cleaning plastic bottles

how about a metal water bottle?

Nan

Siduri,

I understand using BS and vinegar to cover or remove smell.

I personally think that as the bottle gets porous it would be best to sanitize it.

Bleach @ 150 PPM would be fine.

Some of us hippies know how to make a rocket flame with alcohol. Might be dangerous.

panini

quasi hippie,

Back in the day, you could throw in an oz, or 2 of alcohol.   Rubbing, southern comfort, even blackberry brandy.

Hold your hand over the top and roll it and shake it around. Set it down and place an open flame near the opening of the bottle and the flame

would dance like a disc up and down the bottle, sometimes keeping with the music. Then it would gather and shoot out the opening

like a jet engine. Really neat man!

I usually put on my tie dyed swim thong to work with bleach

We learned that by accident while going to woodstock. I was a kid, we went in my cousin's 1959 Rambler Classic. We procured enough wine from his

dads basement to fill three of those bottles. 2 were finished before we even got close to the grounds. The 59 seats folded back into a big bed. The

rest is history.

I had such fond memories of that old 59, I actually bought a very clean one and added it to my little collection.

We tried a repete for watkins glen and got deathly ill.

I believe the smell is from microbes that have found their way into the bottles.  Residues can build up from the microbes themselves literally piling upon the dead carcasses of their brethren -- ewwwww, I know -- which provides both living space and food -- ewwww again -- for more microbes.  You need to do more than "clean" the bottles until they look clean -- you need to remvoe the (often invisible) residues and microbes.

I am an occasional home brewer and also own a Sodastream, and so have cleaned more than my share of bottles of every description in my time.  The easiest method I have found is a bottle sanitizing chemical called B-Brite, which comes in a white powder.  You dissolve some of it in water, and then soak the bottles or pour the solution into the bottles.  It cleans and sanitizes in a few hours (overnight if you'd like), and you just rinse the bottles off and you're good to go.  A 3-pound bag of this stuff will last you a *very* long time because you only use about a half teaspoon for each bottle.  Oh and yes, it deodorizes.
 

If you use the Sodastream for soda (I just use it for seltzer), there might be some gunk stuck to the bottom if you didn't rinse it immediately after use.  If it's really stubborn, you might consider getting a $5 bottle brush from a home brew supply store or hardware store.  I have never seen anything that B-Brite hasn't successfully removed with an overnight soak though.

There is also a C-Brite cleanser which is supposedly rinse-free, but I stick with the B-Brite because it is better at getting stuck residues off.

Just look at various home brewing and wine-making stores online and find the best price, then either order it directly or have someone mail it to you from the States.

If you know people who deal regularly with vineyards, just have them ask.  Winemakers also need to sanitize stuff.  For all you know they can sell you B-Brite or something similar.  The active ingredient is free oxygen.  B-Brite is pretty cheap -- it's just 3-4 bucks a pound if you buy it by the pound, and a pound goes a long way because the proportion is one tablespoon per gallon.  If someone can bring you a 3- or 5-pound bag from the US on a visit -- just stick it in the luggage and let them know it's a cleanser if they ask -- it should do for a year or more.

If they sell OxyClean where you are, that works too -- but in addition to being several times more expensive, you have to get the kind without the blue crystals.  The blue crystals are detergent, are kind of difficult to rinse out, and tends to leave a scent.

If all else fails, you can soak them in a chlorine bleach solution every now and again.  But that would really take many, many rinses to rinse out completely, and in any case does not remove residues as effectively as either B-Brite or C-Brite.

Anyway good luck to you, and enjoy -- life is always better when it's bubbly... :D

I've never tried peroxide...  Powders have always seemed easier to handle and store to me, and peroxide would be prohibitively expensive for a home brewer.

But that's a good thought...  As long as the residues are removed and the microbes are killed, it should work.  I have no idea whether or not it would work for deodorizing, whether or not it might leave an odor of its own, or how easy it might be to wash off, but I imagine it should work for cleaning and sanitizing at least.

Good luck!

Peroxide out of the bottle always smelled kind of sour to me.  It seemed to wash off readily enough, but since as a home brewer I worked with 5-7 gallon containers, peroxide was never practical.

I'm glad it worked for you.  Enjoy your SodaStream in lovely Italy!