Bottle rinsing

[Danijel Gorupec]

A light-hearted question... Every time I am in hurry filling up my water bottle before gym, I wonder the same thing: how much water should I pour into the bottle (then shake it vigorously and pour it out) for the best rinsing effect?

Of course, I don't care much about the exact number - but I wonder how to even tackle the problem?

[zapatos]

Is rinsing sufficient to clean out whatever it is you wish to clean out? Just wondering if rinsing will do anything more than clean out dirt and crumbs, while leaving bacteria and viruses.

[Peterkin]

25 minutes ago, Danijel Gorupec said:

I wonder the same thing: how much water should I pour into the bottle (then shake it vigorously and pour it out) for the best rinsing effect?

approximately 1/4 of the volume. Too much less, and you don't have enough water for a good rinse; more takes a longer time; too much more, and the liquid is too sluggish for a good rinse. 1/4 - 1/3  is sufficient liquid to carry away contaminants, but leaves enough room in the container for vigorous movement.

30 minutes ago, Danijel Gorupec said:

but I wonder how to even tackle the problem

The scientific method trial and trial and trial. There can't be any serious errors - you're just looking for an optimal amount.

[Phi for All]

35 minutes ago, Danijel Gorupec said:

Of course, I don't care much about the exact number - 

It's 42.

[swansont]

I was taught it was more like 1/10, and you do it 3-4 times.  More water and there’s diminishing returns on dissolving contaminants. As Peterkin points out, too much and you don’t get any physical dislodging of particles.

[mathematic]

Several rinses with small amount of water each time is better than one rinse with a lot of water.

[exchemist]

9 minutes ago, mathematic said:

Several rinses with small amount of water each time is better than one rinse with a lot of water.

Yes. That is what we used to do on the lubricating oil plant, when changing a blending vessel from one product family to another that was not chemically compatible. 

[Peterkin]

 

When I refill the hummingbird feeder, I use hot soapy water and brush to wash it, then rinse with 4 or 5 changes of cold water, to remove the soap residue. 

When I refill my mobile water bottle, from which nobody else ever drinks and which, since its brief commercial stint as a mickey flask for rum, has held nothing but my own tap water, I settle for a quick cold rinse.

Wine bottles used to get the full soap, rinse, boil, cool, rinse, rinse, rinse treatment. One reason I stopped making wine was all the damn washing.

 

 

[TheVat]

Also, if it's water for drinking,  I like to let the faucet run for 30 seconds or so,  because many plumbing systems now use PEX,  PVC,  or other plastics that can leach chemicals into the water.   Moving the water that's been resting in those pipes along,  so you can obtain water fresh from the main, may be best. 

[beecee]

13 minutes ago, Peterkin said:

 

When I refill the hummingbird feeder, I use hot soapy water and brush to wash it, then rinse with 4 or 5 changes of cold water, to remove the soap residue. 

When I refill my mobile water bottle, from which nobody else ever drinks and which, since its brief commercial stint as a mickey flask for rum, has held nothing but my own tap water, I settle for a quick cold rinse.

Wine bottles used to get the full soap, rinse, boil, cool, rinse, rinse, rinse treatment. One reason I stopped making wine was all the damn washing.

When I was a hairy arse young bloke, I took up a beer making hobby...part of that was walking the streets after Friday and Saturday nights, picking and gathering all the empty beer bottles from bins, taking them home and sterilizing them with NaOCl2 (is that the correct formula?) Sodium Hypochloride, then rinsing them thoroughly with water. Great hobby btw!

[Peterkin]

8 minutes ago, TheVat said:

so you can obtain water fresh from the main, may be best. 

second best Drilled well on gravel that's never been farmed is best.

[Danijel Gorupec]

2 hours ago, Peterkin said:

approximately 1/4 of the volume. Too much less, and you don't have enough water for a good rinse; more takes a longer time; too much more, and the liquid is too sluggish for a good rinse. 1/4 - 1/3  is sufficient liquid to carry away contaminants, but leaves enough room in the container for vigorous movement.

I 'instinctively' use about 1/5 of the volume and repeat this 2-3 times. Need to feel some heaviness of water bouncing around while shaking (and the noise should be loud) to have a feeling that I am doing a good job.

Ah yes, my original thinking was about the best volume that minimizes the number of shakes (for the same rinsing effect).

[zapatos]

So... What exactly has all this rinsing accomplished?

[Peterkin]

1 hour ago, zapatos said:

So... What exactly has all this rinsing accomplished?

In which instance? The OP one and my response: washed the stale water and spittle out of the bottle and off the rim. 

The other examples were self-explanatory.

[CharonY]

5 hours ago, zapatos said:

Is rinsing sufficient to clean out whatever it is you wish to clean out? Just wondering if rinsing will do anything more than clean out dirt and crumbs, while leaving bacteria and viruses.

Viruses are typically not an issue, assuming that bottles are not shared. But it is fairly certain that after some time bacterial biofilms will form in bottles. The only way to get it out is the use of things like detergents or perhaps vinegar, soaking and vigorous scrubbing (or heating).

[zapatos]

2 hours ago, Peterkin said:

The other examples were self-explanatory.

You mean this one was self-explanatory on what the rinsing accomplished?

4 hours ago, Danijel Gorupec said:

I 'instinctively' use about 1/5 of the volume and repeat this 2-3 times. Need to feel some heaviness of water bouncing around while shaking (and the noise should be loud) to have a feeling that I am doing a good job.

Or this one?

5 hours ago, TheVat said:

Also, if it's water for drinking,  I like to let the faucet run for 30 seconds or so,  because many plumbing systems now use PEX,  PVC,  or other plastics that can leach chemicals into the water. 

Or perhaps you meant this one?

5 hours ago, mathematic said:

Several rinses with small amount of water each time is better than one rinse with a lot of water.

Yes, they were all very self explanatory on what that rinsing has accomplished. Thanks so much for your help.

 

[Danijel Gorupec]

14 hours ago, zapatos said:

Is rinsing sufficient to clean out whatever it is you wish to clean out? Just wondering if rinsing will do anything more than clean out dirt and crumbs, while leaving bacteria and viruses.

I believe what CharonY said: no way to remove bacterial biofilm by just rinsing in cold water. So, basically the only benefit is removing the stale water (leftover from last refill that might be there for 2-3 days). The stale water might contain some bacteria, I guess... It is entirely possible that in my particular case, the vigorous shaking provides no benefit compared to mild shaking. In some other cases, I guess, depending what was in the bottle, vigorous shaking might provide additional benefit.

Still, many people will shake the bottle as I do, without much thinking - I wonder if this is a learned or instinctive behavior. Probably learned. 

[mistermack]

16 hours ago, Danijel Gorupec said:

A light-hearted question... Every time I am in hurry filling up my water bottle before gym, I wonder the same thing: how much water should I pour into the bottle (then shake it vigorously and pour it out) for the best rinsing effect?

Of course, I don't care much about the exact number - but I wonder how to even tackle the problem?

I would experiment by adding a measured small volume of ink or dye to the bottle, and then measure the results after pouring various quantities of clean water in and shaking. Shining a light through a standardised section could then tell you how effective the various rinses were. 

[zapatos]

4 hours ago, Danijel Gorupec said:

Still, many people will shake the bottle as I do, without much thinking - I wonder if this is a learned or instinctive behavior. Probably learned. 

Yeah, I always rinse and shake, at least twice. But now I'm questioning what I was taught as my parents told me to do all kinds of interesting things, like putting mercurochrome on cuts and butter on burns.

[Phi for All]

45 minutes ago, zapatos said:

But now I'm questioning what I was taught as my parents told me to do all kinds of interesting things, like putting mercurochrome on cuts and butter on burns.

And putting hard-boiled eggs in ice water. I'm still mad at our parents for that one. 

[zapatos]

1 minute ago, Phi for All said:

And putting hard-boiled eggs in ice water. I'm still mad at our parents for that one. 

LOL!

[TheVat]

 

I'd never put my huevos in ice water.

[zapatos]

13 minutes ago, TheVat said:

 

I'd never put my huevos in ice water.

Some people are into that sort of thing. Or so Phi says...

[Phi for All]

12 minutes ago, zapatos said:

Some people are into that sort of thing. Or so Phi says...

I took your advice and now I steam my hard-boiled eggs and let them cool on the counter. I can't believe how ignorant our ancestors were, and they claimed it was "common sense"!

Maybe steam is the way to go for water bottles too. Repurpose that old espresso maker and... OK, I got nothing. Just trying to tie my comment to the OP so it's not off-topic. 

[mistermack]

The secret of hard boiled eggs is two factors. Age of eggs and speed of cooking. Firstly, and by far the most important, you want old eggs, not fresh. At least a week, but older is better. Secondly, they want to go straight into vigorously boiling water. And definitely not put in cold water, and slowly brought to the boil. That makes the shells stick. 

If you cool them in the air, you need to reduce the boiling time a bit, because they carry on cooking when taken out of the boiling water. That's all the ice bath does, it stops the cooking quickly. Some cooks do it because it gives them more accurate control of the cooking time.

Having said all that, I've got an electric steam egg-cooker and it works ok. It has a little punch that you use to poke a little hole in one end of the eggs, presumably to let pressure out.