09 September, 2013

FIFO Bottles

I was looking at my GoToob and thinking, "You're nice, but a) a little small, and b) a little expensive. Wouldn't it be nice if you came in a bigger version so I could use you for body wash, dishwashing liquid and other liquids?" I spent a while searching for all manner of upside-down non-drip silicone valve dispensing bottles, but couldn't find any. Then I noticed the sauce bottles at Subway were exactly what I wanted. From there, it was easy to find out that they were called FIFO bottles (for First In First Out).

The main advantages are that they save time and product, since you dispense from the bottom and don't have to wait for things to flow. This is especially so for viscous products. Also, you don't have to mess with caps. The other advantage is that since you refill from one end and dispense from the other, you use up the older product first, which is really important for foods. Having 2 openings also makes them easier to clean.

They came with the medium valves (yellow), but I also bought the small valves (green). In my experience, the small valves are better if you want to dispense only a little at a time. Since I'll be using some bottles for non-foods, I bought some red caps to differentiate them.

They're working great so far. I really like using them for dishwashing liquid, since they're so much faster. They might leak with runny liquids, though, so I can't quite use them everywhere I want.

Update 1 Aug 14
Well, one bottom cap is down. It's probably because I had to keep it tight to prevent leaks, and I kept dropping the full bottle.
Good thing my valves are removable (the NSF caps have removable valves), so I can save a green valve. Currently I have: 12 middle sections, 18 top caps (12 white 6 red), 17 bottom caps, 12 yellow valves and 6 green valves.

Reading my earlier comments, I want to say the green valves hardly leak. I've only seen them leak for disinfectant (you know, the usually pine scented brown liquid that you can use on floors, laundry, cleaning surfaces etc.). Maybe it's a property of the liquid.

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