Does keeping hot water in a thermos for 8-10 hours breed bacteria?

From my understanding, it should not be breeding bacteria as long as your thermos was previously cleaned (scrubbed) with dish soap and previously boiled water or soaked with a strong chlorine bleach solution and rinsed with boiled water.

It's all about keeping it clean. Wash daily before filling with hot, just boiled water and dish soap - shake it up then rinse. Scrub weekly with a bottle brush, dish soap and hot water to disrupt any biofilm that is trying to form. Make sure the water is above 140F when you put it in and cap right away - mycobacteria cannot survive this temp for 30 minutes.
Finally, every vessel you use for drinking should be washed & sanitized. I use the dishwasher, which heats the water to 145F, with the heated drying cycle for all of our dishes, glasses, etc. If hand washing, our tap water is 138F - it is important to use soap and a cloth or brush on each piece when handwashing too - not just a hot rinse. Don't forget the glass by your bed and the one in the bathroom - they are great breeding grounds for airborne bacteria if you let them sit moist for days on end without a good wash.

Thank you so much for this thorough explanation. I am slowly adapting to all these MAC protocols. Also, if one is both washing and rinsing water bottles with boiled water, how do your boil enough water for all this washing and rinsing--and then for cooking and personal hygiene? Wondering about vegetables also, since I buy a ton of fresh vegetables a week--leafy greens, etc.

About the handwashing of dishes, etc, how do you manage it if the water is so hot? Rubber gloves?

Thank you for being such a support to all of us here!

Aida

Thank you for your reply.

I recently converted my drinking bottles/cups to Yeti brand as they can all be cleaned in the dishwasher. Makes things a little simpler trying to keep things safe. Rosemary

Yikes, I wrote a reply yesterday and it doesn't seem to have posted - my devices have been doing mandatory updates all week and who knows where things went.

So, I adapted by increasing the water heater temperature to 135F (keeps NTM from growing) and filtering my kitchen faucet with an in-line dual filter - water passes through a 1.0 micron cylinder, then a .2 micron one (which traps any NTM.)

No more boiling. Use the filtered water for cleaning, drinking, etc. Make sure to keep a good, conservative schedule of changing the filters.

That sounds like a game changer, Sue! Exactly what I need because I still work and have SO much on my plate. Would you be willing to share what brand of inline filter system you bought? Sounds like a worthy investment for me as my BE is mild to moderate, is in all lobes, with the worst of it in right upper and middle lobes—and now MAC and Nocardia Farcinica. Thank you so much for all you give in this forum.

It doesn't have a brand name, but is a 2 cylinder unit, the filters are the ones used in dental offices. It's not my area of responsibility, but I'm sure they are ordered online, possibly Amazon and say either food grade hospital grade. They're about 10" long. You put the 1.0 or 2.0 micron one first to trap larger particles and the .2m one second to get the little bugs. Choose "high flow" if there's a choice. I think the 1-2 m ones are under $10, the finer .2m ones are somewhere between $30-60 each. People who RV and sometimes hook up to questionable water sources use the .2 m ones as well to avoid getting sick. We spend 6 months each in 2 different places and thefilters are each changed twice a year in each place, so in one home maybe every 3 months - but we are not average there are 2 of us and we feed and host a lot of company. Also, if the flow slows down we change them.

Many thanks again.

Sue, the filter models that I see on-line are under-the-sink, cold water only. Is this what yours is? Do you have separate hot and cold taps at the sink? Is there concern about regrowth in the piping downstream of the filters?
And, is exposure to MAI organisms from drinking tap water as big a risk as from breathing steam in the shower? And, speaking of showers, there will be regrowth in the piping just upstream from the showerhead, so why the focus on the showerhead? Cleaning that piping would be next to impossible.
I apologize for the nerdy/nit-picky questions - I am a retired wastewater engineer and I can't help myself!
Sarah