Quote Originally Posted by tzvia View Post
But for that creepy looking growing stuff... I regularly fill my bottles with warm water, drop a denture cleaner tablet in and let it sit for 20 minutes or so. Cleans, kills bacteria and removes any lingering smell from my electrolyte drinks, so I haven't had to toss any bottles due to aliens growing in it, or funny smells. I get the denture cleaner at the .99c store so it is cheap to do.
This works great for plastic water bottles and Camelbak bladders. The "creeping crud" I referred to in my first post was in the pop-top of a insulated stainless steel thermos. I took it apart several times and scrubbed with various what-nots, but frankly the level of effort I kept putting into keeping the thing clean was getting to be a hassle. The staining and general icky-ness wouldn't go away with any amount of soaking. Plus, my constantly taking it apart was making the top start to leak, as I don't think they ever intended it to be taken apart frequently like I did.