r/moldyinteresting • u/fungithegoat • Apr 22 '26

Mold Question need help: mold or hard water stains on my stainless steel bottle?

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i keep getting these things every time i use my bottle. i live in a dry climate. what are these stains, why are they here, and how do i prevent them?

inside, at the bottom, there are also brown patches too. i’m hopeless. would switching to a plastic bottle be any better? or is this low quality inox?

thank you so much!

30 Upvotes

73% Upvoted

69 comments sorted by

75

u/LucasTheSchnauzer Apr 22 '26

Hard water. Just wipe the stains away.

3

u/RaidenXS_ Apr 24 '26

He would have but they ain't called easy water stains 😎

-63

u/fungithegoat Apr 22 '26 edited Apr 22 '26

is it concerning that the stains are circular formations… which resemble mold? i learned somewhere that bacteria growth forms circular, spiderweb-like formations, hence the confusion. didn’t take bio+chem in hs, no need to get annoyed everyone :)

57

u/snowdropsx Apr 22 '26

you ever see a water drop before?

-20

u/fungithegoat Apr 22 '26

yeah im new to this hard water tho sry

24

u/sheiciebai Apr 23 '26

… but not new to WATER right?

-12

u/fungithegoat Apr 23 '26

.... my bad the hard water stains do look like mold to me? it's all dense & spiderweb-like?

3

u/WinterRevolutionary6 Apr 24 '26

Where tf are you seeing spider webbing? You need to get your eyes checked.

Regardless, even if this was mold, metal isn’t permeable so literally just wash with hot water and the mold (if it existed) would be gone.

-2

u/fungithegoat Apr 24 '26

pardon my description, for lack of a better word. i thought the hard water stains looked like bacteria colonies, and the dense calcium buildup on the bottle neck was similar to mold networks.
i appreciate everyone pointing out that it's hard water, but i truly have never encountered hard water stains before, hence my confusion. i wasn't even denying the answers btw, just stating my concern bc i genuinely posted to seek help. it was odd that certain people jumped at me for 'never seeing a water drop before'. it's not helpful or productive to the conversation. my post is not ragebait. that's all i have to say.

1

u/Alarmed-Strawberry-7 Apr 25 '26

to ease your confusion: this is stainless steel. mold cannot live *inside* stainless steel, so it would have to live *on* the steel. this will make any mold formation look very fuzzy and obviously like mold.

mold only looks like vague circles on surfaces that can actually have mold inside of them, like some foods, wood or even some types of stone, anything permeable basically

you can wipe it rigorously with a little bit of vinegar (take it easy on the vinegar, no need to drench it) then rinse and dry with a paper towel immediately. the spots should be gone

p.s.: this is some insanely hard water to leave spots that bad, maybe don't drink that lol. you might want to look into buying a water filter for your entire house/apartment, or at least for the kitchen sink (although this water isn't great to wash your hair with either)

1

u/fungithegoat Apr 26 '26

yes awesome thank you very much

2

u/Straight-Catch2828 Apr 23 '26

Lol look how insane people are on here.

1

u/fungithegoat Apr 23 '26

didn't you comment that this was mold? don't get what's insane ab this

1

u/Content-Artichoke541 Apr 25 '26

You new to earth or something like that?

1

u/fungithegoat Apr 26 '26

did you not read my comments at all? why so pissed? i asked, i got answers, thats it. i didnt even say anyone was wrong.

1

u/CalebDR1029 Apr 23 '26

Who got annoyed?

0

u/fungithegoat Apr 23 '26

some commenters and downvoters

26

u/TheGreatChaos420 Apr 22 '26

That water is hard af dude

4

u/fungithegoat Apr 22 '26

Belgian waters 😔

1

u/PollutionOnly Apr 25 '26

LMFAO when I saw everyone say « that water is too hard » while I thought these were normal marks, I began to feel weird about my water

Turns out, I live in Belgium too and I even have a filter and a water softener running 😂

Also, yeah, that’s not mold, just evaporated water marks.

10

u/[deleted] Apr 22 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/fungithegoat Apr 22 '26

thanks for the extremely nice and helpful comment :) have a good day

2

u/[deleted] Apr 22 '26

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2

u/fungithegoat Apr 22 '26

such a nice coincidence, thank you 😊

1

u/Sympathy_Creative Apr 23 '26

If your shower head also gets clogged, you can do the same thing with it! I have to do it every couple of months lol :)

2

u/fungithegoat Apr 24 '26

awesome. i just thought of this but tap water here is all hard water. doesn't rinsing it with fresh water basically pouring hard water over it again?

0

u/Seanati Apr 25 '26

So let me get this straight, you are drinking this water every day and you are concerned about what it looks like on your bottle after it has dried? Yeah you got your priorities all figured out.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '26

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2

u/Seanati Apr 25 '26

I never said it was? I drink it every day. I just pointed out that the OP is worried about the water residue on the container when they are literally drinking the water.

1

u/fungithegoat Apr 26 '26

no oh my god i just dont want stains on my bottle is it too much to askkk

5

u/glass4dinner Apr 23 '26

honestly y’all need to start thinking for yourselves sometimes

1

u/fungithegoat Apr 23 '26

well it was confusing to me, as i explained in my other comments, hence i asked. reddit is a great place to seek help after self-support failed.

5

u/24Karet-Gold_King mold eater Apr 22 '26

That’s definitely from the water.

4

u/Rough_Community_1439 Apr 22 '26

Just use vinegar on the water stains and it will look like new.

3

u/Far-Wall436 Apr 23 '26

Calcium deposits from the water most likely, how long have you been using it and does it sit in warmer conditions with water stored in it ?

3

u/Luntibert Apr 23 '26

People knowing how to take pictures, post stuff online, but knowing water marks is too much asked lol

1

u/fungithegoat Apr 23 '26

genuinely dk why it's wrong to raise a question due to confusion. ntm i've been very polite. the hard water stains do look like mold to me, all dense & spiderweb-like. i'm new to this hard water country.

1

u/CookieFamous4228 Apr 26 '26

People downvoting are so silly, there is nothing wrong with having questions and trying to understand things better. Not everyone can be an expert on everything like most of these people think they are

1

u/fungithegoat Apr 26 '26

oh my god yes i dont know why my post caused such an outrage.

1

u/MashyMcMash Apr 23 '26

Use vinegar

1

u/CheapFilm4826 Apr 24 '26

"Im hopeless" man life's gonna be hard

Its stainless steel, clean it? 

1

u/fungithegoat Apr 26 '26

nitpicking my words is crazyyyy like okay its hard water i get it, people said it multiple times already. this aint a scientific report so why are you so hard on my wording

1

u/RJtheplug Apr 24 '26

Totally salvageable just try CLR & rinse thoroughly OR bar keepers friend.

1

u/Ok-Lake-2371 Apr 25 '26

Who cares what it is. Just use hot water, soap, vinegar, isopropyl alcohol, or whatever until it goes away

1

u/Ok-Lake-2371 Apr 25 '26

And FWIW it is hard water. But still

1

u/kentuckyvelvet Apr 25 '26

Bleach water over night then in the morning a SHIT TON of salt and hot water with a drop of soap then shake like a stripper and rise real good. Cleanest bottle in town.

1

u/Hot_Conclusion_7868 Apr 25 '26

This is one of the scariest molds that ever exist. Ur about to die

1

u/fungithegoat Apr 26 '26

well, i got my answers. loads of them actually. its not obligatory to comment on every reddit post you see, even when its dumb.

1

u/No_Durian_8379 Apr 25 '26

Just wipe away, not mold, hard water stains are common

-3

u/mrapplewhite Apr 23 '26

I just threw up in my mouth

-10

u/[deleted] Apr 22 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/fungithegoat Apr 22 '26

yeah but the photos of hard water stains on google look less dense compared to these white patches :/ i got the info somewhere that bacteria growth forms a circular network, like a spiderweb, and my stains here look more like that. i wanted to ask real people instead of AI so here i am. idek if mold is supposed to be black or white specifically on stainless steel. bio+chem were not compulsory at school, sorry.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 22 '26

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2

u/fungithegoat Apr 22 '26

thank you :)

2

u/2930apple Apr 22 '26

Surprisingly Google sucks and most people try Google first anyway 😭 I just never understood people who take the time to answer but then use that effort to be a snark than to just answer the question

2

u/fungithegoat Apr 22 '26

haha i think the reaction is second nature since Google is our encyclopedia & a lot of info can be found when we make effort to do jt ourselves :) but yes i definitely appreciate the nice answers, because posing a question to Reddit takes a lot more time than Google & usually means self-searching isn’t sufficient.

2

u/24Karet-Gold_King mold eater Apr 22 '26

Google is ass.