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Service · Processing
A wash line is the difference between a used tote and a working one.
Rinsing a container with a hose is not reconditioning. Ours is a nine-station line: residue evacuation, triple rinse, heated caustic, live steam, forced-air dry, lamp inspection, 3 psi pressure test, cage repair and full refit. Every unit leaves with a certificate naming what was in it and what we did about it.
Short answer
Nine stations from residue evacuation to refit, ending in a 3 psi pressure test and a per-unit wash certificate. We process our own stock and your fleet alike.
- Stations
- 9
- Test
- 3 psi hold
- Turnaround
- 5–10 days
- Record
- Per unit
Form 01 · Spec request
Book a wash run.
Tell us the prior contents, the count and whether you want your own units back or a straight swap into washed stock. Both are quoted the same day.
Wash cycles
The prior chemistry chooses the cycle, not the price list.
Running everything on one generic cycle is how odour and film survive into the next fill. We match the cycle to what the container held.
| Prior contents | Cycle | Key step | Typical result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water-soluble chemistry, salts, nutrients | Standard | Triple rinse plus warm caustic | Clean, odour free, first pass |
| Oils, lubricants, cutting fluids | Extended caustic | Hot caustic with extended dwell | Film lifted; occasional second pass |
| Sugars, syrups, concentrates | Warm food cycle | Warm water, food-safe detergent, sanitiser | Colour may remain, surface clean |
| Coatings, resins, adhesives | Aggressive | Hot caustic plus mechanical agitation | Variable; cured product often unrecoverable |
| Surfactants and detergents | Extended rinse | Additional rinse stages to break foam | Clean; foam carryover is the risk |
| Dyes and pigments | Standard plus assessment | Normal cycle, graded on residual stain | Permanent stain likely, function unaffected |
| Unknown | Not accepted for reuse | Routed to rebottling or reclaim | Never returned to refill service |
Included
What every unit gets
- Residue evacuation and compliant capture at intake
- Three ambient rinses with a rotating 360-degree spray head
- Heated caustic wash, dwell matched to prior chemistry
- Live steam finish to strip film and lift odour
- Forced-air dry and interior lamp inspection
- Sealed 3 psi pressure test with hold
- New valve, new gasket set and new fill cap
- Cage straightening, weld repair and deck replacement as needed
- Wash certificate and unit record
Options
Add-ons worth asking for
- UN recertification and re-marking for regulated service
- Pallet swap from wood or composite to plastic for food lines
- Specific outlet fitting: camlock, tri-clamp, NPT or hose thread
- Viton, silicone or PTFE-lined gasket sets for aggressive chemistry
- Serial-level reporting tied to your asset register
- Stretch wrap, labelling and dock-ready staging
Questions
Washing and reconditioning, answered.
01Can you wash our own fleet rather than selling us washed stock?
Yes, and it is often cheaper than buying. We collect, process and return your own serial-numbered containers, which keeps your asset register intact and avoids the paperwork of buying and disposing in parallel.
02What is a wash certificate?
A per-unit record naming the container serial, the prior contents, the wash cycle applied, the operator, the date and the pressure-test result. Auditors and customers ask for it constantly, and it is issued as standard rather than on request.
03How long does turnaround take?
A standard load is typically five to ten working days from receipt, depending on the wash cycle the prior chemistry needs and whether cage repair is involved. We will give you a date, not a range, once we see the load.
04What cannot be washed back into service?
Bottles with crazing, stress whitening, permanent deformation or retained odour after two full cycles. Those go to rebottling or reclaim, and we tell you unit by unit rather than quietly substituting.
05Do you handle the residue?
Yes. Heels are evacuated and captured at intake and routed to compliant treatment. Regulated residue must be declared before collection so the right route is arranged in advance.
Line parameters
Temperatures, dwell times and rejection triggers.
The chemistry is a third of the process. Heat and contact time do the rest, and cutting either is where reconditioning quietly fails.
| # | Station | Medium | Temp | Dwell | Rejection trigger |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Intake and identification | — | — | — | Unknown or non-disclosable prior contents |
| 02 | Residue evacuation | — | Ambient | — | Residue outside permitted streams |
| 03 | Triple rinse | Fresh water | Ambient–warm | Fill, agitate, drain ×3 | Persistent solids |
| 04 | Caustic wash | Alkaline solution | 60–70 °C | 10–20 min | Chemically incompatible residue |
| 05 | Steam finish | Live steam | 100 °C | 3–6 min | Odour retained after two cycles |
| 06 | Dry and inspect | Forced air | Ambient | 20–40 min | Crazing, stress whitening, pinholes |
| 07 | Pressure test | Air | Ambient | Sealed 3 psi, held | Any pressure decay |
| 08 | Cage and base repair | — | — | Varies | Structural failure beyond repair |
| 09 | Refit and record | — | — | ~5 min | — |
Your fleet or ours
Toll washing against buying washed stock.
Both are common. Which is cheaper depends on whether your containers are worth keeping identified.
| We wash your containers | You buy our washed stock | |
|---|---|---|
| Serial numbers | Preserved | New serials |
| Asset register | Unchanged | Disposal plus acquisition |
| UN plate history | Yours, continuous | Ours, transferred |
| Turnaround | 5–10 working days plus freight both ways | Immediate from stock |
| Cost | Lower per unit | Higher per unit, no return freight |
| Best when | You own a fleet and track it | You need units now |
| Documentation | Wash certificate per your serial | Wash certificate per our serial |
Add-ons worth specifying
- UN recertification and re-marking, done on the same visit so units move once.
- Base swap from wood or composite to plastic, for food lines.
- Specific outlet fitting: camlock, tri-clamp, NPT or hose thread.
- Viton, silicone or PTFE-lined gasket sets for aggressive chemistry.
- Vented rather than solid fill caps, for warm fills and storage.
- Serial-level reporting tied to your own asset register.
- Stretch wrap, labelling and dock-ready staging.
What we cannot wash back into service
- Bottles with crazing or stress whitening — structural, not chemical.
- Bottles that retain odour after two full cycles, including a heated stage.
- Containers permanently deformed by a hot fill or a freeze.
- Anything with undocumented prior contents.
- Anything that has held industrial product, if the destination is food service.
- Cured resins and coatings that have set inside the bottle.
Extended FAQ · 7 questions
More questions, answered
01Can you wash our fleet rather than selling us washed stock?
Yes, and it is often cheaper than buying. We collect, process and return your own serial-numbered containers, which keeps your asset register intact and avoids the paperwork of buying and disposing in parallel.
02What is a wash certificate?
A per-unit record naming the container serial, the prior contents, the wash cycle applied, the date, the operator and the pressure test result. Auditors and customers ask for it constantly, and it is issued as standard rather than on request.
03How long does turnaround take?
A standard load is typically five to ten working days from receipt, depending on the cycle the prior chemistry needs and whether cage repair is involved. We give you a date once we have seen the load.
04What cannot be washed back into service?
Bottles with crazing, stress whitening, permanent deformation or retained odour after two full cycles. Those go to rebottling or reclaim, and we tell you unit by unit rather than quietly substituting.
05Do you handle the residue?
Yes. Heels are evacuated and captured under containment at intake and routed to compliant treatment. Regulated residue must be declared before collection so the right route is arranged in advance.
06Why does dwell time matter so much?
Because caustic needs contact to work — ten to twenty minutes depending on the residue. A cycle that sprays hot caustic for ninety seconds and drains it is an expensive rinse, not a caustic wash. Most failures we see in containers washed elsewhere are dwell failures.
07Why do you hold containers before grading them?
A bottle straight off the steam finish smells of steam. Two days later it smells of whatever is still in the polymer wall. Holding units at least twenty-four hours before an odour call produced the largest single drop in post-sale complaints we have recorded.
Next step
Send the prior contents. We will send the cycle and the date.
Reconditioning is quoted per unit against the chemistry, not against a generic price band.