Cheap Reusable Liquid Chemical Dispensing Bottle - Rubbing Alcohol, Etc.

I use rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol quite often, but found that I hated the large container that easily spilled and didn't dispense small amounts very easily. This instructible will show you how to take an existing squeeze bottle from ACT, etc and turn it into a spill-proof, easy dosing container for various household chemicals.

All you need is an empty ACT bottle and a pliers. Even if you don't use fluoride rinses, a bottle of generic ACT at Target is only about $2 and you can either use the rinse or discard if you like.

Step 1: Buy Yourself a Fluoride Rinse Bottle

As I mentioned, these can be had if you already use a daily fluoride rinse, such as ACT. Any kind you like, all we are after is the squeeze bottle for the dosing cup at the top.

Target sells generic "ACT" fluoride rinse for about $2 so you won't break the bank to get one.

Step 2: Remove the Dosing Straw

Get a needle-nose pliers and gently remove the dosing straw.

Take care not to crush the top part, or you will ruin it. It doesn't take much force to remove the straw, just grab the top with the pliers and gently wiggle/turn the straw tube insert until it starts coming out of the bottle. I found a gentle twist and pull motion works the best.

Step 3: Now Clean Out the Bottle and Remove the Stickers

Now that the bottle and straw are separated, thoroughly wash and rinse the inside of the bottle.

Given the shape of the bottle, it's quite difficult to dry it out by hand with a towel, so after washing, just shake out as much of the residual water droplets, and place it by a fan or your house's HVAC vents to air dry.

Once it's dry, you should also remove the stickers on the bottle, since you definitely don't want someone to accidentally confuse the new contents of the bottle as mouthwash. Someone like a child could get very sick if you don't remove the original labels and they thought the contents were safe to consume!

Step 4: Refill the Bottle and Label the Contents.

Once the bottle has dried, refill it with your preferred liquid and reinsert the straw.

You probably have a fair amount of leeway with what you can put into the bottle. I use mine for isopropyl alcohol, but if you were unsure, just look at the plastic resin identification code to find out what type of plastic your bottle is made from, and then you can just google around to see if your liquid is safe to store in your bottle type.

Be sure to label the bottle with the new contents. You can use a sharpie or a label maker, just don't forget, otherwise you'll end up with a mystery bottle.

Once you use up the contents, simply repeat the process to refill the bottle!

Comments

[camblonie]

Any tricks on getting the labels off? Good idea btw.

[RaepakL]

Use peanut butter to remove labels. Spread it on the bottle label and leave it for about 2hours. The oils remove the label leaving the bottle looking new.

[aka_bigred]

I used my heat gun and it worked great without leaving much residue. A hair dryer would work too.

When the heat gun doesn't work, I use 3M brand adhesive remover. It's citrus based, so it smells nice, an works well to boot.

http://www.amazon.com/3M-6040-ADHESIVE-REMOVER-Weight/dp/B003ZHOZRO

[xaenon]

If it's a plastic label, you can use your fingernail. Work at one of the corners of the label until you pry it up slightly. It'll take a little doing, but once you have enough of it you can grip, slowly (SLOWLY!) peel the label off. It should come off in one piece if you go slowly.

If it's a paper label, you will probably have to soak it before making the attempt, and no, it probably will NOT come off in one piece.

Either way, you'll probably need something to remove the adhesive residue. I keep a couple of bottles of GOO-GONE around the house for this sort of thing, but there are other products or methods you can try. Google can help here.

Many plastic bottles have their labels silk-screened on, and are not removable.

Incidentally, in some cases the flip-spout cap from some shampoo bottles can be substituted onto some other containers. You may find you can use one of those flip-spout caps on an existing alcohol bottle.

[xaenon]

Also, bottles of hand sanitizer have a little pump on them that's ideal for dispensing small amounts of alcohol. Once you deplete the hand sanitizer, clean out the bottle and refill with alcohol. Since hand sanitizer is primarily alcohol anyway, the bottle and pump should already be compatible.

[RaepakL]

This is a great way to save on plastic bottles. I love the way you removed and re-used the straw.

[vladivastok]

WHAT ELSE WOULD BE SAFE TO STORE ION THESE BOTTLES ? THANK'S [ VLAD ]

[jdlee77]

We did the same thing for our dogs water additive (Fresh Dental) it works great!