For ages I’ve wondered how some people seem to carry around the same water bottle with them, day after day, everywhere they go. Any time I’ve attempted the same, my water bottle would inevitably develop a funky smell, usually before the end of the day but always before day #2. More than that, it turned into a veritable petri dish, surely a menace not only to my health but the health of the population at large.
Obviously, a good wash would fix the issue immediately, but I never really saw that people were washing their bottles throughout the day, or even nightly. How were they pulling off this astonishing feat?
It’s ice.
The secret to making a water bottle stretch for days and days on a single wash is to use ice. Having a bottle with good insulation, double-walled if you can spring for it, doesn’t hurt, but without ice even that can only get you so far.
As soon as you let it run out of ice and the temperature rises from chilly to lukewarm, the gig is up. You have lost. Return the bottle to the nearest dishwasher or sink.
But if you keep it cold, and replenish the ice daily, you too can achieve these feats of magic.
But please still give your bottle the ole sniff test on a regular basis, and wash as soon as it’s iffy.