I was never really able to get the bad smell out of my hario switch base. Baking Soda paste, baking soda/water soaking, 50/50 warm water/vineger soaking, boiling, baking in the oven... nothing really works. Baking reduces the scent the most, but it's temporary. Some of the scent comes back as it cools. Then it becomes fully stinky after a week or two. Now, the same problem is happening to the gaskets on my airscape containers, and these stink even more. Trying to keep all of these things at limited stinkyness has become an unenjoyable full time game of whack-a-mole. I'm gonna stop using all of this stuff... and never buy anything else that incorporates silicone again.
I have both a switch and an airscape and don't notice any smells other than a what rubber smells like 🤷
Same. OP has something else going on.
Drying in a wet area with no airflow and fungal environment? My guess.
Yeah... I thought It could be the humidity. I keep it around 50% for my guitars, piano and double bass. I guess silicone holds moisture just like wood. I hadn't thought of that.
Bro silicone does not "hold moisture"
No offense, but this sounds like it is in your head.
My roommate doesn't smell it, but he's a smoker. It's possible that I have sensitive smell. I can't say for sure that the airscape gaskets are affecting the flavor of the coffee, but the hario switch base is, for sure. I can pick up that scent in the flavor when I use it.
Does he smoke in the house? Or outside next to windows thats close to where you dry your switch?
I notice nothing on my switch and I honestly just rinse with water when I finish my pour overs.
he probably used dishwasher
I wash mine in the dishwasher all the time, it's fine.
I don't have a dishwasher. I hate them.
I bet I've used my switch 1000 times and tbh, I don't clean it all that much outside of just running water through it. A very occasional take apart, soap and water, etc. It has a faint coffee smell to it. Idk what's going on with your setup
How do you take it apart? Mine is really dirty because of the hard water build up, specifically where the glass sits on the silicone that you can’t really reach. I’m thinking about taking it apart to scrub it out
You peel it off, it’s just ‘fit’ on there
Twist and pull it apart. It’s explained on the box, or on a leaflet in the box it came in, iirc.
Idk I host cadaver labs and get blood and biological and nasty smelling who knows what all over silicone and it doesn’t retain any of that smell as long as it’s washed before stuff has a chance to dry. Is there any chance you’ve let coffee dry before rinsing it or cleaning?
Never had smells with my ceramic switch or the rubber. Most are saying no smells.
This comes up in vaping too, where a person will do everything to remove the smell from silicone bits. I think a small group of people are just very sensitive to the smell of silicone and the rest of us will never notice it.
I am extremely sensitive to any impact from silicone and I o keep my stuff very clean
Have you tried putting the silicone base into dish washer (take out the ball valve of course)
I'd think the enzymes in dish washer pod/powder/tablet can help remove organic residue.
That's what I do. I just rinse it with plain water after every use and then once a week or so, I disassemble the entire unit and throw it all in the dishwasher.
If you are talking about a rancid coffee smell or taste, I’d recommend getting some Purocaff or Cafiza and giving your components a good long soak in hot water and the cleaning powder. It will break down all of the oils and after a thorough rinse, it will give it a fresh start.
Bake it an oven at 265 for about 30 minutes. Or search for NYTimes silicone smell removal for a more detailed version of what i posted.
I do that with my silicone ice trays, and it works fine, but like OP said, it's temporary.
Come to think of it, silicone does suck, OP's not crazy.
Yep! I really wish someone could figure out a silicone formulation which doesn't suck in odors.
I understand and appreciate the dilemma and have it myself. In the end, I get no taste change from anything silicone that picks up odor. The Weber Bird is another example of lots of silicone in addition to the Switch, the April Switch and the base of the new Hario Neo.
I've stopped trying to get the odor out, it'll just be back ASAP anyway. There are still products left to try though if it continues to irritate you, Cafiza powder or wipes or Urnex Dezcal liquid helped me a bit more but the smell just came back quickly.
Also unsure if they are long term safe for silicone. One shot didn't hurt mine but multiple soaks may cause degradation. It is frustrating but thankfully, lots of other options are out there.
Sunlight. A few hours in direct sunlight, especially on a warm day, will take out the food smell. Learnt that trick from the Instant Pot crowd. The gaskets always pick up a ton of food smells that the dishwasher never fixes. Sunlight always somehow works.
I've noticed this too with gaskets on travel mugs. They get a rancid coffee smell eventually and it's impossible to get out.
If you dare bring it up here everyone will down vote you and claim it doesn't exist. A quick Google search will show that silicone is permeable and can retain coffee oils, especially under heat.
I don't have a great solution for you, but just want to acknowledge that you're not delusional or doing something wrong. Some people just don't notice for whatever reason.
You literally have to remove gaskets on any beverage container that has gaskets and clean both the gaskets and underneath them every use. I guarantee you are not doing that. Even water bottles or beverage containers where you only use them for water, you have to do the same thing. The only way a silicone piece will retain smell is if there is a hole or crack in it for bacteria to grow in. Silicone is a non-porous material by default so anything that gets on it is just on the surface which can be cleaned
Of course I clean it, but not in between each sip or splash, so coffee has time to dry as the gaskets are near the lid.
I don't know why people get so offended that other people notice smells in silicone, especially when there are endless articles like this one on the NYTimes about how to get these difficult smells out, which literally says to cook it in an oven.
Whoa, I've heard of all these techniques except for burying in cat litter.... With the amount of fragrances loaded in, I couldn't possibly imagine trying that. Oven is the ole standby...
Ceramic V60