Moon Family FAQ #1 - What is a Vacuum Bottle?

Ever wondered why the contents of your stainless steel, vacuum-sealed water bottle magically stay nice and chilly, or warm and comforting?

Well if you are, here’s a little (somewhat scientific) rundown of how a vacuum insulated water bottle works for the fellow nerds out there. 

A little bit of background

Firstly, we have Scottish scientist Sir James Dewar to thank for this awesome little invention. Around about 1872, he wanted to keep liquids cold enough to investigate their properties. After some fiddling, the ingenious professor invented an insulated glass goblet to do the trick. 

Dewar didn’t get around to patenting his design. Instead, he became the first person to create liquid hydrogen (okay, this was arguably more important). 

In 1904, two German glass-blowers picked up Dewar’s previous ‘goblet’ design, in processing making it more robust and suitable for daily use. The insulated bottle was born. 

Okay, but how does it actually work though?

To put it simply (or not); vacuum insulation is the space between two walls of metal, which are partially evacuated of air. This reduces heat being transferred by conduction or convention (remember these from Grade 8 Science?)

Let’s simplify with an example: 

If you pour water heated at 10 degrees into a Moon Bottle, the inner wall will quickly match this heat. The outer wall, however, will stay at room temperature so when you handle the bottle it won’t be cold or wet (the latter is called sweating - gross!) 

The air trapped between the inner and outer wall acts as a buffer, so the temperature doesn’t transfer between the two. Hence why the contents will stay at 10 degrees for up to 24 hours.   

What if I want to chill the water inside a vacuum bottle? 

Unlike single-walled drink bottles you cannot put your Moon Bottle into the fridge expecting it to cool down your contents. Instead, try adding some ice cubes to cool down any lukewarm-H2O. You could even add some ice cubes with a little flavour. We’re thinking lemon or mint?

Remember, the double-walled vacuum seal feature of the moon bottle will keep chilled contents at the same temperature for up to 24 hours (12 hours if hot).

Have any questions reading your Moon product? Share your suggestions with us, we'd love to hear about them!!

Our Moon mission is to promote the use of reusable products to help improve the health of the planet and everyone on it. You can join the reusable revolution by purchasing a Moon Reusable product here