How to clean water bottles?

[Tokie]

Fuji - I recently noticed there was a pink (cytomax) gunky build up on my H20 bottle spouts too. My solution was to soak them in hydrogen peroxide with the spout in both the open and closed position, and scrub the crevices with a toothbrush. I have vowed to clean my bottle tops promptly now, so the cytomax gunk doesn't solidify so seriously. but the hydrogen peroxide was great. Tokie

[AnnieBikes]

If mine get bad, I fill with water and add a TBS of bleach, cap them, shake well, and then let it sit overnight. In the morning, I squeeze the bottle so that some of the bleach water goes through the spout. Rinse, rinse, rinse and they are good to go. I do try really hard to wash each one well after every ride but sometimes.... Hope this works for you!

[Fujichants]

Is there a particular brand of bleach you ladies use?

I always associate bleach with that nasty smell, I can't imagine drinking from my bottle after I bleached it?

I've used vinegar and my bottles and spouts are clean! Plus I realized you can pull the black rubbery spout part from the top of the cap on the Polar bottles. I was amazed to find so much icky stuff in there! It was actually fun cleaning them

[AnnieBikes]

I use just a generic, and it is a very small amount. There is no smell after rinsing. It really kills the bugs if you leave it over night.

[GLC1968]

I believe that the spouts on a polar bottle come apart for cleaning, do they not? I would remove them and soak them in a bleach disenfecting solution. 1 T bleach to 1 gallon of water should work - 5 minute soak about all you need. (this is what we use to disinfect our dairy bottles & equipment for fresh milk - no bleach smell remains once the items have dried completely)

We just put ours water bottles in the dishwasher every once in awhile and we store them with the spouts open. I've never had a mold/smell issue.

[smurfalicious]

Is there a magical bottle brush for Polar Bottles? I love my pretty pink ones but they are such a pain to clean because of the indents inside of them. I'm currently trying the denture tab thing. 85 of them for about $2.50 at Wal-Mart can't be beat. I'm using two for the big Polars and even then it's worth it for my time if they work.