Water bottle smells - features to ensure an odor free water bottle

One of the challenges that comes with reusing water bottles is keeping them clean and free of smells and odors.

Based on a Statista survey from August 2024: 56% of American adults find that cleaning reusable water bottles is difficult and time consuming. More interesting facts in our other Blog: The dirty truth about reusable water bottles in 2024: Why they’re getting replaced fast

From my experience I remember when I put a smoothie in my old plastic water bottle and really enjoyed it that day. However it then carried a bad smell from the water bottle which ruined the taste of water that I tried to drink from that bottle for ages afterwards.

So how can you avoid having smelly water bottles?

The odor is actually coming from the very small quantities of fats and proteins from the milk that remain adhered to the surface of the plastic and are then subject to microbial action due to bacteria like Streptococci, Lactobacilli and Bacillus cereus. The ones that cause milk to go sour. This whole brew forms a kind of bio film on the surface of the plastic.

Plastic surfaces, being organic (carbon based) compounds, have a stronger attraction to other organic compounds like fats, proteins (and bugs) than to water. Plastic is said to be hydrophobic, or ‘water hating’ in Greek. By contrast glass, or metal surfaces like stainless steel, are more hydrophilic (water loving) and therefore much less attracted to organic fats proteins and bugs.

This is why it is harder to get plastic surfaces really clean and given that the insides of water bottles are notoriously difficult to access and clean compared to regular kitchenware, it is perhaps no surprise that plastic water bottles tend to develop odors from milk based or other organic based drinks, banana smoothies for example.

For those who remember the old glass milk bottles (they were even delivered to your door!), you knew from the many wear marks and scratches on the outside of the bottles that they were used over and over again. This was because, on return of the empty bottle to the milk supplier, the glass bottles could be easily cleaned to a very high standard. Similarly, food and drink processing equipment are invariably constructed in stainless steel and glass to maximise the efficiency of cleaning between batches.

There is a plethora of information online on how to remove odors from plastic containers using specialist cleaning techniques however they all seem to require much time and effort. Cleaning bottles is not something many people like to spend time and effort on!

If you do want some tips and tricks on cleaning reusable water bottles feel free to checkout these other two recent blogs:
How to Clean a Water Bottle in the Dishwasher (without ruining it)
How to clean a water bottle silicone gasket

Knowing how tough it can be to keep plastic surfaces clean and odor free, we wanted to find a way to cut down on plastic internal surfaces and eliminate hard to reach areas.

Drawing inspiration from the food industry, here at Ever Vessel, we’ve focused on easy to clean drinking vessels bottles without hidden crevices and with minimal or no plastic touching contents.

Many stainless steel and glass bottles have surface coatings, hard to reach areas or built-in electronics — especially inside the lid that may make them harder to clean. Many aren’t dishwasher-safe or can’t be submerged in water.

There are many factors to consider when choosing a suitable water bottle. Best to do your research and choose wisely if you want an odor free water bottle.