As I was poking at the nozzle of a water bottle with a toothpick trying to get the final
bits of black gunk out, I was thinking there has to be a better way. Who’s got a system.
My usual system is a quick rinse for pure water bottles, hot soapy water and a brush if I use
sport drink and an occasional trip through the dishwasher. If I notice some funk in the
hard-to-reach places I’ll soak them in hot soapy water which will loosen it, but not remove it.
I still have to scrape the nasty bits out with a toothpick.
I have pretty good luck with a soak in a scalding-hot, soapy sink.
The key is to get water into the sports drink bottles right away, it seems often the ‘funk’ is sugar-related.
The hot soapy water, along with a baby-bottle brush, and I’m usually pretty good.
I do wish my dishwasher had a ‘sanitize’ feature like restaurants do, gets it flaming hot.
I’ve started using the polar insulated water bottles because they have a removable valve in the cap. You can unscrew the bite valve from the cap and easily clean both. FYI
Something I learned years ago to keep the funk from growing in my camelbak bladder is to rinse thoughly after use, drain it and stick it in the freezer - there will always be some sugar residue leftover so I freeze it before the funk can start. I use the same technique for my Aero drink anti-splash thingy and all the tops to my water bottles – which are so hard to clean.
Most important thing is cleaning it just after use. If not possibly immeduately just half fill, squirt water out through the nozzle. Half fill again with water and dish soap and squirt again and let the soapy water in the bottle. You can come back up a couple of hours later to finish the job.
My son uses a mouth guard that he cleans daily with tablets. He reported to me recently that the same tablets are excellent to deeply clean bottles. Camelbak also has these tablets but the ones used to clean the mouth gards are much cheaper and readily available.
I like to wash after every use in dishwasher using high temps. I also maybe once a month or so, soak in a bleach - water mix then throw back into dishwasher with high temps.
I’m in a minimum of 3 water bottle a day family (at least 1 for me, 1 for wife, 1 for girl to take to school), so cleaning water bottles was a much discussed subject.
I used to believe that putting them in the dishwasher would ruin them, so I hand washed them. The gunk was getting too much. And the cleaning of the nozel was not getting them clean enough. The wife just started putting them in the dishwasher and that was that. No more gunk, they seem to last just about as long, and cheap graphics just wear off a little quicker.
Oh, I only buy the bottles out of the “discount” boxes at the shop. So, my bottles sport funky colors, obscure team names, or now defunk local teams. They all hold fluids just fine. As the bottle do wear, I pick which ones will be “tossable” at races.
I guess, I wash mine with the fluid of choice on the next ride/run, but that’s about it. When the tube in my camelback gets too much black in it, I might use some bleach, but that’s only once a year at best.
FishHog
P.S. Perhaps this is why I have such a good immune system.
Dishwasher after every use. I try to make sure the valve is open and don’t let them sit around dirty for more than a day or two but other than that, I just wash them with all the other dishes in the house.
The dishes never grow black stuff either so something must be working
I guess, I wash mine with the fluid of choice on the next ride/run, but that’s about it. When the tube in my camelback gets too much black in it, I might use some bleach, but that’s only once a year at best.
FishHog
P.S. Perhaps this is why I have such a good immune system.
If you really want to boost your immune system you might --besides never washing your bottles, share them with your friends.
You are kidding about never washing your bottles I hope. There are limits to our immune system.
