Best Ways to Clean Metal Water Bottle
This is my favorite time of the year: cold coffee season. Well, technically summer is my least favorite season, but cold coffee season is my soul season. Everything is better in cold coffee season. Except for the smell coming from my metal drinking bottle. For cold coffee, I prefer the wide-necked S’well bottle because I am very simple, but also because I found the opening wide enough for me to fill with ice easily. and place my brewer on it for a quick Japanese iced coffee . Unfortunately, my bottle, made to hold water, loves to soak up the smell and taste of beer, which makes it not ideal when I fill it … basically any other liquid. Fortunately, I have discovered several different methods of deodorization, from simple to more intense.
Soap and bottle brush
The dishwasher came out right away – HAND WASH ONLY, the bottom of the bottle warns me – but if I don’t let the coffee linger for a few days, I can usually get it smelling good again by scrubbing it with a scrub. a bottle brush and some dishwashing liquid. I already had a bottle brush lying around because I have young kids who like to drink from weird and difficult to clean plastic cups, but if you don’t, it’s not a bad buy – you can also use them to wash wine glasses, glasses for highballs and anything else that you drink from that your hand doesn’t fit.
Boiling water
I can’t always get enough hot water from the kitchen faucet to clean effectively, so I use my gooseneck kettle (the one that helps me prepare the aforementioned ice fillings) to add a little boil. water into constantly dirty pots or pans. The same method can help get rid of the sticky odor from a metal water bottle, and since items are made to keep liquids both hot and cold, you can pour boiling water, close the lid, and let them soak as much as needed. the warmth needs to do its job – during the night if the time is right, but a few hours usually helps. Add a few drops of dish soap at the same time to improve cleaning performance.
Soaking vinegar
If boiled water doesn’t suit you, another option is to soak it overnight with a mixture of white vinegar and hot water. Rinse the bottle, fill it about a quarter with white vinegar, and fill it with hot water (tap water is fine, but boil for an extra edge). Close the lid, shake the bottle and let it sit overnight. Rinse well before using the next day. The smell of vinegar should not remain and the sour smell of coffee should not disappear.
Baking soda and bleach
My preferred option – because I usually can’t find white vinegar – is a combination of baking soda and chlorine bleach . If it seems odd to pour bleach into whatever you intend to drink from, I understand, but you need to use quite a bit – you want to mix 1/2 teaspoon of bleach and a large heaping teaspoon of baking soda. a bowl of water big enough to submerge your water bottle in, according to this earlier Lifehacker story . The advantage of this method is that you can also wet the bottle cap – this is a good way to clean the inner lugs and rubber seals – but you’ll want to rinse, rinse, and rinse again when you’re done because you don’t want to drink the bleach. ( Or you? No, you don’t. ) If the idea of adding bleach to your water bottle is too great, you can also skip it, double your baking soda, and soak overnight.
Denture tablets
In this 2014 Lifehacker post , Alan Henry recommends cleaning and disinfecting a reusable water bottle with a denture tablet. I wouldn’t buy them just to try it myself (baking soda is, for one thing, a lot cheaper), but if your local senior has a stash, give it a try.