Cleaning bottles

kenmc

What do you folks do to clean your bottles out. No matter what I have tried they always smell rancid, like sour milk, when I take em out to use on a spin. I've tried hot water alone and washing up liquid, breadsoda, milton. I let them dry and then put them away with the lids on loosely and the bitevalves open. Yet they always smell gross, even the one that only contains water, not energy drink (which smells TOTALLY gross). Short of dumping them after every spin, what am I missing here?
Additionally, how long do you use/keep them for before getting new ones? I got 2 new ones in April, so they're only 4 months old.

stuf

I've got a Look bottle which has smelled terrible since the day I got it no matter what I do. On the other hand I've got a wiggle branded 1 litre bottle which has never smelled in the slightest

Planet X

Bottle scrubber........


Does the biz.


I know.........the dark **** down the bottom.
Scrubber does it.

blorg

Planet X wrote: »

I know.........the dark **** down the bottom.

Don't talk about that stuff, I am pretty sure I had an advanced civilisation living down there on one of my bottles earlier this year :eek:

Planet X

Deep.

Hermy

Boiling water is important.
Be careful though cause boiling water can be hot.

fish-head

Hermy wrote: »

Be careful though cause boiling water can be hot.

Sometimes..

Thomas_S_Hunterson

Use a bit of milton, it should get rid of the smell.

kenmc

pretty sure i've used milton too. they seem fine when i put them away though, it's when i take them down again to use them they're rancid.

Thomas_S_Hunterson

I think the problem is that the plastic is quite permeable and so the odour seeps through it. When you go to wash it, you only remove the surface smell as such.

It's be an interesting useful experiment to test a few different bottles of different types of plastic to see which one's retain smell and which one's don't.

Ciaran500

Dishwasher?

paddyb

i wash them with milton after every ride

crashoveroid

It happens to alot of bottles with Milton you can leave it in it until your spin then just empty rinse and put whatever you want to put in then thats what i do and put them in the dishwasher first.

irishmotorist

I usually just use water (apart from a long weekender) so I don't have the problem much. What you could use is homebrew sterilising agent. I do the odd bit of wine brewing at home and this is what I use on all that equipment. The health shop in Blanchardstown centre that's kind of opposite O'Briens sandwiches on the ground floor. They have a very small home brew supplies section that includes sterilising agent. It's basically a powdered disolvable bleach but I suppose milton and the like would be similar.

kenmc

yeah I have sterilizer from homebrewing i might give it a try, good suggestion.
might also try thin bleach and vinegar, it's a no-rinse homebrew sanitizer too.

Bambaata

someone told me before that putting them in the freezer kils all bugs or anything that you dont want in them. that would be after cleaning of course. that said i'm not sure what it would do for the smell. i clean them out after every spin and leave them in sunlight and they dont smell in the slightest and they are about 5 to 6 months old

tunney

After a while you just have to throw them out!

niceonetom

i boil em every now and again. that'll sterilize them all right but doesn't totally eradicate the smell. TinyExplosions gave me a good tip when i bought a team bottle that smelled like petrochemical plant. very hot water + fairy liquid, filled to the brim and left over night. totally removed the chemical smell - don;t know if it works as well for the, eh, organic smell.

i store em with the tops off too. and make sure they're good and dry.

BH2008

Camelbak have a new bottle thats supposed to have no smell/taste, I think they may be in the 12-15 euro price bracket which seems a lot for a bottle though....

Bambaata

possibly the ones i have? http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/Cycle/7/Camelbak_Podium_710ml_Bottle/5360033553/

i have these a few months and they are still perfect and i have left them with energy drink in them for a few days by accident here and there, a quick rinse with fairy liquid and a quick scrub has worked so far

the main reason why i got them was for the simple fact i don't have to open the tops to drink.

Vélo

BH2008 wrote: »

Camelbak have a new bottle thats supposed to have no smell/taste, I think they may be in the 12-15 euro price bracket which seems a lot for a bottle though....

I bought two of these and they're great. No bad smell or taste at all. They cost €14 each.

TinyExplosions

As tom said, filling with hot water and a lil fairy works a treat, or also try denture tablets (the fizzy ones) they work well for cleaning and steralizing

irishmotorist

I wonder what tipping a pile of coke (liquid variety) into it would do. You know what it does to a penny etc. I'd say it would be either clean, or you'd have cola bottle tasting water forever!

Thomas_S_Hunterson

It wouldn't clean it. If you've ever tried to wash out an actual coke bottle, it's impossible to get rid of the smell of the coke completely.

unionman

Hot sudsy water, use a brush to ensure removal of any residue, as it tends to cling to the inside of the bottle, rinse, dry thoroughly and store with lids off. No problems, bog standard Specialized bottles.

E@gle.

paddyb wrote: »

i wash them with milton after every ride

+1 on the milton and he gets ride of the smell aswell.

Chips Lovell

I wash mine with the rest of the dishes. Never smell.

hunnymonster

We just put them in with the other dishes in the dishwasher. Camel packs occassionally get the premier treatment with a bit of breadsoda or lemon juice which seem to work well. Eventually though you do have to throw them out.

My mother in law thinks we have some weird water bottle fetish. With two people in the house training for endurance sports, at some stage you just have to admit defeat and accept there will be water bottles everywhere.

doozerie

Milton, or some other sterilising fluid or tablets, usually works for me when washing out with a brush proves insufficient. I generally use it just to kill bacteria, but obviously that often gets rid of smells too by eliminating the cause ...and by replacing the smell with that of Milton! If a smell develops while the bottle is stored, it sounds like you haven't killed off the bacteria in the bottle before storing it away - a stronger solution of Milton might be what you need, and perhaps leave it sit overnight in the bottle (it'll need a certain amount of time to kill the bacteria anyway, the bottle instructions suggest 15 minutes, but overnight works for me).

When it comes to the smell of energy drinks, I haven't bothered trying to eliminate that smell so I'm not sure how Milton fares against it. I just re-use the same bottle for energy drinks every time (I scrub it out after each ride), with my second bottle only ever containing water. My bottles last for years usually, quite often when they die they go out with a dramatic flourish such as launching themselves from the bottle cage on a bumpy descent or even biting the dust in some bizarre bottle cage + bottle suicide pact by leaping from the bike still attached to most of the bottle cage. I think I've only ever had to throw out bottles that have developed holes (from excessive road "rash").

monument

I didn't buy one at the time I bought the holder, so I've been using an wide energy drink bottle with a sports cap and the label taken off.

Just filling it up with water until I leave it on the bike around town at a weekend night, then I replace it, just in case.