Make Your Bottles Leak Resistant

I don't know about you, but I carry a few plastic bottles for things like sunscreen, alcohol (the fuel variety, of couse) and various other asundries.  I learned the hard way a few years ago that in rare cases if you squeeze the bottle hard enough or somehow in your pack, the material inside the bottles can ooze out from the cap and between the threads of the cap.  After doing some home plumbing it dawned on me to put Teflon Tape on the threads of my little bottles in my backpack.  Teflon 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 tight seal.  So I tried it and no more oozing!!   You just wrap a good 3"-4" long piece around the threads of the bottle neck and make sure it is on there good.  Be sure to wrap the tape on the threads 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 more snug and good go.  This trick should work on most any vessel with a neck and threads really, but I find I use it most on bottles like this.

A roll of teflon tape should be less than $2 in the plumbing supply section of your local hardware store.  A roll of it is like a largish box of Morton's salt, it should last you for most of your life.  It is sometimes called PTFE Thread Seal Tape.

And just think about it; if you can do this, you can change a shower head or faucet head in your house/apartment/domicile/hovel.  So go out and get yourself a good water saving shower head and replace that old one you might have.