The American South is no stranger to summer heat. With many states exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit daily in those sunny months, it can feel borderline unbearable.
And with 91.7% of households owning at least one vehicle, it’s not just people that succumb to the high temperatures. If left in 95-degree weather, the interior of a car can well surpass 120 degrees Fahrenheit in just 30 minutes.
So after leaving his car in the sun all day, it was no surprise to a TikTok user named Stanton that his black interior would be scorching. But a cracked windshield? Not what he expected.
An F-150’s mystery damage
In a dramatic mishap that’s amassed over 1.7 million views since its post on Aug. 19, southern man Stanton (@stantonrhodes) gained over 144,300 likes by showing TikTok viewers his shattered windshield. Opening the passenger door to his Ford F-150, Stanton comes to find out that his windshield was cracked… from the inside.
“Man, I came home from work today, ready to get in my truck, and my windshield looks like this,” Stanton begins.
Stanton pans to his truck windshield, looking as though it’s been hit with a baseball.
“How does this even happen?” Stanton asks.
Perplexed by the damage, Stanton spent over an hour reviewing security footage to uncover the cause, but finds nothing.
“There was nothing there,” Stanton says. “It wasn’t cracked, and then it was.”
What cracked his Ford truck?
He brings the phone closer to the car for further examination then takes a look from the inside.
“[I] start looking around, everything looks the same, other than this top to this cup right here,” Stanton says.
He picks it up off the passenger floorboard.
“Son of a gun’s cracked,” Stanton says.
Then the breakthrough hit. Stanton discovered the damaged lid to his Bubba Cup, and it all made sense.
@stantonrhodes ♬ original sound – Pappy
“So these Bubba Cups, they get hot, build-up enough pressure, the top can fly off,” Stanton says.
He picks up the lid and places it at the center of the shattered glass. It fits the size of the damage perfectly. Stanton’s Bubba Cup lid had popped-off the cup, and at seemingly high speeds, hit and shattered his windshield.
“No bueno,” Stanton concludes.
More common than you think
Stanton isn’t the only one to experience this phenomenon. Audience members were flooding the comment section, sharing their own stories.
“I had the exact same thing happen, in the same truck,” one commenter said.
The car’s model and make likely has little to do with things, of course.
“My son left a Bubba Cup just like that by his bed with homemade hot chocolate and peppermint Rumchata in it by his bed for about a week. And now I now have a hole in the ceiling the size of the lid,” another commenter added.
Yet, because this commenter’s home is presumably temperature controlled, it’s safe to say that the external heat was not the issue. Rather the contents of the Bubba Cup.
So it wasn’t the heat in the Bubba Cup that caused it to pop?
It’s inconclusive.
“Probably fermentation in the cup to create that kind of pressure and the heat didn’t help,” commenters speculate.
And upon further examination of Stanton’s cup, it did contain juice. He later said so in the comments.
“It was about a half inch of juice,” Stanton replied.
It’s not brand specific
But this isn’t happening with just Bubba Cups, one viewer shared how it even happened to her… with a Stanley.
“I left a Stanley thermos in my back seat for 2-3 months, the lid blew off while driving and sounded like a shotgun, followed by the nastiest rancid coffee smell ever,” a viewer exclaimed.
It’s not a problem with the type or brand of cup, but rather the material it’s made out of. Both Bubba Cups and Stanley’s are constructed out of stainless steel, which is known for it’s insulating properties. But when its contents are left in there too long, if it’s not water, they are susceptible to fermentation.
OK. Wait, so what is fermentation?
Fermentation is a chemical change brought about by microscopic yeast, bacteria, and molds. This process can lead to an increase in gas within a container, potentially building the pressure within.
Which means, in the case of stainless steel cups, it can create an almost pressure cooker-like environment. When externally heated, the cup has a higher chance of bursting.
So, while Stanton’s mishap is no more than misfortune, his video highlights the unexpected dangers of what can happen when leaving non-water liquids in externally heated containers for excess amounts of time.
The Daily Dot reached out to Stanton (@stantonrhodes) for comment via TikTok direct message as well as Stanley and Bubba Cup.
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