Bottle Bright Review

Remember when we talked about reusable water bottles? If you do, you might remember I'm obsessed. Our kitchen has a collection of reusable bottles, tumblers, and travel mugs, and the equipment room has a couple of bladders for our hydration packs. Part of the reason our collection has grown so large is because cleaning the things one of my absolute least favorite things. Most of the time, the size/shape of these bottles makes cleaning quite the chore. So of course I jumped at the chance to review Clean Ethics' Bottle Bright. 

*Clean Ethics sent bottle bright for review. As always, this does not affect my opinion in any way. You can read my full disclosure here. All links provided are for your convenience. None are affiliate links. 

First off, I have to mention how awesome Clean Ethics' graphics are. Check out the photo on the top of this page. That is exactly how I clean bottles. I'm not even kidding, there are chopsticks and a screwdriver in the drawer near the sink. As you can imagine, the "wrap a paper towel/sponge around a chopstick isn't all that effective, and has actually created some scratches in my favorite bottles (scratches great for bacteria to hunker down in!). 

Then there's bottle bright. Bottle bright is non-toxic, biodegradable, and chlorine-free. As their description mentions, "harsh chemicals should not be used to clean potable liquid containers because of potential unsafe handling and the risk of toxic contamination." (*"potable" means that it is drinkable or safe to consume.)

Bottle Bright comes in a cardboard tube (made from recycled material) containing ten tablets. Alternatively, you can buy individually packaged tablets. The best part? You know I'm always on the lookout for socially conscious businesses. For ever bottle bright you purchase, clean ethics will give an equal amount to people in developing nations. Personally, I have seen countless organizations working to provide clean sources of water to those who don't have access. It never occurred to me that unclean containers could cause just as many problems! 

To use Bottle Bright: fill your bottle (container, tumbler, hydration pack, ect.) with warm water. Drop a tablet in and loosely close the lid. Wait five minutes for the fizzy little tablet to dissolve. Hold the lid closed (don't screw it on yet) and sort of shake it to get some of the cleaning water on the threads so the top/part you put your mouth on can get some action. Now close it up and let your bottle sit for 30 minutes while the magic happens. 

The test subjects: (now let's not judge). 

Each of these bottles had been about 1/4 of the way filled and left in my car for 3 days, quite conveniently on accident: 

-A nalgene filled with water and smelling (strongly) of chlorine from our absolutely awful tap water, even though it was filtered. This is my favorite bottle and gets used daily (though washed probably every three days... we said we weren't judging). 

-A travel mug with stale coffee and cream. The bottle had a sort of dullness probably caused by coffee stains.

-The last was a bladder from my hydration pack. This only ever holds water, and only gets rinsed because it's a pain to clean and always ends up tasting like soap. It is pretty grimy and probably not all that great to drink out of right now.

What I was looking for was a product that could clean any taste/smell out of these containers. I wasn't all that interested in the stain removing aspect as I'm kind of a dirtbag when it comes to my nalgenes. 

Bottle bright met my expectations and more. When you smell the tabs before using them (which I don't recommend, they're powdery and will get in your nose), they remind me a little of baking soda, but don't have much scent. After your bottles take their little spa day, the are remarkably odorless. (Not to say I walked around my apartment like some sort of bottle smelling freak for half an hour trying to smell something...) They also leave your little hydration helper tasteless. To go a step further, my bottles looked like new on the inside. The outside was still a lovely little mess, but the inside looked so... pretty!

The short story? 
-Ten tablets per package, or sold individually packaged
-Cleans great! 
-Available online only (here), which isn't all that convenient
-Leaves no taste/odor
-Takes some time to work, especially if its nice and grimy