Uh.. ya, don't do that....

[Diane AKA Traska]

If you get a mini-fridge, don't just turn the thermostat all the way up before verifying that the lower settings are not, in fact, enough to keep your drinks chilled properly.

If you ignore the previous rule, by all means don't load the thing up completely with your diet sodas.

If you do that, then please, by all that's holy, when you get a can out and open it and see that there is slush inside, don't merely comment "Hey, cool... I love slushy soda!" and go on with your day as if nothing is amiss.

Failing all of that, do thank whatever fates may be that when a soda bursts open (causing a LOUD bang from within, like something just broke off and fell hard inside), that it is a) diet, therefore not sticky, and b) frozen solid, making clean-up simple.

On the up-side, the three sodas that came close to bursting only bowed out the top of one and the bottom of two, so they're safe.

[greencat]

I had a too-cold mini fridge implode a can.  I'm still a bit puzzled on the physics that produced that reaction - the can should have exploded like two of the others did (the fourth can, incidentally, was simply very cold.)  The only thing I can think of is that perhaps the gas in that can was all at the top instead of dispersed through the liquid, and it contracted before the liquid inside tried to start freezing.

[catwhiskers]

The local primary school - this is a good number of years ago - had a Christmas concert. Because the hall was not large enough to take all the children plus parents, siblings, grandparents, etc., etc., cont. page 94, they held the concert outside in the playground. Since it was midwinter, they laid on tea and coffee for the adults, and for the children, fruit drinks made up with hot water.

So children's drinks can be made hot, right? And children - specifically, mine - now know this.

Did you know that if you pour half a pint - and just so we're clear, UK pints are bigger than US pints - of Irn Bru (other carbonated drinks are available) into an electric kettle and set it to boil, you get a six foot high, bright day-glow orange, fizzy, hot fountain across your kitchen? And that the stain will never come out of the ceiling plaster?

Also, for most of a week, your mother will complain that her tea tastes odd.

Who knew?

Want to know what is worse? I read this post out loud to a friend of mine. Who now wants to try it... (even though she's definitely old enought to know better).

My response was "Not in my kitchen you don't!"

If you can tell me where to get this beverage in the US, I will do it in my backyard and make a video!

Oh dear, what have I started?

I don't know if you can get it in the US, it can be difficult enough to get in the UK once you're outside Scotland. However, as others have suggested, anything carbonated and orange should do the trick.

(I am eagerly anticipating the video and suddenly feeling 25 years younger than I ought to. I think I've rediscovered my inner child).

[Mal]

The local primary school - this is a good number of years ago - had a Christmas concert. Because the hall was not large enough to take all the children plus parents, siblings, grandparents, etc., etc., cont. page 94, they held the concert outside in the playground. Since it was midwinter, they laid on tea and coffee for the adults, and for the children, fruit drinks made up with hot water.

So children's drinks can be made hot, right? And children - specifically, mine - now know this.

Did you know that if you pour half a pint - and just so we're clear, UK pints are bigger than US pints - of Irn Bru (other carbonated drinks are available) into an electric kettle and set it to boil, you get a six foot high, bright day-glow orange, fizzy, hot fountain across your kitchen? And that the stain will never come out of the ceiling plaster?

Also, for most of a week, your mother will complain that her tea tastes odd.

Who knew?

Want to know what is worse? I read this post out loud to a friend of mine. Who now wants to try it... (even though she's definitely old enought to know better).

My response was "Not in my kitchen you don't!"

If you can tell me where to get this beverage in the US, I will do it in my backyard and make a video!

Oh dear, what have I started?

I don't know if you can get it in the US, it can be difficult enough to get in the UK once you're outside Scotland. However, as others have suggested, anything carbonated and orange should do the trick.

(I am eagerly anticipating the video and suddenly feeling 25 years younger than I ought to. I think I've rediscovered my inner child).

If you do try, it's probably a good idea to stay a good distance away from the kettle... that experiment sounds like it releases a cloud of carbonmonoxide, that could seriously damage your health 

[Fliss]

Fanta makes a suitable substitute. And if you can take the lid off your kettle, or prop it open somehow, you can get a nice orange arc going.

[Mal]

What you really shouldn't do is eat day-old guacamole that's been kept in an airtight plastic container.

*roots through her purse for ANYTHING to get rid of that taste*

[JoW]

If you do try, it's probably a good idea to stay a good distance away from the kettle... that experiment sounds like it releases a cloud of carbonmonoxide, that could seriously damage your health 

The beverage in question is carbonated, right?  Carbonation is carbon dioxide, not carbon monoxide. Carbon dioxide is a suffocating agent but its not nearly as toxic as carbon monoxide.  Setting off many kettles in a closed room would be dangerous, but one or two would just be messy. 

Please record your experiment.  I want to see it, but I don't want to help cleanup the mess.

[ladyknight1]

From experience with soda 2 liter bottles and Mentos, use diet soda. It has the same effect and doesn't attract every ant in the vicinity or leave you with a sticky mess.

[jedikaiti]

From experience with soda 2 liter bottles and Mentos, use diet soda. It has the same effect and doesn't attract every ant in the vicinity or leave you with a sticky mess.

I think Mythbusters noted that Diet Coke specifically seemed to be optimal for that experiment.

[jedikaiti]

I shall go hunting this weekend for a 2nd-hand kettle and some orange soda with which to test this.

[alkira6]

Very explosive. I used an old kettle on an electric burner. I sat it on a cinder block and used a very long extension cord to plug it in.  It works best if the eye is fully hot and then you put the kettle on it and book it back to safety.

Yes, I did do it more than once, why do you ask 

For those in the US, Big K (cheap store brand orange soda) works just as well as Fanta.  I used both for scientific thoroughness.

[Free Range Hippy Chick]

I shall go hunting this weekend for a 2nd-hand kettle and some orange soda with which to test this.

As the original poster on this one, I would like to make it plain to all EHellions, their significant others, parents, children, in-laws, cats, dogs, etc., that I am accepting no responsibility for damage, hysteria, physical harm, mental distress, emotional over-excitement, or effects on family relation.ships, neighbourhood good will, furniture, fixtures, fittings, interior decor, exterior decor or indeed anything else tangible or intangible, consequent on or subsequent to any attempt to boil Irn Bru or any other carbonated drink.

I would also remind EHellions that this is the 'Don't Do That!' thread...

#Retreats to hide behind sofa#

Remember, a UK pint is 20 fl.oz., not 16. Fill the kettle well up.

[oz diva]

Sounds better to do this with Irn Bru, than to drink it. That stuff is nasty. Made from girders, dontcha know.

[GreenHall]

My follow up question is if those who tested the explosiveness are also going to test the 'makes orange flavored tea' portion?

[Diane AKA Traska]

More importantly, where is the YouTube link?