Kind of a rant — I drink water and flavored-water beverages, and I don’t wanna buy 24-packs of water and trust my local municipality to recycle. Maybe they do, maybe they don’t. Either way, it’s not recycle, it’s “reduce, reuse, recycle.” I’ll drink a Gatorade (Zero) and reuse it a few times and then toss it.
But if I want a reusable bottle — there’s one by Aladdin (Thermos) I like, and one by Zojirushi, I’ve bought two of each over the years. Just tossed the Zojirushi. Zojirushi is a Japanese brand, very high quality, but a bit over-engineered. It’s got this rubber gasket and plug that, you can clean them daily, they get black spots. Not sure if it’s mould or what, but it’s kinda gross and I don’t like it. The Aladdin/Thermos one is a bit better, didn’t think there was any mould anywhere until I dropped it, the cap flew out, mould farm inside! Nowhere that touched the beverage so that was nice. But I’m kinda done with both of them. I would rather just waste plastic than risk drinking from a mouldy reusable cup.
Are there reusable bottles that aren’t mould farms?
get a non-plastic bottle. plastic is notorious for harboring bacteria, and mold, because they are prone to microscope crevices from forming. probably a metal one. you might want to use soap and hot water for metal containers.
Hard agree. My water bottle is stainless steel. The lid screws off, there’s no complicated nozzle to get clean, you drink from it like a normal bottle. I don’t have a dishwasher, just wash it in hot soapy water, rinse and refill. A bonus is that it takes a lot of punishment - I dropped an expensive plastic one once and it exploded. Also it’s a thermal bottle, so cold drinks stay cold.
The kind that is cleaned properly.
The correct answer!
Tape some bubblewrap around a mason jar taps forhead
I make brewed teas and cold coffee and bring them to work in mason jars. Started a trend at work.
Put them in the dishwasher after every use. If it is not dishwasher safe, throw it away and get one that is.
They actually had a special on drinking bottles recently and I was thinking about buying one. Then they had a report on TV about such non-dishwasher-safe bottles, and that you simply don’t get them clean with washing them by hand. They had some nice pics of such bottles building up things in nooks and crevices. Gave up on that special offer, as they were not dishwasher safe.
I bought a metal tumbler for this exact reason, easier to clean and longer lasting.
Gaskets are consumables, whatever bottle you get, make sure you can source additional gaskets.
been using the same bottle for over a year. insides are 302 stainless with a silicone gasket. I only keep water in it, nothing but water.
I wash it with a bottle scrub every four weeks.
- hot rinse (hottest from tap)
- soap wash (scrub)
- vinegar rinse with hot to steam
- rinse with cold until I don’t smell vinegar
I rinse it every week using the same steps above, I just don’t scrub it. I pay close attention to the gasket and make sure it gets a full exposure of the vinegar.
I had a Zojiirushi in the past too. I agree, it takes too much effort to clean. I now use a wide mouth bottle that just has a screw top lid, no straw or drinking apparatus besides the large open mouth. No gaskets or anything else. It’s only two surfaces to clean and requires no disassembly, other than taking the lid off. It’s much easier to keep clean.
The brand doesn’t matter. Just get a wide mouthed metal bottle of whatever cheap brand is around. None of them have engineered a new alloy that makes their bottles better or anything. Just make sure it’s double-hulled if insulation is important, which most are.
Nalgene and a bottle brush.
this is less a problem with the bottle and more a problem with how you’re not cleaning them well enough.
Just learn how to clean them and clean them. There is no magic bottle that doesn’t.
Invest in a bottle brush and clean your container well.
The only thing that ever comes in contact with my water bottle is water. It is always spotless.
You are contaminating it with your mouth when you drink from it. If you put sugary stuff in there, you are basically carrying a petri around with you and asking why its growing stuff.
32oz wide mouth Nalgene for me. I have 3 and cycle them every 2 days. Dishwasher when I run it and bottle brush once a week. Never a hint of anything.
Watch out for those microplastics though
Exactly what I have. I just fill it up with water and just dump it out. I hardly ever scrub it completely; just a soap + water + shake twice a month.
Anything that’s wet all the time is going to grow mold or algae or whatever.
Whether you rinse or scrub, if you just shake off the drips or even towel it off before you fill it up again it’s going to get gross.
It needs to spend a significant amount of time completely dry.
The solution is to have 2 bottles and switch them every few days.
I would just not care about the biofilm and wash it regularly. If you fill the bottle from a clean source and it doesnt smell or taste strange, the water should be fine for consumption.
You know your fresh water pipes also have biofilms in them? If it isnt contaminated, the microorganisms there are harmless. So if you get clean water from the pipes and your mouth has a healthy microbiome, where should potentially harmful microorganisms come from?
Only in rare amounts from the environment when you open the bottle. For that to create a buildup will take time. If you properly wash your bottle like once a week you should be fine.
No bottle will stay clean if you dont wash it from time to time.
