Make Your Bottles Leak Resistant

Earlier today Topgear emailed me this gem of a tip that he stumbled upon while trawling the Inet

So I had to give it a whirl, and it works perfect. These are my test results.

We all carry a few plastic bottles for things like sunscreen, alcohol (the fuel variety, of couse) water, juice, and various other liquids. I know that if I squeeze some of my bottles hard enough or somehow get them crushed in my pack, the liquid inside the bottles can ooze out from the caps. Now here comes the clever tip, just wrap some PTFE Tape (plumbers tape) on the threads of your bottles. PTFE tape is used during plumbing projects to seal threads when screwing fittings on like shower heads. It fills in the gaps in the metal or plastic threads and creates a water tight seal. So I had to try it and I can confirm that it works like a dream, no more oozing!! You just wrap a good 3"-4" long piece around the thread of the bottle neck and make sure it's on there good. Be sure to wrap the tape on the thread clockwise, i.e. the same direction as tightening the cap. Otherwise the tape might slip or shread when you put the cap on. The tape only really sticks to itself, but not really stick like normal tape. You will see what I mean when you use it. Make sure to keep the tape taught as you wrap it around. Next, screw the cap back on. It should feel a bit snug and good to go.

A roll of PTFE tape should cost you less than £1, in my case it cost me 59p from Wilkinsons in the plumbing section of the store. My roll has four yards on it, so that breaks down to 144 Inches, which means if I use 4 inches on each thread, I can seal 36 bottles all for 59p, saving me from anymore nasty wet backpack disasters !

Hmmmmm........ Topgear, do you remember the great cooking oil leak that The Duck had in November 2006, resulting in a whole backpack of gear covered in a nice slippy layer of cooking oil !!!