_ForceD_

superpletch

if you use a camelback bottle with the one way valve make sure you take valve apart and clean it regularly. It will get full of black mold, they are easy to take apart and clean.

if you never have give it a try

GuessWhoCycling

I use the Camelback Podium bottle I want to say I use them for about 5 years until they crack along the bottles edge.

I clean the valve after every use with the back end of the bottle brush, the very small part about the size of the inside of the valve. If I use water on a short midweek ride, I rinse them with water. If a longer weekend ride involving a sport drink, I brush them out.

Every few uses, they are soaked in bleach for a good cleaning.

I do have about 10 podium bottles but only use 2 till one breaks. Then replace.

Gotta love the non drip valves!

Bill in VA

I have never replaced a water bottle, unless I like a new design or logo on the bottle. In that case I just add to the collection. I have a lot of vintage bottles of dubious composition, so I use the newer ones.

Doge

Go help clean up any feed zone after a race and you will never need to buy another bottle.

Machka 

Bottles in the process of multiplying ...

BikingTech

I haven't bought any water bottles in over 5 years. I get them free from trade/sports shows or find them left in parks or sometimes on side of road.

Garfield Cat

I would fill the bottle with regular tap water cold and then add just a little to top it off and let it sit for maybe 10 minutes. Then I would put the cap on with the mouthpiece closed and then turn it upside down to make sure the mixture saturates the mouthpiece assembly.

If I add too much bleach, I am concerned about the bleach causing damage to the plastic.

I think its the cap that gets the attention and perhaps most of the germs.

Nowadays, I don't use bleach for the cap. I soak just the cap in hydrogen peroxide, using a coffee cup. This might take longer like 10 minutes. Then I use a cotton Q-tip to clean out the mouth piece to remove the crud.

biker222

This does a good job on describing the cleaning process. I put them in a bowl of hot soapy water with a cap full of bleach and let soak for 1/2 hour.

GuessWhoCycling

dedhed

If you are using water from a public water system it will have a minimum of .2 PPM and a max of 4 PPM of chlorine at the tap

fietsbob

& since Skylab broke up in the atmosphere .. on the way down It ha a Plutonium reactor on board... past choices have ongoing effects...

Fukushima Daiichi ?

topic a long ways from water bottles like you're a long ways from spring?






...

srode1

Yep, that's the way I see it. I use Camelbak Podium Chill bottles almost exclusively. They are a pain to clean the nozzle when mold starts growing in them but it can be done. When the inside starts getting yukky, they go in the dishwasher on sanitize cycle and come out like new.

Milton Keynes

Restaurant glasses are cleaned & sterilized (hopefully!) in the dishwasher and doesn't have someone's teeth marks on the mouthpiece.

NoWhammies

Years ago I made the mistake of putting my water bottles in boiling water. My thinking was that the boiling water would kill whatever bacteria was growing in there. All that ended up happening is that bottles became hard to squeeze. Not my smartest move.

mstateglfr 

I have 1 Camelback bottle. It sits unused on the top shelf and I doubt it was used at all in 2018. I have 0 interest in having to set up a cleaning process beyond the regular cleaning process done for all the rest of our dishes. If I cant toss a water bottle in the dishwasher to get fully clean, it wont be used.
Another general rule is that if I need to youtube how to clean a water bottle, then its is over-engineered and not for me. It shouldnt take a video sharing site to teach me how to clean a plastic water bottle.

Im lazy though.

pdlamb

What cute little baby bottles! Are they boys or girls?

bocobiking

NoWhammies

@bocobiking you could have told her they are her inheritance...

Cattriker55

I would be more worried about replacing the water bottle cage than I would the bottles. I learned the hard way that the cages can lose their spring and don't hold the bottles as well. Mine let go of my water bottle and flipped me. Fortunately, I was on a country road and I wasn't thrown into any oncoming traffic, but I definitely ended upside down on the other side of the road.

AKcyclist

I keep 2. One in my frame rack and the other in a daypack. I never add anything to the bottles like electrolye or energy drinks. This is what gums them up and gives the water and off taste. On really long rides I will have a plastic soda bottle, drink that and add powder and fill with water. I dispose of it after the ride.

sgltrak

I haven't bought a water bottle in 30 years, but I seem to accumulate them from events and giveaways frequently enough that I end up recycling a pile of the cheap ones regularly. The bottles I use on most of my rides are nearly as old as my college-aged kids.

indyfabz

Heh. They breed like rabbits. I had one like this before I lost it:

jon c. 

My Camelbak podium has been going in the dishwasher for years with no problem. I'm way too lazy for anything else.

stephr1

Water/bleach would be my suggestion. Another might be to put it in the dishwasher (with a dishload), set on "Sanitize" cycle (if there is one), turn off heated dry (to prevent warping any plastics).

Works for me....