I'm interested in switching from a water filter to chemical treatment, but I'm a bit concerned about cross contamination. I would think that if you dip your bottle in water and drop in some tablets, the contents of the bottle will be fine, but the the brim of the bottle would now be contaminated.

So I was wondering, how does everyone fill up their bottles and avoid contamination?

You shake up the tablet inside the water bottle. You let it stand 10-15 minutes and then shake again. You then slightly loosen the cap and turn it upside down for a second so water plus chemical contacts the threads. Let that sit until the purification time is done.

That's one thing that always bothered me about the Steripen. There's no way to zap the water on the bottle cap threads. It's probably not enough contamination to bother an adult with a healthy immune system, but I was concerned about my grandkids!

Edited by hikinggranny on 06/28/2010 11:07:20 MDT.

Why wait 15 minutes to turn the bottle upside down? Isn't the concentration of ClO2 dropping from the moment the tablet finishes dissolving or you add the drops?

I add my drops, give the bottle a good shake, and then turn it upside down to let the threads get wet. It seems to work for me.

That seems simple enough. I figured there would be an easy solution and I just wasn't seeing it. Thanks a lot!