If you use the newer Camelbak bottles with the Podium Jet Valve I recommend that you take a look at your bottes and this video. You may want to give them a clean. The older ones don't seem to be as adept at growing mold and stay in your bottle carrier better (deeper side retention detents).

Ha! I just figured this out 2 days ago. I got to looking closely at the valve, and got grossed out. I took them apart, gave them a little scrub, and soaked in bleach. Now as good as new. I did tear part of one exterior trying to get it apart. They are tightly assembled.

The old ones may not have as good flow but the flow increase is facilitated by a bacteria trap. And I was grossed out too when I saw what was inside. I did a hydrogen peroxide soak in addition to soap, brush, etc.

Great bottles, but yeah, the get really gross. I find the tops to both old and new ones rather challenging to clean.

I find that the bottles that are for water only don't get as gross as the ones that I use with sport drink.

Good video but couple things to be aware of, from personal experience
Butter knife.. make sure there are no serrations or "cutting" ridges on them. I cant describe them better, but if its not smooth be very very careful. They will cut skin, especially fingers & webbing in addition to cutting rubber orings. I've done both, sadly.
Instead of that jar brush try a toothbrush, a cheap plain brush, dont need fancy gum sweepers or rubber bits on the bristle end, just a cheap toothbrush. They get into the small ridges easily, can "sweep" away the mold or nasty bits. I mean they clean your teeth so heh. I use my old ones as kitchen drain scrubbers & we used to use them in the military to scrub various things other than the floor

Now I have to go get mine to see what type of cap they have, jesus this is why I trust disposable so much more, I dont have to worry about mold. Long time ago I pulled the oring outta my walmart coffee travel mug, I like em with milk but always wash them out asap. Found lots of nasty stuff caked up under the ring so now I throw them in the dishwasher top shelf basket once a week or so.

Funny. I followed the video a week or two ago with my two bottles and it was interesting. Rode today with high carb and electrolyte mix and immediately rinsed them out. The I figured, what the heck, just throw the lids without the ring and top-hat thingy in the dishwasher and see what happens. Hopefully it will not melt the little clear nipple thingy. TBD

[QUOTE=Terex;23361280]If you use the newer Camelbak bottles with the Podium Jet Valve I recommend that you take a look at your bottes and this video. You may want to give them a clean. The older ones don't seem to be as adept at growing mold and stay in your bottle carrier better (deeper side retention detents).

/[QUOTE]

Lovely, another quirky POS from Camelbroke. I thought the bottles were pretty good until I read this, unlike their awful hydration packs.

Well, penicillin was discovered through mold, so it’s not all bad😜

The missing piece is if the entire cap assembly is safe for the dishwasher, not just the cap.

I have a bottle of this:

Amazon.com : milton sterilising fluid

you will have to read about this , interesting history, easy to use

I’ve been putting my Camelback bottles in the dishwasher for years. No issues. I do pull out the inner thing. Is that the “top hat” someone mentioned?

That said, my dishwasher is a Bosch and it does not have a heating element for drying. So as far as I know nothing gets hotter than the water going in.

I’ve not disassembled mine as shown in that video. Maybe grossness awaits if I do. I don’t care. It hasn’t hurt me after all these years.

I have the Original older harder to take apart bottles so for years been using the boil water, let it cool a bit and put the top in the water + let soak + then disassemble (made easier with the soaking and butter knife) and clean.

Never heard of this stuff before reading this thread. Interesting formulation: plain (table) salt water & low concentration of common household bleach's active ingredient, no surprise that it's effective.

Don't be surprised if you see 'stuff' left behind though, what you're seeing needs some kind of mechanical action to remove it. Otherwise it's just food for what's going to become established once more when conditions are right, Nature abhors a vacuum!

wow

I use fairly bland Specialized Purist bottles (most times)

I rinse them after a ride … sometimes … that’s it ***

if they are really filthy and covered with limestone dust or mud I might wash them with dish detergent … maybe …

( *** unless I have Gatorade or similar in one bottle then I might give it more attention )

I user denture cleaning tablets for my water bottles and hydration bladders. A baby bottle brush is cheaper and good for scrubbing.

I went ahead and disassembled one of my Camelback bottles. I've used this one for almost 3 years with sugary drink mixes. Zero signs of mold or gunk. Just a very slight bit of mineral deposits. on one of the o-rings.

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I pull the stopper out and put that and the rest of it in the dishwasher. So either this is working well at cleaning out stuff or the fact I live in a dry desert area causes the parts to thoroughly dry out so mold never grows.

I much more suspect the dishwasher is simply cleaning it well.

Based on what I saw, I won't be bothering to disassemble mine again. There simply doesn't seem to be a reason for me to do that.

Cleaning agents: dishwater soap; bleach; hydrogen peroxide, salt water

I was thinking, what about vinegar mixed with baking soda? It might leave an awful taste, the vinegar, I mean.

UPDATE: Dishwasher did not hurt the caps and their internals. Still hand wash/scrub the bottles since the dishwasher is not recommended.

A bit of bleach. Kills everything and cleans bottles well.

'Fantastic' for kitchen use in spray bottle has bleach in it. It works wonders (hands off, no rubbing is needed) on tea stained kettle or mugs and all kinds of stuff. Don't like that strong smell but put up with it because it just works. Hate vinegar smell, makes me want to throw up, can't use it even if people swear by it for all kinds of cleaning.