I burned my face and the inside of my nose. "Freebasing?" you ask. No...

[qb]

It was an encounter with a superheated liquid. I was cleaning a moldy coffee cup, and thought it would be brilliant to boil the fuck out of it in the microwave. I then put the cup in the sink, but the instant my scrubby-on-a-stick touched the water, it exploded in my face. Let that be a lesson to you.

The burns are 1st degree, fortunately, but my nose is driving me up a wall.

[alittlelark]

1. Big Ouch!!

Take good care of it.

[trotsky]

2. One of those things that sounds like an urban legend but it's not.

Take care of yourself & hope you get better soon!

[miss_kitty]

3. i don't have a microwave

but i saw stuff about that on the news about liquids becoming superheated in microwaves and exploding-i wish you a speedy recovery-kung fu guys and glass blowers have good stuff to put on burns...if you know either ask 'em...

[qb]

4. Thanks for the kind replies.

Coincidentally, my wife came home shortly after with an aloe vera plant a neighbor had given her. That stuff helped a lot!

[daisygirl]

5. Damn, that sucks!

Hope you're feeling better soon!

I've heard that can happen but didn't know whether to believe it or not.

[underpants]

6. Ouch suddenly my foot doesn't feel so bad.

Oh yeah it does.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x1649113

[Richardo]

7. Tell "Mythbusters". They 'proved' this only happens with distilled water

If you got blasted with tap water, that's what they said could not happen. And if you can NOT rely on a low-budget cable television show to provide accurate scientific data, what in God's name is the world coming to??

Hope you feel get better soon. Sorry to hear about that. :scared:

[politicat]

9. our water isn't distilled... heck it has calcium deposits in it.... and

we get superheating on a regular basis. Dropping a sugar cube in the tea concentrate and water is great fun (saucers and care are taken!!) Coffee does the same.

Pcat

[miss_kitty]

11. i saw it on the 'news'-plain old tapwater exploding

and if you cannot believe what you see on the 'news,' what in God's name is the world coming to??
:)

[qb]

12. Tap water with a drop of detergent.

result: Krakatoa

Thanks for the information and the good wishes. I found the MythBusters site
(http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/mythbusters.html)
signed up in their forum, and responded to this episode.

[patcox2]

14. Never mind, I misread the whole post.

.

[GOPisEvil]

8. Simple solution to preventing this.

Stick a wooden or plastic skewer or chop stick on the coffee cup. This will prevent the explosion of the super-heated water.

[qb]

13. Thanks. I'll do that.

Incidentally, I won't be boiling the fuck out of anything from now. I know the specific time it takes to "just barely" heat 2 cups of water to the boiling point and have never had a problem with that, but the wooden stick is a great idea.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

10. I thought that wasn't true

I'm sorry to hear it is!