Having a dedicated water bottle that you drink out of throughout your day can be a great way of making sure you get the required amount of water your body needs to stay healthy. With home water delivery in Atlanta, it’s incredibly easy to always have fresh water on hand to fill your bottle with.
While many people do drink out of these water bottles, there’s one thing that they often forget to do regularly: clean it! Just because a bottle only has water in it doesn’t mean that it won’t get dirty.
Let’s take a look at how dirty your water bottle may be.
Do You Clean the Entire Bottle?
Because the bottle only contains water, some people mistakenly don’t clean the inside of it that often. They will wipe off the mouthpiece so the part their mouth touches is clean, but they won’t clean the underside of it or the inside of the bottle.
Even those who only rinse out the bottle are still drinking dirty water. Experts say you need to scrub it or run it through the dishwasher to get rid of microscopic debris and even organisms that are living in your water bottle.
When you don’t scrub the inside of your water bottle for days or weeks at a time, a biofilm develops along the interior walls. This biofilm contains bacteria that can be harmful.
For example, if you’re sick and drink out of the water bottle, some of the bacteria causing your illness gets into the water and becomes a part of the biofilm. If you don’t scrub the bottle, you may get over the illness only to come down with it again because of the bacteria in the bottle.
Whenever possible, use hand sanitizer before you touch the mouthpiece of your water bottle. This will help prevent the bacteria on your hands from moving into the bottle.
What Needs to be Cleaned?
Everything! You need to make certain that the inside, outside, and mouthpiece of your water bottle is scrubbed with soap and hot water.
Whenever possible, run it through the dishwasher. If you don’t have time to do that, use a bottle brush to scrub down every part of the interior. Some water bottle brands even come with specific cleaning instructions. Be sure you follow them exactly.
After you’ve used your bottle brush a few times, run it through the dishwasher, too. Just like sponges, these brushes can become home to bacteria and other dirt. Replace them every couple of months.
What About Refilling One-Time Plastic Water Bottles?
If you forgot your refillable water bottle at home or don’t have one, you may be tempted to buy a bottle of water at the store and simply reuse that plastic bottle. That’s not a good idea, though.
These cheap water bottles were designed to be used once. Many of them have ridges in the plastic that create crevices that are hard to clean. The plastic isn’t that strong, so it’s easier to become cracked and scratched.
While these microscopic cracks may not be bad enough to cause water to leak out of the bottle, they do create hiding places for bacteria. Even newer reusable bottles have become susceptible to this because manufacturers have tried to reduce the amount of material used in them.
Leave the Water to Us
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