Bottle Soak Tub

[nukinfuts29]

Sorry for no pics, but it's pretty straight forward. Not sure it's so much a DIY as a tip...

So I had a lot of bottles to wash today, and it seems like sometimes it takes forever for labels to loosen up. Heres what you need:

25 Gallon Rubbermaid Tote
Submerse able fish tank pump (or an external if you have clean hose)
Oxyclean

Fill the tub with HOT water a little more than halfway.

Submerse the pump. Plug it in.

Submerse bottles until the tub is full.

Now dump in two scoops of Oxyclean, and fire up the pump. The oxyclean foamed, but not like dishsoap. The constantly moving water did two things:

It kept the oxyclean kicking, it seemed like it just never faded out.

It helps the hot water stay hot longer.

I was able to completely clean a tub of bottles after they were soaked around 30 minutes, instead of getting half clean after an hour or so soak.

 

[kpr121]

Cool idea, although I question that the pump kept the water hot longer.

 

[nukinfuts29]

Cool idea, although I question that the pump kept the water hot longer.

That's my perception, no clue if there is any scientific truth to it. When it was still I was adding hot water every 30-45min to keep it hot. With the pump the water was still pretty hot when I added new bottles.

 

[HopSong]

Called friction heating. I was surprised when I saw a demo of the Vita-Mix at Costco. The lady started with cool water and added ingredients and turned on the VM. In minutes it was steaming soup... Friction..

 

[Reno_eNVy]

Called friction heating. I was surprised when I saw a demo of the Vita-Mix at Costco. The lady started with cool water and added ingredients and turned on the VM. In minutes it was steaming soup... Friction..

 

[nukinfuts29]

LOL and there you have it. I imagine the bottles also help keep it hot, and with the water circulating it is running across the bottles, much like a radiator in a car just hot instead of cool.

 

[kpr121]

ahh but the outside ambient temperature is much cooler, thereby the more surface area that is exposed to ambient (pump flow causes surface agitation), the greater the amount heat transfer. I highly doubt the pump is generating enough heat to keep all that liquid at temp. Would be very inefficient if that is the case.

Exactly like a radiator. You know what those are for right? Expelling heat to the ambient air. Keeps your engine/tranny cool....

About the only thing i see this useful for is if you were using the pump to spray oxy water into bottles, and maybe to keep the oxyclean in solution, although I have never had a problem with this... to each his own I suppose.

 

[kh54s10]

Just soaking is enough for me. I might have tried this if I had a pump sitting around, but I don't, so this process is not in my future.

PS. A work colleague gave me 5 cases of Sam Adams bottles so I have some label removing to do!

 

[nukinfuts29]

About the only thing i see this useful for is if you were using the pump to spray oxy water into bottles

Well in my case is was useful for cutting a bunch of time. To each his own

 

[Breezetrees]

I soak them in an ice chest. It does keep the water hot even overnight. And the cooler comes out whiter too after a good oxy soak. I use a cooler with a flat bottom, my bigger one has a drain channel in the bottom that makes it hard to stand the bottles up.

 

[nukinfuts29]

tat's a really good idea. Wish mine wasn't full of deer and squirrel

 

[crash1292]

tat's a really good idea. Wish mine wasn't full of deer and squirrel

wish mine was full of moose and squirrel....looking at the radar dosn,t look like its going to happen today

 

[nukinfuts29]

Yea its nasty here too

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