Water Bottle Hygiene
A tip I would like to pass on to every one is cleaning your water bottles. This past race season I had 3 of my racers, including myself, get sick from a dirt/moldy water bottle. Over the past season, I left a water bottle in my truck for the night.The next morning I got in my truck and without thinking about it, took a swig of the remaining liquid. I downed almost the entire contents before I noticed that a large piece of mold had formed in my bottle over night. I spit out the liquid that was in my mouth and felt sick immediately. For the next 48 hours I did not feel my self. I felt lite headed and not very energetic. One of my teammates was so sick he considered going to the hospital.
You can get very sick from this type of mold. If you look in the water bottle you presently use, there is a good chance some dirt or product build-up is on the inside of the bottle.
So here is a way to stop this problem.
Get yourself a brush that will fit inside your bottles that is able to reach all the ridges and crevices inside the bottle. I personally use Ivory dish soap and apply it to the brush and scrub them after every ride. Take a good look in the bottle before you finish to make sure you got everything. If you find that the taste of soap is always in your bottles, I recommend a mouth wash rinse. It will help take any bad tastes away. Pour a cap full in your bottle and swish it around the entire inside. You can leave it in to soak for a while as well.
By properly cleaning your bottles, you can avoid this unpleasant consequence.
Happy Trails.
Jonathan Skelcher Coach/Owner Fitfix Racing Inc.
I have sugar + sodium in my bottles for most workouts. I usually just rinse them afterwards with tap water, making sure to spray it out of the top too. If it’s a favorite bottle and it’s getting visibly moldy I hit it with dish soap and a bottle brush. For the bottle body that seems to be enough to keep them going indefinitely. The tops/valves are super hard to clean though. Qtips and such, if you really want to save it. Bottles last maybe 1y in active rotation then just need to be replaced.
Am I am idiot for not using the dishwasher? Is there a sterilizer product you swear by? Would love to know any tips.
Also, how did a thread with only a couple of replies, and one that hadn’t had any action in TWO DECADES survive The Snap, yet others with 100s of replies are gone to us???
Bike bottles are like bike shorts. You gotta wash them every single time.
Mine go in the dishwasher, with the top open, on a regular hot wash cycle and heat dry. That’s enough to sterilize them. You can, if needed, pull the black rubber stopper out of the lid and brush it, but that’s rarely required if you’re washing your bottles after every use.
If you need to bring a herd of bottles back up to snuff, fill your kitchen sink with very hot water, add a glug of bleach and let them soak. You can put in some dish soap if you want. Any stubborn spots can come off with a brushing. And if they don’t, dude, it’s time to pitch it and get a new one.
I know people love their souvenir bottles from various races, and so do I. But I limit my bottle collection to clear bottles. That way if any goobers develop, I can see them. And the insulated bottles? Nice concept, but if I can’t see my drink, I don’t want it.
And I don’t even want to contemplate what’s in some people’s bike frame hydration bladders. How many people tell themselves, it’s just water, it’s fine? Ew.
I’m reading all of slow twitch start to finish, it’s the only marginal gain I have left after the plastic surgery I had done to make my face more aero. I think when I finish I’ll have the knowledge to go sub-15:30
That’s so gross, please tell me it’s AI generated. Even I didn’t let that happen, though with three females in the household (excluding the furry one) I would’ve been kicked out
My ftp went up by 2 percent not washing my bottles. microbes are fully oxidised, which enhaces uptick at the ventilatory threshold plus the time I spend not washing I can be in a moon boot praying to the holy chakras. Recovery is crucial
