Cleaning out water jugs

[rikkis]

Is it ok to clean out my plastic water jugs with bleach and rise it out afterwards? There all 5 gallons

 

[roka64]

Sure, but I would let them air dry. White vinegar works too.

 

[melosu58]

Rinse very good and air dry. It will be hard to get enough air in there to dry it out. If it was me I would do the vinegar as Scott said.

 

[fishmonkey]

lol, i dont really see why you would have to rinse it, as previously stated. just let them dry if they are wet and then use them for what you have planned for them.

 

[Zer0]

Uh huh.. right. If you don't rinse the bucket after just using bleach on it.. then the residue of the bleach will still be there. And bleach is a killer. Rinse extremely well.. THEN let it air dry.

So anyways, just use the white vinegar. It removes just about everything.. And it's a lot safer then the bleach. Just make sure you rinse it out thoroughly though. You wouldn't want any vinegar or bleach in your tank lol. Wouldn't be a pretty sight.

 

[fishmonkey]

okay i guess you didnt undertand zero, i was saying that you didnt have to bleach them in the first place. just dont bleach them at all. they held water. and whats going to be in them? water. so unless you have already bleached them, there is no reason to go to the trouble of doing it.

 

[Zer0]

I understood completely. The OP never stated that "water" was ever held in those jugs. They could be brand new.. which still has residue from some foreign chemicals, or it could have other junk in there. Also, just because it is a water jug, who's to say he could not have been holding dirt.. chemicals.. fertilizer.. weed killer.. and the list goes on. His reason for wanting to bleach it may not be evident, but his reasons should not concern us. What concerns us, is that he knows how to properly bleach the water jugs since clearly that is what he wants to do.

The fact of the matter is.. he NEVER stated what WAS and WAS NOT held in those water jugs.. so it is our job to assume that there WAS foreign material in there previously, this way we can tell him how to clean it out correctly. He asked us if he could clean out the jugs with bleach and rinse them and let them dry. So we either tell him yes, and how to do it, or we give him a better suggestion than using bleach. Simple as that. And from what i can tell.. he has never bleached these water jugs before since he is asking us how to do it in the first place. So that pretty much throws out your last theory.

Also.. let us assume that you are right and they held "water" before. How are any of us supposed to know what was in that water? And how would he know either? The water in those jugs could have been sitting there for a while and accumulated algae, mold, whatever. It also could have acquired other chemicals on purpose or by accident. We just don't know. So with that being said.. even IF before he started using the water jugs he bleached them.. there is STILL all those harmful things in the water jug that have accumulated mold, algae, etc... SO, it would be WISE to bleach the container once again so no residues or any substances that were previously in the jug are left over, which in return would contaminate the new water or substance that he intends to store in the jugs.

Don't just assume they held water.. or he bleached them before.. or he has been using the jugs for a while. It is not the repliers job to ASSUME things. Our only job is to answer the thread OP's questions to the best of our knowledge. And if you don't have that knowledge to answer the questions.. then don't. It would only cause more harm to the OP and others that may be reading this thread, if they followed directions that were wrong or incorrect.

 

[mfdrookie516]

i keep weedeater gas mixed in water jugs

 

[fishmonkey]

ah, by water jugs, i had the impression that he meant the water jugs you would get from the grocery store. i thought that he had just finished drinking the jugs, so i was wondering why he wanted to bleach them. also, the title is 'cleaning out water jugs' so that was misleading to me also.

 

[Zer0]

lol mfd.. kind of put my point directly in to play haha thanks. I was not pointing any fingers either, i was just saying something that i believed would be the best way to go about answering a question that had little extra details provided so we knew what was going on. That's all.