Spyke
mildlyinfuriating·Mildly InfuriatingbyTheOrcWhoWrites

My ravioli bowl won't unstick. Took about an hour of prying, and still I couldn't unstick the plate.

Update: it took time. And then a quick pry with a knife. Saved the dishes. Ravioli saved too but for raccoons outside probably lol. What I learned about physics....sheesh.

View original on lemmy.world

It has been 6 hours since OP created the ravioli black hole that will eventually consume our planet. I think of all the wasted years I spent worrying as oblivion heads my way.

22

I don't think I'm your guy haha. I do not have a ravioli bowl unfortunately.

3
lemmy.ca

No one is going to mention that OP has a bowl specifically for ravioli?

106
apex32reply
lemmy.world

Well how do you cook ravioli? In your fettuccine bowl?

43

Pour it onto a dish rag and microwave it? I thought this was common knowledge?

6
lemmy.ca

But which pot?

Not my oatmeal pot, or the spaghetti pot

17

These jokes about different pots for each meal are funny until you live with a hoarder for awhile who must have enough pots to cook each food in its own (even though they use the same pot or pan for everything they cook). Ugh it sucked lol

5

Obviously you need to consider how much ravioli you're making when choosing which ravioli pot to take down from your ravioli pot shelf.

3
Diddlydeereply
feddit.uk

I'm confused why there is a plate involved at all.

17
sartalonreply
lemmy.world

I would guess he had the plate over the bowl, while he was microwaving it, to prevent the little sauce splatters during heating.

18

I hope OP learned to use a paper/dish towel from now on if that's the case lmao

2
lemmy.ca

Hot air cooled, contracted, and created partial vacuum is my guess. Make it hot again and it will unstick, I bet.

104

I was gonna suggest just running hot tap water over it for a few minutes until the air inside expanded enough.

16

Yeah, everyone knows that ceramic has more thermal reactivity than air, so the plate will slide right off /s

10
Valmondreply
lemmy.world

No, but the items will get slightly smaller, eventually making an air gap you geniuses.

You do this with crankshafts for example, to get the bearings off so I'm not pulling stuff out of my behind.

0
Rob1992reply
lemmy.world

Yeah but those are different alloys with different thermal expansion and a significantly larger temperature differential and a friction fit, this is a vacuum issue

1
echoreply
lemmings.world

Probably sit the bowl in warm water with ice on the plate. That will increase the pressure inside and aide in the separation.

41
lemmy.ca

Would you want the opposite?

I thought heading the bowl will expand it slightly and increase the suction, cooling it will shrink it and reduce it.

9
Echreply
lemm.ee

Hot air expands and cold air contracts. You want the air in the bowl to be hot so it's not creating negative pressure.

43
tenchikenreply
lemmy.dbzer0.com

The air inside is what is causing the vacuum heat the air, expansion, less vacuum. Cool the air, shrinks, more suction.

Heating both likely the smoothest solution.

27

I could be wrong, but I really believe heating the bowl is the correct answer.

5

You want to create expansion in one and shrinkage in the other so that you have movement that helps break the seal. Technically you could do one or the other, but it'll create more net change if you do both.

0

Put the whole thing in a pot of water and start bringing it to a slow simmer. This will warm the air inside, expanding it and breaking the suction. I got my stuck blender jar open this way, taking it out as soon as the first tiny bubble escaped and quickly unscrewing it before it could cool.

54
sbf
feddit.org

Hot ass water

Edit: Clarification: Poor hot ass water on it or dunk it in hot ass water

Edit 2, electric boogaloo: This is dependent on the material, according to my mother

51
adminreply
sh.itjust.works

Can I use regulat hot water if I don't have access to the ass water?

38

Nope. It has to come straight from the starfish

8
SkaveRatreply
discuss.tchncs.de

Ass water can easily made yourself. No need to get expensive store bought ass water

3

Yeah but KFC or Jack in the box isn't as cheap as it used to be, the only cheap way to make it requires Taco bell now.

2

Instructions unclear, bowl still stuck to plate, but is now covered in sexy posterior dihydrogen monoxide.

11

My water is too bougie and I can't morally exploit it into poverty... Elevated plate it is.

5
yeehawreply
lemmy.ca

Why does he need to rob the hot water first?

5

Someone slept through physics class a few times.

Heat and/or cold would be your friend in this situation.

Personally I would just toss the whole thing in the freezer for the night, but there is a small chance that results in a broken plate in the morning.

If you have an air compressor a blast of air right against the lip of the bowl would probably also pop it off.

Other than that just run hot water over the bowl (or submerge it) and then get the plate cold while being careful to not have the hot water touch the cold plate or visa versa.

Best of luck soldier.

47
seejurreply
lemmy.world

Wouldnt be the opposite? What's keeping the plates together is vacuum. What it needs is to heat the gas inside to make it expand and reduce the vacuum

17
lemmy.zip

Let me walk you through my 3 different answers.

  1. Shrinking the bowl and the plate at the same time might just pop the seal when left in the freezer all night. It would only take a couple Crystal forming in the right spot to break that seal.

  2. Blasting air into the seal could potentially resolve the pressure difference holding the bowl to the plate or force enough air into the bowl that it actually builds positive pressure inside and that pops the bowl off as well.

  3. Heating the bowl would get it to expand slightly and cooling the plate would make it shrink slightly so doing them at the same time could cause the perfect seal they have formed to shift enough that it allows the pressure to equalize/release.

It's less about heating the gas inside the bowl to reverse the vacuum and it's more about breaking the seal that has formed in the first place.

17
lemmy.ca

But heating the gas inside would also work because, no matter how perfect the seal is, it won't matter if there is no vacuum to hold the two pieces together.

16

This is the answer. Leave a hair dryer blowing at the thing for 5 or 10 minutes. It will heat the bowl, and also heat the air inside, which will expand.

10
lemmy.world

The plastic was fused to the glass some how. I pryed it off and salvaged the plate. Also, I already tried all of that.

10
lemmy.zip

Oh you melted the plate to the bowl lol. That's kinda impressive. It does make me wonder if your bowl was not dishwasher safe to begin with. Things shouldn't be melting/fusing in the dishwasher.

20

By "ravioli bowl," do you mean it currently has ravioli in it? If so, put it in the microwave for increments of like 30 seconds.

36
lemmy.world

Pick which one to save and which one to sacrifice. Smash the sacrifice with a hammer to free the other, break them both and realize this is just so like you and every single thing you try to do starts with a half baked plan, then goes off the rails and ruins everything until you've nothing to do but pick up the pieces.

33

I'm the kind of person who reads step 1, does it, and then goes on to read step 2. I'm happy I'm not OP.

15
slrpnk.net

The power of suction is physically limited. That means it either isn't suction or op is crazy weak. My guess is that the plastic melted (probably not from boiling Temp) or op is strongly exaggerating.

25
arinreply
lemmy.world

Air pressure is insanely high compared to a vacuum

25
FreeBeardreply
slrpnk.net

The pressure acts over the area of contact. For a perfect vacuum it would lead to ~1kN of force. This is the same order of magnitude our muscles produce. If you take into account that the vacuum results from cooling over such a small temperature interval the force can't be too high.

3

1kN is equivalent to lifting 100kg.... 220lb for our imperial friends... I don't think I could put that much force on a plate and bowl I was trying not to break

16
lemmy.ca

Your grip on a smooth plastic surface nearly parallel to the force vector you wish to apply is tiny, you cannot exert 1kN in this situation.

14

Got on to scroll on the clock , wasnt dissapointed

1
lemmy.world

The power of suction is physically limited.

Someone has never heard of Delta P.

14
FreeBeardreply
slrpnk.net

It's delta p and not fraction p. The difference between ambient pressure and inner pressure (at least zero) is always smaller than ambient pressure. Delta p is therefore limited.

6
reddthat.com

OK and? A difference of just 2 psi means that a bowl with diameter 4 in. (complete guess) is being held in place with ((4*π)=12.56*2)= 25 lbs of force distributed evenly across the surface of the plate.

A bigger bowl or greater suction changes these numbers dramatically. 2 psi on a 6 in. bowl is held in place with 37 lbs of force. 4 psi on a 6 in. bowl is held in place with 75 lbs of force.

Sure its "limited" in that there can only be a 14.7 pressure difference, but that doesn't mean anything in terms of "this is really hard to undo".

And if there's oil or food or something sealing the gap between bowl and plate preventing the pressure from equalizing... fugheddaboudit.

6
FreeBeardreply
slrpnk.net

I sadly don't understand these units and your point is drained in it. The point I want to make is that the "force" of vacuum is limited by the difference of pressures.

You say it changes "drasticly" with area or suction but that is untrue. It changes linearly with area (not drastically) and pressure difference has a maximum. The maximum is defined by the pressure of the vacuum(=0) and the pressure of the ambient air (1 arm). Both are constant so the maximum is constant and actually not that big.

-5

I could change all the units to potatoes and wombats and my point would still be valid. You are being intentionally obtuse to avoid admitting you're wrong.

4

The delta P you're talking about has much much higher ambient pressure than what is the case here.

And even underwater there is a limit to delta P.

5
BussyGyattreply
feddit.org

Could god microwave a ravioli bowl so hot even he couldn't pry the plate off the top?

10

That stuck bowl of ravioli is slowly forming the next dominant species.

2
XeroxCoolreply
lemmy.world

How do you figure suction is very limited? You've never tried to pull a suction cup straight off, have you? I'm not talking about when suction cups have bad sealing surfaces and slowly leak to the point of popping off or peeling suction cups off from a corner, I'm talking applying it to a good surface and then yanking it.

A shoddy 4.5" suction cup from Harbor Freight is rated at 80lbs carrying capacity for glass, which happens to likely be the same material as the dish (corelle), judging form the thinness. The bowl is probably plastic and had weight on it while these were hot and wet after washing. Please, let me know if you can lift an 80lb dumbell from the end with a single hand with ease.

5
FreeBeardreply
slrpnk.net

The difference between ambient pressure and inner pressure is always smaller than ambient pressure. Delta p is therefore limited. The force comes from Delta p times contact area which is constant.

I sadly don't know your units of mass but as I said a perfect vacuum over an area such as the Bowl is as strong as a muscle. The Ravioli will in no world produce a strong vacuum so muscle will win in most cases.

-1

Here, I'll do metric for you on your theory of muscle being equivalent perfect vacuum. I have some similar corelle dishes. The flat measures 10cm across. That's 78. 5cm^2 area. Assuming OP lives at sea level, 1atm is 1.033kg/cm^2 which puts the total force at over 81kg. This bowl offers no horizontal surfaces to hook fingers under to utilize geometric advantages and is instead entirely dependent on friciton. If your fingertips can squeeze sideways with enough force to pull a smooth, tapered 81kg object without glue, there's a gold bar in a Dubai mall with your name on it.

4 inches diameter, 12.6in^2, 180lbs for the Americans.

At some point between 0 and 81kg of force, I'd start worrying about breaking the plate with such little support around the rim. And, as for the impossibility of a perfect vacuum, I'd be easily convinced the bowl could have more than half of the maximum possible pressure differential. A large portion of the interior volume is probably ravioli, minimizing the gas volume. Ravioli are full of water, which means the remainder of gaseous volume in the bowl was probably mostly steam, pushing out the standard air. Steam has an insane compression ratio as it cools and condenses back into water, at about 1700:1. Go watch the video of a tank car imploding from steam condensation.

I cover my bowls the same way. I always cock the plate to the side for this exact reason. My 1L (4 cup) pyrex bowls with silicone lids can cave 1" if they're allowed to cool for a minute. Steam easily vents from the rim as it's produced but once it starts cooling, the weight of the lid or plate is plenty to get the initial seal

6
FreeBeardreply
slrpnk.net

These are 50 cm wide half spheres. If you find that comparable to the situation in the picture your appetite must be enormous.

1

Rough guess works be 20cm diameter, so 16% of the force required.

And as opposed to the Magdebutger hemispheres, these objects don't come with handles for good grip.

1

it's a bowl, it's like trying to pick up a gold bar, how are you meant to get ANY leverage on it without using a knife or something?

1

an hour of prying

After that much work you should leave is as-is on your coffee table as an art/conversation piece.

16

Hey, if you're using the hot bowl trick, make sure you pay attention to it; if you leave it to get hot and forget, it will be even harder to unstick it because the escaping hot air inside will make a partial vacuum when it cools down.

16
feddit.uk

I also think heating everything up is the smoothest solution. But to offer an alternative, I'd use dental floss to get in between the bowl and plate. If the bowl has slightly rounded edges (I believe it will), it won't be too hard to get floss in. With the floss you'll get inevitably some air in... Which will equalise the pressure and break the vacuum.

As an inferior alternative to floss, fishing line could work for this approach as well.

15
frunchreply
lemmy.world

I feel like this would cause a mild explosion. Not based on any real science, i just imagine that if it's stuck that good there's gonna be a more-than-satisfying pop when those finally separate, lol

That said, i really like your solution ✨

-2

Assuming its empty, i would take the grog oggah boogah solution of smash the blue plastic bowl down the edge of your countertop. Something will give sometime.

Otherwise, did you try twisting the bowl one direction and the plate the other? Torque is typically a more effective force than pulling for friction.

11

The odd thing is I really also thought it might be a great idea because of the frustration. I was ready to destroy it.

2
ani.social

I have no idea what I'm looking at. Wth is a ravioli bowl? A bowl made specifically for ravioli?

9

Like, a bowl is stuck to a plate?

Put the bowl in warm water, put ice on the plate. It'll release within a few minutes

7

That bottom bowl looks plastic, just push on the side gently to try and break the seal around the other dish.

6
feddit.org

Reminds me of when I tried doing some cocktails with a boston shaker (two metal tins). It's pretty easy to get those stuck - since metal bends it's probably easier to get then unstuck than a ceramic bowl, but the cocktail is probably ruined after you have been trying to get the tins unstuck for a couple of minutes. Plus the potential spillage.

4
Lupusreply
feddit.org

I don't know if you did that, but for anybody struggling with those:

You're supposed to put them together at an angle, so that the outer wall of the tins forms one straight line from top to bottom. Like this:

To open it you take them into one hand, hold them on the side where they form the straight line. Then take your other hand and gently smack against the part where the both tins connect with your palm

Here:

Since tin tins are hard to break (though not impossible I can tell from experience) you could also use a hard surface and more force if needed.

If they're still stuck, let some warm water run on where they connect and try again. Although the drink might get watery if you take too much time.

5
feddit.org

Yeah, I did those. What helped me was using very little pressure when putting the tins together, barely enough to create a seal. Some guides suggest pushing them together with a smack to create a seal, which is rather counterproductive when your issue is not being able to open it quickly.

3

Oh yeah, if you use them often enough you'll get a feel for how much pressure you can use, I'm comfortable with using a little smack to close them, but I used to work in a cocktail bar, so I have some experience with them.

3

You could try to get a fillet knife between them, if the hot water trick won't work.

3

Can you slide the bowl across the plate far enough to allow air to flow into the bowl and "break the vacuum"?

2

Well it already got cold, hence the sticking together in the first place. All they need to do is get it hot again.

4