How To Clean The Gunk Out Of Your Owala Water Bottle The Right Way

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Toting around a reusable water bottle is a surefire way to stay hydrated and be less wasteful. But your reusable water bottle is probably gross. If you haven't cleaned it in a while, it may be harboring stuff you definitely don't want to drink. While Owala is a current favorite choice of many water bottle aficionados due to its leakproof design, those parts can trap bacteria and gunk if you don't clean them regularly.

To get your bottle really clean, you'll need to take all the pieces apart, including the lid, straw, and the rubber ring on the inside of the lid. While you can put the straw and the lid on the top rack in the dishwasher, it's best to hand-wash the stainless steel bottle with dish soap and warm water. If you want to do a really thorough cleaning, soak the parts with cleaning tablets like the Bottle Bright tablets, which are made for all types of bottles. Or, you can make water bottle and tumbler cleaning tablets with just four ingredients. Once rinsed, let all the parts thoroughly dry before reassembling to avoid further bacterial growth.

While Owala encourages daily cleaning, it's kind of a pain to take apart your water bottle every single day. We won't tell if you choose not to do a major daily clean, but there are cases where it's a smart move to do so. The material of your water bottle affects the taste, so if you use your bottle for smoothies, juices, or electrolyte powders, you may want to wash it daily to avoid a film of buildup along the coating. Otherwise, doing a deeper cleaning a few times a week is probably sufficient for most water drinkers.

To make the cleaning task easier, it's worth investing in some tools to help — after all, most of our fingers can't reach easily inside that straw. The Owala 2-in-1 Water Bottle Brush Cleaner and Water Bottle Straw Cleaner Brush can scrub all those nooks and crannies and comes with an antibacterial head, so you know you're not adding more gunk to the bottle by cleaning it. And if you really want to ensure your bottles are nice and dry, consider getting a bottle drying rack, like the OXO Good Grips Aluminum Frame Bottle Drying Rack. It has dedicated places for bottles, lids, and straws, and a raised edge to prevent caps from rolling off.