Custom Bottle & Container Brushes

Most bottle brushes are twisted-wire brushes: fill is held between two wires that are twisted together, which makes a round head on a stem. Others have a molded silicone head, a sponge on a stem, or tufts set in a plastic block for wide-mouth containers. What makes them bottle brushes is the job. The head has to pass a neck, then open out and reach a body that is larger than the neck, and finish at a base that the hand cannot see.

A tube brush is sized to one passage and pushed along it. Its whole length does the same work. A bottle brush works in three places at once: the fill on the side cleans the wall, the end tuft cleans the base, and the shoulder is reached by tilting or turning the brush. That is why bottle brushes have end tufts, fan ends and tapered heads that tube brushes do not need.

The line between the two is the shape of the vessel. A straw, a hose or a burette is a tube. A water bottle, a baby bottle, a carafe or a flask is a container.

The household and lab brushes in our range start at 500 pieces per design. Keg and tank brushes, built to the vessel, start at 100.

Take three measurements: the inside of the neck, the widest inside diameter of the body, and the depth from the rim to the base.

• Head diameter: a little larger than the body, so the fill bends against the wall and keeps contact. Soft fill on a twisted wire folds down to pass a neck narrower than the head, then springs open inside. Stiff fill and molded heads cannot fold far, so the neck sets their limit.
• Head length: long enough to cover the body wall in a few strokes, short enough to tilt into the shoulder. Tall bottles take 200–300 mm heads.
• Reach: the head has to touch the base with handle left to hold. Measure the depth and add the grip.
• End: an end tuft or fan end for a flat base, a rounded end for a curved one.

A brush that is too small slides past the wall and leaves a ring of film; one that is too large cannot be pushed through the neck without pulling fill out.

• Nylon (PA6, PA612): the general fill for bottles and cups, springy and quick to recover after passing a neck. It softens a little in hot water.
• PBT: keeps its stiffness in hot water and takes up less of it, so it dries faster. A good choice for brushes that live by the sink.
• PP: lowest cost, and an all-PP brush suits acid and chemical bottles where metal should not be used.
• Silicone: a molded head that compresses through restricted openings, rinses clean and has no tufts to pull out. It scrubs more gently than filament.
• Sponge (PU or PVA): wipes coated, painted and printed bottles without marking them; it wears faster than filament.
• Boar bristle, horsehair and sisal: natural fills. Horsehair and boar are soft for glass, crystal and decanters; sisal is stiff for set-on residue.
• Stainless wire: 304 or 316, for hard scale and dried deposits in glass and metal containers where the surface can take it.

A twisted-wire brush is made by laying the fill between two strands of wire and twisting them, which locks the fill in a spiral. The wire is stainless steel for anything that stays wet, or galvanized steel at lower cost. The stem then goes into a handle of PP, wood or stainless steel, or is threaded so the head can be changed.

The tip matters most on glass. A bare wire end can scratch or crack a bottle base, so the end is covered: a tuft of fill, a loop, or a molded cap. A good bottle brush also has no hollow handle socket to trap water, and a hang hole so it dries.

Larger container brushes are built differently. Keg and tank brushes have tufted heads on a twisted stainless core or a plastic block, on long handles with a fixed, threaded or quick-change fitting, so the head reaches the far wall and floor from the manway.

Often, because one bottle has several parts. A water bottle has a body, a lid, a straw and a valve; a baby bottle has a body, a nipple and a vent. A set covers them with brushes of different sizes, usually a long body brush, a small lid and gasket brush and a fine straw or nipple brush. Sets can be packed on a card, in a box or on a stand, in your colors and under your brand. Tell us the bottles the set is for, and each brush is sized to its own part.

Household brushes are replaced when the fill splays, flattens or stays bent, because a splayed head no longer reaches the wall evenly. Wet brushes that never dry grow mildew in the fill, so brushes are best rinsed, shaken out and hung up after use. PBT and silicone dry faster than nylon or natural fill. Antibacterial filament slows growth on the brush but does not remove the need to rinse and dry it. Lab and food plant brushes follow the site’s own replacement rules.

• The vessels: neck inside diameter, body inside diameter and depth, or a sample bottle.
• What the brush is removing: milk film, coffee, tea stain, scale, reagent, yeast.
• Fill, handle material and end: tuft, fan, sponge tip or molded cap.
• For sets: the parts each brush is for.
• Food-contact or other material requirements, sent with the enquiry so the materials are chosen to them.
• Your brand, colors and packaging, and the quantity per design.