How often do you clean your water-bottle?

tomlockbart

I probably go a week or so just rinsing out and filling up again, no proper washing. Am I rank and going to get a water-borne disease?

P.S. yes, I know it should be called a bidon but i just can't bring myself to use the french terms!!

JamesFree

I keep mine in the freezer to keep mould at bay when I'm not using it

rubertoe

I fill my bidon only with vitel.

Seriously though - i have no idea how they get clean - the washing up fairy does mine. SWMBO is a bit anal about hygene so i just let her get on with it - probably invloves boiling it or something like that.

But if i clean them normaly just the same as the other washing up - hot water and fairy liquid

Kerguelen

I clean mine out with boiling water every day. Fill to 1/10, shake and squeeze out through the valve.

suzyb

Is a bidon not one of those fancy toilets that washes your tush.

And I never wash my water bottle as there is only ever water in it.

notsoblue

Dishwasher.

cyclingprop

Baby bottle sterilizer every now and again.

gosport_commuter

Rinse and squeeze through valve with fresh water daily, dishwasher at the weekends.

mudcow007

Ewww i cant believe you lot dont wash your bottles out after each use

ever time i use mine it gets a scrubbing

i use false teeth cleaner tablets in my camelbak bladder

rolf_f

Just bung them in the freezer

msmancunia

Me too. Have any of you seen the crud that lurks underneath the nozzle? It's dirt and spit and sugar if you have an energy drink. Goes in the sink with washing up liquid and I give it a good going over with a green scrubber.

davmaggs

Plain water isn't a drama, but if you are carrying any kind of juice or powdered drink then I suggest a good clean if it is going to be left. The worst devices for growing nasties are camelbaks (the tubes in particular), again pure water is usually fine.

Paul E

Sorry bidon just sounds too much like bidet to me, so I shall call them water bottles.

I just chucked my old bottles anyway as I change them every year or so and have two camelbak podiums winging their way to me.

veronese68

I give mine a swill after each use. I usually only have water in it.
Interesting reading about the Camelbacks, I don't have one yet. I'm getting one for a couple of all day rides planned for this year so I shall pay attention to cleaning it and only use it with water.

StorckSpeed

I stick mine in the dishwasher after every use too. I also sterilise it about once every month.
If your not as anal as me maybe you should consider the Elite Higene range of bacterial resistant bottles.
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=57853

TheStone

Does putting them in the freezer kill bacteria?
For me, dishwasher after every use, plus milton every now and then.

il_principe

TheStone wrote:

Does putting them in the freezer kill bacteria?
For me, dishwasher after every use, plus milton every now and then.

I don't think it does, just puts the bacteria into a hibernation mode.

Mine are washed after every use.

Jay dubbleU

After every use even with only water - mouthpiece picks up dust, road dirt etc

essex-commuter

Only water when commuting. I give it a sloosh out and squeeze water out throught the mouthpiece every 23 miles.

prj45

I bought some Milton sterilising fluid for mine, it's still sitting untouched under the sink five years later...

bigmat

Dishwasher after every use. I do the same for cups, glasses, plates, cutlery - not quite sure why a bidon would be different? I put none of the above in the freezer either. I would need a separate chest freezer to store all my bottles, I have hundreds of the things cluttering up the shed!

CiB

Mine go in the dishwasher overnight if they've been used. It's not the content that bothers me; water or squash doesn't go off like milk for example. No. It's the nozzle. It's on the exposed part of the bike and attracts insects, road dirt & rain just by being there. And then you put it in your hot sweaty mouth and drink from it before dropping it back into its exposed sun-drenched position. I can cope with that on the day but the idea of using a bottle the following day that has a mix of road dirt, rain, day-old saliva and whatever drink was in there the previous day, all festering away quietly in the nozzle recesses waiting to do its worst, doesn't appeal. Parents are encouraged not to let babies & toddlers use the same drink throughout the day for the same reason - saliva, milk that's been in the mouth once and a bit has gone back in, plus the germs picked up when the dog spots it and has a sniff etc, these all contribute to it needing to be clean.

And - Tim Moore's excellent book French Revolutions on his herculean efforts to ride the route of the TdF covers this very subject. Pages 166-169 describe how what he saw as self-inflicted pain (riding himself into the ground) was really him slowly poisoning himself by not washing his bottles properly every day. It's a good book, so that'll do for me.

UndercoverElephant

I usually clean mine out after every use, but last summer I forgot that I'd had my bottle on my bike for weeks (too rainy to need any water), then when the sun came out and I was riding home and really thirsty I drank the lot. Tasted funny, but I'm not dead.

rolf_f

Il Principe wrote:

TheStone wrote:

Does putting them in the freezer kill bacteria?
For me, dishwasher after every use, plus milton every now and then.

I don't think it does, just puts the bacteria into a hibernation mode.

Freezing kills some bacteria but not all - but freezing is still good enough for me. I've never done anything with my Camelbak other than sling it in the freezer and the bottles have never done me any harm. Do clean the outside though to get rid of road dirt.

Besides - I've never owned a dishwasher and probably never will!

gbsahne001

:oops: don't recall washing it

schlepcycling

TheStone wrote:

Dishwasher after every use, plus milton every now and then.

+1

team47b

Bidon: From Middle French small portable container, sealed and made of wood or metal, from Ancient Greek πίθος píthos, wine barrel

I prefer the name water bottle to bidon as it seems to more accurately describe the plastic thing containing water we all use to drink from.

Clean it? I just throw mine in the countryside

DrLex

gbsahne wrote:

:oops: don't recall washing it

Only bottle-brush mine when I see it's gone green; I like to keep my immune system on Def-Con 3.

porlyworly

Don't think I've ever washed mine :oops:

navt

I did not know they were re-usable :roll:

mtb-idle

to link this in with another thread Tim Moore gets the chronic sh*ts through not cleaning his bidon in French Revolutions.

For commuting i only ever have water in it and whilst i sometimes leave it there three or four days i will clean it in the dishwasher.