Manky Weathered Bottles - Salvageable?

[JaseH]

A work mate brought in 30 odd crown seal longnecks for me(bless his heart) but they have been sitting out the back of his shed for god knows how long! They are pretty grubby and most look to have had water sitting in them at some stage. I washed a few slugs and crap out of them and have had them soaking in the bath with sodium perc for nearly a week but there is a stubborn dirty water line on the inside which I cant seem to budge, even using a bottle brush.

Any ideas if I can salvage them or is not worth the trouble?

 

[manticle]

Warm them up with some warm water to reduce heat stress on the glass, then fill each with boiling sodium percarbonate/napisan/oxygen bleach solution. Let soak 24+ hours, shake the crap out, rinse well. Discard any that don't clean up using this method.

 

[hirns]

Have done the same as Manticle and it has worked very well. Ensure that the bottles have no air in them and are completely submerged. When I did mine I first put them all hpright in milk crates and then shot the Gerni straight (pencil stream) onto the bottom of the bottle. At the time the old man had a Karcher with a lance which could be set to a pig tail swirl, it was the best bottle washer ever !

 

[MaltyHops]

As soon as you can at any of the cleaning stages mentioned, check bottles for chips,
cracks or fractures like those discussed in THIS post- noting worse than putting all the
work in cleaning a bottle to then discover it's got a possible dangerous flaw to it.

 

[brucearnold]

Any ideas if I can salvage them or is not worth the trouble?

You have put in a lot more effort to salvage bottles than I ever have. If they don't come clean after 20min of hot Sodium Perc soaking and a good shake then they get dumped. Clearly you need them more than I do, but I would be concerned that even after what you have gone through that they still have a waterline mark.

 

[JaseH]

I'll try the boiling sodium perc trick, if that doesn't work I think I'll turf them. I am in need of some more bottles but not desperate enough to go to too much trouble!

 

[Jace89]

Careful with that boiling water man. If you anything like me your fingers will be quite steamed, not to mention glass and boiling water sometimes don't mix.
But danger is always double the fun.

 

[manticle]

That's why you need to warm the bottles first. I mix the sodium percarb and hot water in a plastic jug first, then pour through a funnel, gently, into the pre-warmed bottles. Glass breaks because of thermal shock and that can be avoided with caution and smarts.

 

[JaseH]

Yep, well aware what thermal shock can do to glass! I'll be sure to pre-heat the glass.