Should sanitize at least 1x per week.. water bottles get really gross and can mold…

I make sure to wash mine and let it completely dry once a week. It’s dark and wet in there and I’m no scientist but I know bacteria could multiply in the water bottle. And mold.

Bad stuff can absolutely grow in water only. What if you got another one, and you could alternate? Wash one & allow it to dry completely while using the other? I do sometimes use a water bottle for 2 days in a row, but that's the longest.

I like to use denture cleaner in my water bottle occasionally to sanitize. Just rinse thoroughly and let dry.

Every day.

I had to get rid of my water bottle as the spout was impossible to clean and the lid had multiple nooks where cleaning was super difficult. I didn't ever think about it until I randomly gave it a good look over that I noticed there was mold build up in the spout... now I have a nice new water bottle where cleaning the entire thing is easy. Everyday I was chugging mold. Not epic.

Those tablets people use to clean false teeth in? (Steradent and alike)

Fill your bottle till the brim with water and toss one tablet in as well

Rinse it the next day.

I was wiping down my metal bottle that I haven't cleaned in months. I took an alcohol wipe to the lid and was astonished to see a bunch of black mold come off. Absolutely gross.

Have been in the gym for 10 years now, changed the bottle 3 times and only rinsed it from time to time. I'd even leave it as is between session. Never been sick.

How do you wash a water bottle like I genuinely don’t know how you’d like stick a brush in there

Somehow I'm not sure which is worse - mold or bleach! For me, bleach is reserved for toilets and laundry. Is it okay to use bleach on products you eat/drink from?!

Do you mean to tell me that people don't take apart their water bottles apart every night? or bleach them every weekend... And I thought I was a dirty mess. (I am generally a messy person, but when it comes to utensils and the like, I am probably not judging by the comments)

This, I use my dopper bottles 1-2 days and then throw it in the dishwasher. I’ve seen people with stacked up bacteria close to the mouthpiece and it makes me inside mouth vomit every time I think about that…

I did that and all the green crap in my bottle turned white, but didn't disappear. I learned the difference that day between clean and sterile.

I run really hot water in the bottle, dump it like 3 times and then let it cool and it does the trick. i let it soak for like 5 mins with the water running in it

As much as everyone else might sound snarky, if you just give it a quick wash with soap and rinse very well, it shouldn't hold scent. Don't soak it in soap. Bottle bright or something similar is good for deep cleaning. Soaking with baking soda water or vinegar and water can help get scents or flavors if needed.

Make sure you use really hot water to rinse it out. Also, rinse it out many more times than you think it needs. The solution to pollution is dilution.

you didn’t finish washing it then lol

Hydroflask sells Bottlebrite cleaners. I pop one of those in, wait a while, brush my bottle, rinse it out about 10-20 times (I might be a bit too thorough here) and it's clean!

Vinegar, or bleach. Do not mix the two. I would get a new one if possible

Thanks for the insight everyone. It’s tossed time for a new one.

Looks like mold

Definitely mold. Anything moldy in my house gets tossed, which happens often in our tropical humid climate :/ I’d get a new bottle without any silicone like Nalgene. Mold is scary to me and I don’t try to save it

People.... don't wash their bottles? That's disgusting.

Also: coffee machines and tea kettles

This happened to two of my friends. The first one, his name was Jordy. He got water from a water fountain outside from our college campus, comes back up starts drinking it and there was brown/black stuff floating around in his water. We thought it was from the water fountain, but it turns out that it couldv'e from him not washing his waterbottle.

Second friend same thing. His name was Stephen, he got water from the bathroom sink. Came back drank the water and I again pointed out that there was black/brown stuff floating in there.

I’m lazy. But also slightly germaphobic.

If your bottle is nasty and has shit built up use denture tablets. Bleach also works, but I’m not taking bleach to work just so I can clean out the bottles I’ve got stashed there. Denture tablets come individually wrapped, fill with water at the end of the day, drop a tablet in, next morning rinse well and refill.

Regularly . . I switched to clear water bottle for this reason, so I can see through the straw and clean it properly. . Previously I had a coloured plastic one from Costa and the straw was difficult to clean - hand washing and even dishwasher wouldn’t clean it properly, Randomly just one time noticed how black the inside of straw was and had to get a long brush to clean which couldn’t do it fully either.

before anyone suggests it I don’t like the metal style water bottles or those with no straws.

The inside not as much - but I have a removable lid with a mouthpiece. That I wash more often as I find it can get stank fast!

Do a lot of people have an "everyday water bottle"?

I just drink out of a glass, but maybe that's due to working from home.

Whenever I leave it too close to the edge of the table and the dog licks it

I rotate 2 water bottles so one is always chilled in the fridge. I have learnt today that I should be washing them waaaay more often than I do.

like what homie I never wash my metal bottles

I always touch every bathroom handle and put my 3 fingers inside the bottle 6 times a month to assure I'll get my immune system some life and keep it hydrated so it wont feel left out

I want some pointy

Consider getting a bottle brush to really scrub out the inside of the bottles, and buying a toothbrush just for scrubbing lids. Nalgene user here. The lids have so many ridges on them, and we bring ours climbing with us, so they get chalk on them constantly. I am not always convinced the dishwasher gets the lids as clean as I would like. If only the rest of my house was as clean as my Nalgene bottles...

I work at a daycare. Please wash your kid’s stuff. Some of our kids rotate out which bottles they use at daycare and use at home - totally cool! We had one kid that’d been having major new breathing problems and weird symptoms. Brought in one of his current “home” water bottles to switch out with and the whole lid and straw area was filled with mold.

Wasn’t the first time I’d seen it, but was the most drastic case. (We have another parent that I’m pretty sure just leaves theirs in the car and brings it back…)

We wash our kids’ cups daily now (on top of sending home for wash) literally because getting mold in the lids and straws has been such a problem when it was a parent only job.

Not to mention the saliva issue, and all the colds and viruses that go around, and washing the cup and straw and lid being what cleans it.

If it’s such an issue, so many cups these days are designed to be dishwasher safe! (Usually not the insulated ones though). At the very least, all the straw parts and stuff are usually able to be run through the dishwasher.

And it’s way better that you’re washing than us having a major time sink to individually wash your 8 pieces, reassemble, then repeat for ALL of our kids, instead of having that person engaging with the kids. (Because there’s no way to keep everyone’s pieces going back to their stuff without doing it individually right there.)

And when it gets moldy, it’s a pain for us to deal with asking if you’re okay with a center cup for the day (dealing with parents that aren’t but also your kid has to have water), sending pics of the moldy cup, then soaking it in diluted bleach (kept locked away from where kids can get), then really scrub it down after the bleach did its job, then sending pics of the cleaned cup/ straw (or any residue that remains), reminders that plastic is porous and while we may not see anything we don’t know for certain what things are like on a microbio level here. (Like I’d replace it, but some parents insist on that same cup for the next year… and they’re parents with the money to replace!)

Like for real, please just wash your cups! Mold has devastating health impacts, and it’s really not worth exposing your kid to when it takes only a few minutes to wash a cup

You…you use the same glass without washing for multiple days?

You missed yesterday’s “I’ve been drinking mold for six months” post?

https://reddit.com/r/Wellthatsucks/s/8uEAbx29xs

Please wash your kid’s water bottle.

Yeah you may not see it but they can get a thin slime-like layer inside of the drinking part, and even inside it can get quite dirty. Plus probably half a dozen kids slurped from it, it was on the floor, little pieces of chewed food are stuck to it and even inside, etc. my stepkids’ mom never washed their bottles and once after 2 weeks it had literal mold inside, crazy stuff.

If I were you I’d buy one that is easier to clean up.

Article with a study in it that says eww gross

They form a biofilm over time inside and grow enough bacteria that a “boil water order would need to be in place”.