Wow, it's been a long time since I've been on this board. Good to be back.

I have a 32 oz Nalgene bottle that I tried to use as a container for a psk that goes in my laptop backpack. Long story short, I forgot about the kit for a couple of months and disaster ensued because I kept a bottle of Polar Pure for water treatment. All of the metal items showed advanced corrosion and most of the items I've just thrown away.

The Nalgene bottle itself has been washed several times and still reeks of iodine. I want to know if anyone has any tips on how to remove the "iodine funk" so that I can use my favorite Nalgene bottle again.

Thanks!

I am certain that one of our resident chemists will expand upon this further, but IIRC, vitamin C does the trick.

My recipe to defunkify water containers:

Add a couple of heaping tablespoons of baking soda. Fill to the brim with warm water. Screw on the lid and let sit for 24 hours (turn ocassionally to make sure the lid gets treated).

I automatically do this with all new drinking water bottles to get rid of the "plastic" taste to the water. I've never tried it with iodine, but the idea is worth trying.

Good luck, TR

Well... Considering the price of a 32 Oz Nalgene is just a bit more than lunch at McDonald's, I would solve this problem with a quick visit to your local outdoors retailer. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Sometimes working on an unsatisfactory solution is not worth the hassle. Hey, why not use that Nalgene as a pee-bottle when camping?

Denture tablets, with HOT water. Two in a 32 ounce, one in a 16 ounce. Let sit until the water is cool. Wash by hand with dish soap, rinse well, let dry.

If that doesn't take care of the "funk", make lemonaid in it, and let it sit over night. As was mentioned, Vitamin C neutralized iodine and chlorine history.

If you had metal corrosion, hows your laptop doing? I'd advise backing up early and often if you think your hard drive might have been in an iodinized enviroment.

Yeah, I'd second the "pee bottle" suggestion. I scrub mine with bleach, vinegar and baking soda. Sitting them out open in the hot sun for a day or two might help a lot.

I'd rather rescue this one, as I've had it since the late 90s, and why throw away something cheap to fix?

Ironraven, the entire hd of the laptop is backed up to a 300gb external drive that I update at least once a month. No signs of corrosion anywhere, I do need to get a can of air and spray out the air vents, though.

Thanks for the great advice everyone.

I have done away with iodine entirely. Only carry Micropur now: no taste, no gagging, no corrosion, no thyroid issues.

Try some FANTASTIK; we use it in the lab to remove iodine stains from clothing and other items that have come into contact with full strength Provodine Iodine and Gram Stain iodine.

Pete

Yah, when I remake the kit I will use micropur MP1 tabs, I just liked the idea of the Polar Pur being able to treat potentially thousands of gallons of water. I guess it's true; TINSTAAFL (there is no such thing as a free lunch).

If you do happen to go that route, someplace I read a hint to wrap friction tape around the outside of a Nalgene pee-bottle just to make certian that the wrong bottle isn't used in the darkness.

FYI, exposing a nalgene bottle or anything made with polycarbonate to bleach, and probably to iodine, will increase the rate of leaching Bisphenol A into the water. Most of the research done indicates that BPA is toxic in animal studies, even at small doses. I still haven't made up my mind about how bad BPA is for humans at the normal rate of leaching, but I know that exposing a nalgene bottle to bleach will drastically increase the rate of leaching.

I'm still using my nalgene bottles, but I suggest that any bottle that has been exposed to bleach or harsh chemicals should be thrown away or used as pee bottles. I'd also avoid exposing them to hot water, since that also increases leaching

I know this topic was brought up a while back about the Nalgene bottles.

I think the consensus was that washing the bottles by hand in warm, soapy water wasn't likely to cause any problems. Putting that bad boy in the dishwasher on the hottest cycle was another matter...

I'm no chemist, so I digress. But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night...

<img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />