Cleaning Water Bottles

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BrendaM

Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2009
Messages
23
Location
Green Bay, WI
How do you clean your chinchilla's water bottles? I have tried by hand with small amount of soap and a lot of hot water but never come clean. We had a portable dishwasher but was not cleaning them either (thinking due to the water pressure not the best in the water lines). Will probably need to go back to wating by hand but need advise on how to clean them. Cannot find a small either bottle brush to fit (unless someone knows where I can purchase one).

Thank you in advance

Brenda

Happy 9th Birthday to Josie (Our grand-daughter - 07/06/2001)
 
I think I bought about 5 different baby bottle brushes until I found one that fit. Its some weird off brand that I got at Food Maxx if that helps. I just scrub mine clean and then throw them in the dishwasher ever other week.
 
My bottle brush is actually a glassware brush, it just has held up better than the others I used to use. The brushes that they sell in the petstores are usually pretty good...but the volume of waterbottles that I wash probably would destroy one in a hurry.

My waterbottle cleaning procedure is rather complex. I bleach my bottles every week to be sure that no bacteria remains. Then I rinse them three times with tap water and once with reverse osmosis water. The real tricks to getting bottles clean is the rinsing and washing them frequently. The more you wash them, the easier it is to get them clean and they usually last longer.
 
Dishwasher! I wouldn't go back to hand washing bottles again for a million bucks, but I have a full sized dishwasher with a sterilize cycle and the bottles come out cleaner and fresher than they looked new.

If you don't have that, and it sounds like you have maybe the Lixit bottles? They make a brush, as Stack linked you to, that does a passable job.
 
I never found a brush that worked for my lixit's... I use rock salt, the kind you get for home made ice cream, dump some in the bottle with water and swirl it around. Then I run them through the dishwasher. Viola, sparkling clean bottles, no brush. When I'm done with one I dump the salt into the next one and swirl it on it's side, meanwhile I let the other one rinse until the tap.

My main bottles are the house chins and sick chins. Everyone else is on a watering system, so I end up cleaning valves more often!
 
I've heard about people using salt or sand to clean bottles. I saw an instructable on instructables.com and the author created a bottle brush by cutting a sponge to a smaller size and wrapping a wire clothes hanger around the sponge. I always wondered if that works. I don't have a nozzle brush, I try to shove the larger brush in there and just make sure to get soapy water in there and rinse real good. Or spin a paper towel into a long thread and try to clean it out that way but I usually don't do that. I wash the bottle everyday, most days with Dawn soap so far nothing had built up in the nozzle.

So I was wondering if people wash their stuff with tap water? I do and it always worried me. I use the hottest water possible. Or do people rinse with the chin drinking water like Susan wrote of?
 
When I clean nozzles and valves I use vinegar solution. The valves I disassemble check the gasket, clean up any deposits and put them back together. It's super handy to have spares on hand in case one leaks or gets clogged. Sometimes I'll get some mineral build up on the brass part of the valve and I'll scrape it with a knife then use a SOS pad if needed. I try to make sure every valve is cleaned and "rebuilt" ( any bad parts replaced ) every month or sooner. I just start at one end and do a stack at a time, that's a great time to flush water lines as well.

I use tap water to wash everything in but I have extras of everything so it dries before I use it anyway. I drink our tap water, I know some places you shouldn't or it tests bad, etc.
 
I use an old, sterile toothbrush. It's one of the ones with the hinge for getting around your back molars, so I can push it all the way to the bottom of the jar and it makes an 90 degree angle to clean the very bottom/top of the bottle. That and a little dawn does wonders :)
 
We don't have a dishwasher, brought the portable one back because it did not work. The kitchen is not big enough or equipped to have a dishwasher. Will look for a bottle brush. I was also thinking about changing from plastic bottles to glass bottles because I should be able to boil them without breaking the bottles.

Thanks everyone
 
I go with the baby bottle brush and white vinegar. I will usually also do up a bow with the vinegar and water and put the cap in to soak while I am cleaning the bottle
 
I was also thinking about changing from plastic bottles to glass bottles because I should be able to boil them without breaking the bottles.
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I would never use plastic bottles. Plastic is porous and there is no way to be sure you get all the germs out. If you are going to switch to regular bottles, I would suggest getting the type that Ryerson's or Shoots sells. they have a wide mouth and are TONS easier to clean than the Lixits. I got rid of almost all my Lixits for that reason. I only use them on a couple cages now with singles, where a 16 ounce bottle is too much.

Nicole - doesn't your diswasher get your bottles clean without the salt? Mine does. It has a wand on the top and the bottom and I put the Lixit bottles on the top, directly over the wand. Those suckers come out bright and shiny every time.
 
Usually it does, but I'm just anal like that. Sometimes they get a funny mineral deposit on them that doesn't quite come off in the dishwasher. I don't salt off them, just the ones that look extra grungy.
 
White vinegar works well for cleaning bottles and it makes them sparkly. Sometimes bleach can leave a film behind, even after rinsing multiple times, if you accidentally use too much. When I hand washed (thank you God, for my dishwasher!), I would fill up the sink with hot water, soap, and 2 capfuls of bleach. Then I would rinse multiple times to be sure they were clean. With vinegar, you don't have all that hassle. A little soap, white vinegar, rinse and you're done.
 
I have glass waterbottles and what we use is dry white rice and white vinegar. Put a tablespoon or so in and shake it up! It works great.
 
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