branman1986

If you use Accelerade, or leave crap in your bottles and have mold growing in them, you know how big of a pain it can be to clean 'em out. I found, if you put about a tablespoon of regular powder dishwasher detergent(for the machine, not like Dawn or whatever), fill the bottle 1/3 with hot water & shake for 30 seconds, it gets them spic & span without having to use bleach.

It won't fill the bottle with suds, which keeps the water moving when you shake. It's also got tiny pieces of grit that get rid of the protein film left by accelerade and mold. Voila! Perfect if you need a clean bottle ASAP and can't wait for the dishwasher to run. It also cleans the inside of the caps as well.

LostBoizdown

I thought you were going to say that you had discovered a dishwasher.

prendrefeu

Wow.






1. Not everyone owns a dishwasher.
2. If you wash out your bottles as soon as possible, when you get home, you won't get mold in the bottles. Unless your mouth is really, really, filthy. Then you've got other problems, buddy.
3. On the washing technique? Duh. How else would you wash a bottle efficiently?
4. I'm glad you discovered it for yourself. Now go ride more and wash more bottles out!

branman1986

ow, you guys are hurting my feelings...

DZA_LA

WOW did you just discover water last week?

prendrefeu

Naw, you're still cool.

This is par-for-course in the Road Cycling forums.

branman1986

are you guys saying you've never had issues washing accelerade out of your bottles? My dishwasher never gets them all the way clean, nor does it if it's molded over.

And yes, I just discovered water last week...

04jtb

Dishwashers seem to destroy the seals on all of my bottles, and it becomes a major PITA to drink from them as they leak all over your front. I guess it is because of the high temperatures

substructure

Leave him alone you mean people. For some of us it takes a little time. And even the simplest things make us happy.


I've had to add a little bleach to a couple of mine once. After a three day 300 mile ride my bottles looked like the inside of Oscar the Grouch's trash can.

LostBoizdown

It just seemed to me that this was on the level of "hey guys, i just found this thing where you don't have to rub your nails on the concrete when they get too long!!"

I've never had problems with water bottles except for when I forget to wash them out and let them dry. In that case they go in the trash and I get a new one.

This isn't rocket science...it's like...home ec.

sancocho

You can use sand, too. Just don't put it in the drain. I also find that #10 limestone gravel works well. Chips and dust however, is too messy and leaves a chalky film in the bottle. Stainless steel ball bearings and zinc or copper coated lead BB's work. Stay away from buckshot unless it's non-toxic. That is all.

Treefox

I've got a brush with a long-ish handle. That seems to do the trick.

stapfam

If you want to get rid of the taint of an old drink in anything plastic- A teaspoon of Baking soda in 500ml of water will do the trick-

Or at the cost of it- Just go and buy a new bottle.

branman1986

yeah, they're cheap, but I often find myself ready to run out the door and realize that both bottles have been sitting in the cages for a few days and have a nice coating of accelerade & crap all in them. 30 seconds and I'm out the door.

sancocho

A handfull of sterilized Danish kroners is the ultimate. The hole in the middle allows for extra velocity during shaking. Never use the 25 krone pieces, though. You don't know where those things have been.

Shayne

1/3 bottle of crushed ice, a little water & a few drops of lemon juice. Shake the pi$$ out of it. Do this once a year, weather your bottles need it or not.

Doggus

You're advice is not falling on just the idiot parade. Will have to try this method. I leave bottles unwashed at times and then regret it later on. I also have a wife who cycles and expects me to take care of ALL the cycling prep and maintenance. So I find her bottles growing lab experiments too. Up till now my method of dealing with it has been to have a rotation of two bottles that are always full of bleach.

WTF does having a dishwasher have to do with it? I ruined one Polar bottle by bottom racking it. No room on the top in most DWs I've seen.

rm -rf

An ounce of vodka, too.

recursive

I could not have thought of this on my own. Seriously. Thanks OP. I have like 6 bottles waiting for this treatment.

wanders

6 oz. would be about right.

asmallsol

One good way to clean bottles and camelback bladders alike is to use Polident or other type of denture cleaning tablets. Cleans the hell out of them.

Falchoon

How do you get the bladder of the camelback dry?

wanders

Martha Raye agrees.

LostBoizdown

Bleach is gross...there's no way you'd find me leaving water bottles full of bleach (or water with any amount of bleach) around so that when I'm going out to ride I simply have to dump out the bleach and fill it with water. Bleach makes me want to puke just from the smell of it. In fact, thinking about the smell of bleach is making me sick.


What does a dishwasher have to do with this? Um..let me see...you can wash water bottles with it?? I mean I've been using cheap throw-away bottles (use them until they start cracking and/or leaking water), but back when I was in HS doing sports the water bottles we had went in the dishwasher. My mom knew how to organize a dishwasher, so there was never a problem with destroying them.

Sorry guys, this just seemed to me like a genius solution to a non-problem, so...whatev, bask in the glory of your revelations on how best to clean water bottles.

cyclingvirtual

Just swill them out immediatly after using them !!

Or use sterilising tablets. Get them for cleaning babys bottles..