugs all the time, because I like to eat food out of a bowl, and I have these great latte-mug type things that are fantastic for eating soup out of. The reason I use those instead of bowls is because I can grab the handle for a second to slide the mug onto a potholder and then have my delicious food. I also have no reason to have a tea-kettle, I don’t drink tea or coffee. Sometimes there’s a reason to microwave a mug.
While on the one hand, you should probably tap the handle EVERY TIME before you grab onto it, I admit I don’t always. Even the same mug can sometimes get hotter than you expect. But if you remember to tap the mug handle for a second, you can usually tell if you have to use a pot holder. But pot holders and mug handles usually mean spilled stuff to me, because it’s just not a good way to grip anything.
The thing that people seem to be ignoring is that she probably only grabbed the handle for a few SECONDS at best. Once you touch something hot, you usually let go instantly, it’s just the way we’re wired. If in a few seconds the mug handle actually scalded her hand to the point of needing treatment and causing intense pain, then it was too hot to be used in the microwave, and the warning is NOT clear enough about that. “May get hot in microwave” is a ridiculous warning, so it’s not a justification. If the mug gets too hot to touch like that, it should be marked “not microwave safe.”
While my plates and mugs are often too hot to really hold onto when they’re fresh from the microwave, I almost never encounter a situation like this one. This leads me to believe that it’s either a defect in that mug, or that they should come with something that says they should NOT be used in the microwave, because it’s not made properly for it.
@Beerad: I don’t know why the handle doesn’t get nearly as hot as the body of the container; I just know that it doesn’t, and that I can heat up coffee in a regular coffee mug in the microwave to the highest temperature that I can stand it, and I don’t have to wear an oven mitt to drink it. Higher surface-to-mass ratio than the body of the mug? Could be true.
CSDIEGO is right, its probably a leaded glaze –this is common and not necessarily Chinese manufacturing irresponsibility this time. So, being conductive, lead grounds/absorbs microwaves (and just about everything else in the electromagnetic spectrum). Don’t forget that just because you’re not playing with fire doesn’t mean its safe.
This post is to provide some information in place of some of the small minded sarcasm.
The same thing happened to me. I’ve been using ceramic cookware in the microwave for decades. When it first came out, it was all the rage because the microwave heats the water content in the food and the container stayed cool. Over the past decade I noticed some ceramic dishes would heat up on their own. I even used that to warm plates before serving. Never did they heat to the extreme level as described. Recently I heated a new mug full of milk. This one did the opposite. The mug seamed to absorb almost all rays leaving the milk luke warm, the mug hot (tempered by the milk) and the handle super heated (luckily I avoided a similar injury).
What changed the ceramics or the microwave? After wasting time on these posts I found another article that led me to the answer – impurities in the ceramic and yes, my cup was made in China. When microwaves first came out, we likely bought products that were safe and subject to government scrutiny. This is probably no longer the case ).
The following product is meant to heat and the impurities in it are by design.I might actually order this product but for the purpose of this post, I’m using it for the science for the science that it makes mention to:
New Cookware Speeds Microwaving Time
By Robert Roy Britt, LiveScience Managing Editor
http://www.livescience.com/technology/080727-microwave-better.html
posted: 27 July 2008 09:58 pm ET
This rice cooker, available in Japan, interacts with microwaves to generate heat and cook rice in about half the time of conventional cookware. Credit: Sridhar Komarneni
Full Size 1 of 1.This rice cooker, available in Japan, interacts with microwaves to generate heat and cook rice in about half the time of conventional cookware. Credit: Sridhar KomarneniA new material designed for use in microwaves heats foods and beverages more quickly and saves energy, its inventors say.
A microwave oven bombards food with microwave radiation, which is absorbed by certain molecules, including water, fats and sugars. The microwaves, powerful enough to kill viruses and bacteria, vibrate those molecules, heating the food.
“Conventional coffee cups are made from ceramic compositions which do not absorb microwaves and hence they do not heat up,” explained Sridhar Komarneni, a professor of clay mineralogy at Pennsylvania State University. “When conventional ceramics are used for heating food, only food heats up and then the hot food heats up the ceramic.”
Komarneni and colleagues in Japan made plates from a mix of 20 percent magnetite and 80 percent of a naturally occurring petalite mineral containing lithium, aluminum and silicon oxides. The new ceramic interacts with the microwaves and heats up, and “the microwaves heat up the container and hence the food,” Komarneni told LiveScience. “Rice cooks in about half or less time.”
The research is detailed in the Aug. 26 issue of the American Chemical Society’s journal Chemistry of Materials.
Containers made from the material could pop popcorn more quickly, too, the researchers say.
And food stays hot longer.
“These ceramic materials not only heat up with microwaves but also retain heat for about 15 minutes and hence the food stays hot in the container,” Komarneni said. “Ceramic plates could be used for pizza delivery as these plates are insulating materials.”
A rice cooker and plates made from the material are already being sold by ASAHI Ceramics Research Co. in Japan.
I found this posting by researching why a variety of ‘MY” mug handles get outrageously hot. The answer is not faulty design or thickness of handle. It is MOISTURE IN THE CLAY HANDLE. The glaze has tiny cracks that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. This allows moisture to enter the handle. It is the condensed space of moisture that is actually heating up so hot. Be sure to use a pot holder to handle the mug until it cools enough to handle. Look at the bright side, some people pay extra for mugs with handles designed to hold heat all for the benefit of keeping the drink hot/warm longer. A nonvisible crack in your mug handle and by George you’ve got it!
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