Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Using Denture Cleaner to Rid Cycling Bottles of Nasty Mold

I admit it. I once had a water bottle that looked like it could've spawned mutant sea-life inside, but I couldn't see the creatures through all of the mold.

That's what happens if you leave Gatorade or (especially) CarboPro in your bottle post-ride. But if your ride was 18 hours long (or, you know, spinning at the gym), sometimes you just don't feel like cleaning when you get home. Cue the spawning of mutant bottlefish.

However, there is a cure for your disgusting piece of plastic other than being wasteful, throwing it out, and buying a new one. Or waiting for the next race that hands out water bottles in their goody bag.

The answer to all of your problems is in this little pill:


















If you ever had retainers, you probably encountered the miracle that is denture cleaner. Drop one pill in, let it fizz. In the case of Efferdent, it'll turn clear when its done cleaning. (At least its supposed to...in my experiment, the water still looked blue...maybe the bottle was just that bad.)



(Turns blue. Nasty stuff rises to top.)

Then dump the stuff out and rinse. All the algae and grime and fuzz and stuff in your bottle will scrub off easily now, if
it didn't already jump ship at the sight of the Efferdent tablet.

VoilĂ . Like-new bottle.

So the next time your spouse or training partner gets on your case for your inability to rinse your bottles after every ride, whip out your denture cleaner and tell him/her you've got it covered.

Then laugh when they start staring curiously at your teeth.

4 comments:

  1. That's a good tip....thanks!

    This happens a lot to me, but usually it's my daughter who borrows my bottles for soccer and forgets to take them out of her bag. Usually I just go the 'chuck and replace' route (between the two of us, we always have tons of cheap bottles around), but when she wrecks one of my $10 insulated bottles, that just gauls me. I'll give this a whirl next time!

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  2. I'll give some tri-gizmo company one year to figure out how to repackage Efferdent into "Power Bottle Cleaner" and sell each tablet for $1.

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  3. good to know!

    i use a teaspoon of bleach in bottle full of water and let sit for an hour. with a quick shake, that should get the most of it. when i want to be real anal, i use a bottle brush. it's safe, so long as you thoroughly wash the bleach out (3 rinses of water will error on the safe side).

    [now, insert snoop dogg cleaning joke]

    happy cleaning!

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  4. Haha. Good to know. I should never have to buy another bottle again!

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