Why do some bottled water labels have a "dont refill warning"?

This is just a guess: It is probably legal jargon meant to cover their butts after you refill the bottle and over time it grows bacteria and you never sterilize it because it can’t go in the dishwasher so you drink the bacteria and get horribly ill and want to sue.

seriously? ...off to check my bottle…...

you would wash the bottle in hot water before refilling tho.
and you wouldnt have the water in it for too long to make the bacteria

I just grabbed a bottle of Zephyrhills and I don’t see that written on the label. A lot of people think that reusing plastic watter bottles is a health hazzard, but in reality it’s not. So i’m not sure? Check this out -> http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/petbottles.asp

….my Vittel bottle doesn’t say this… where are you from?

i am from north east scotland
there was a bottled water i used to buy and it always had this warning on the label
and there was some other bottles with this warning also

It’s because a lot of the bottles (like Nalgene, etc. before they changed them) are made of plastic that if exposed to extreme heat or just used over a long period of time release a certain chemical (not for a loooong time I don’t think though) that is potentially harmful. They want to save their asses if it is.

I’m sure some dumbass would try to put coffee or something hot in there, and throw a shit fit when the plastic melts or burns them.

i dont think anyone would be that dumb to put hot liquid in a crappy plastic bottle that held cold water in it originally

1. Plastic can start to leech into the water after a while.

2. Marketing tool so that you’ll buy more water!

@sandystrachan we’re talking about a world where someone sued McDonalds because their hot coffee burned them and they won. Someone would definitely be that dumb.

All types of plastic begin to breakdown as soon as it is out of production. Certain products cause this to happen faster (ei. carbonated drinks), but it still happens regardless of the contents.

In general the toxic effect is from the additives of the plastic that make it clear, soft, shapeable, etcetera. For example, plasticizers like adipates and phthalates.

My advise – drink tap water… out of a glass; like we used to do.

@sandystrachan really? You don’t think there’s anyone dumb enough? I would bet a lot of money that there is.

I just checked my bottle of Poland spring, and it doesn’t have a refill warning on it.

it’s called BPA. that’s if you use hot water, or microwave it, overtime it leeches out of the plastic and into the food or water. it was in all the baby bottles, that were used in baby warmers or microwaves… :(

i wouldn’t reuse water bottles, that seems weird to me.

@adreamofautumn that person won because the coffee was way too hot. coffee should not give third degree burns.

i just went and bought a new bottle of water to check the label,the same company that only 6 months ago had the warning have now removed it from there bottles .

if someone is stupid enough to put hot liquid into a plain plastic bottle, not made for hot liquid then they should accept the fact its going to melt.
isnt there a difference with the MC D’s container or did that person get it in a standard bottle.because i thought those hot drinks from such places came in a proper container
that would then mean they wasnt the stupid person that put hot liquid in a plastic bottle.

I never said anything about a person getting a hot bottle of coffee at mcdonalds. I said there are people in this world who are stupid enough to put coffee in a plastic bottle. Where they get the coffee is irrelevant.

did i say you said it was from that well known food chain ?
no someone else had mentioned it .

I’m just saying people exist that are dumb enough to put hot liquid in a plastic bottle.
If you choose to believe there aren’t, then that’s your opinion.
To each his own.

@adreamofautumn: That McDonald’s had been warned for serving their coffee too hot before. Had she attempted to put it in her mouth, she also would have been burned. It was far too hot for any human consumption and caused her serious burns. It is really unfortunate that she became the butt of jokes and the mascot for frivolous law suits as hers was anything but.

@EmpressPixie and @casheroo I agree that it’s not frivolous. My point was just that people can and will sue, over just about anything. I don’t know much about the lawsuit. Though I did work as a Barista at Starbucks and we weren’t to serve a latte that we were steaming until it was 140 degrees. I wonder how hot that McDonalds coffee was, apparently insanely hot. Anyways, I am sorry if I offended anyone, I will try to think of a better lawsuit for next time! Such as whoever was the reason that some chainsaws have a label that say “do not stop using hands or genitalia”. I apologize for sounding like an ass in choosing that particular lawsuit.

@adreamofautumn: There was a recent news item about a power tool, sex toy, and an embarrassed woman. Though I do not believe she sued, people like her are the reason for those warnings…

@EmpressPixie haha I wish I had caught that news story, just for the value of hearing it. I’m going to google it!

At one point,most of the bottled soft drinks were sold in reusable glass bottles. I’m dating myself by sharing this experience, but I remember in the late ‘50’s I could buy a bottle of Coke for 8 cents, plus 2 cents for deposit. I would return the bottle and get my deposit back. When refillable bottles were phased out in favor of the one-use variety, the warning appeared on all bottles ”DO NOT REFILL!”

It doesn’t have to be hot liquid for it to leech.

Because the bottle material is potentially like shit but they don’t want to explicate such fact.