infobong.com

I routinely carry around a polycarbonate plastic water bottle. Yeah, it's a little too trendy for me, but I live in Texas, and I'm also routinely dehydrated. Despite regular hand-washings, I've noticed that my $1.99 Nalgene knockoffs have developed a stubborn layer of scale inside, which seemed difficult to remove. I thought about trying to find a beaker brush to get at the insides of the bottle. I also found a page at the Nalgene corporate site with cleaning suggestions. I didn't have lemon juice, baking soda, or bleach as the page suggested, so I thought I would try a little vinegar. I poured a quarter-cup of plain vinegar into a particularly crufty bottle, and, wow, the scale disappeared almost instantly. I added water until it was about half-full, and shook it vigorously, which quickly removed any remaining scale.

So, if you need to clean your Nalgene or more-reasonably-priced polycarbonate bottle, use a little vinegar.