Can acidic and carbonated drinks corrode aluminium bottles?
I like to put lemon or vitamins (those tablets that also create fizzyness) in my water and have been wondering if it is problematic to do so in my aluminium drinking bottle.
I wouldn't normally think so, since soft drinks also often come in aluminium cans, but I'm not sure. Are aluminium salts even unhealthy?
Your aluminum drinking bottle will have a plastic lining to protect it from leeching into things anyway, so it shouldn't really matter.
You should really get a steel one instead, regardless. The lining could tear, leech aluminum into whatever you put in there (even water over time) and make it unsafe to use.
Certain types of beverages can definitely cause some types of cans to erode, yes. You'd have to know whether or not your aluminum bottle has an interior lining or not. There are also different types of linings.
Unfortunately, I only know these things from a friend who works in the canning industry so I can't speak to them with any degree of detail. But some manufacturers get their beverages tested and then have to can them in certain types of cans for that reason.
The lining is usually epoxy or bpa plastic, they take a long time or a strong acid/base to break it down. The epoxy and bpa are because aluminum isn't very strong when it's as thin as they make it for soda cans and the lining material is cheaper than aluminum, if you take the lining out of an aluminum can the edges aren't much thicker than tin foil.
That said, for your quechua bottle (assuming I found the right thing and it's an insulated metal bottle) chances are that you had something in it that stained the interior. Could've been coffee, soda, ice cream (I knew someone that used insulated bottles for bringing ice cream on the go... I don't judge), mold, or pretty much anything except water. Stainless steel really isn't stainless, it's just harder to stain because it has a bit of chromium in it. There's no reason to line a steel bottle though because steel is much stronger
The yellowish color isn't lining, lining is only in aluminum cans because it's cheaper and easier than using thicker aluminum and is usually clear (unless stained). The lining is what gives the cans structure, usually made of epoxy and/or bpa plastic. Without the lining, you can tear a soda can like double thick tin foil. No need for lining in a steel bottle. see the comment below by @schmidtster for the actual use of lining in metal containers, that's what I get for trying to use something I was told in highschool chemistry.
The yellow/golden color on the inside of your bottle is just the metal being stained. Stainless steel isn't really stainless, just harder to stain because the chromium in it forms its own layer of oxidation that protects from being directly touched. Best guess is that the lemon you put in your water breaks down that oxidation layer before you can drink enough, then the lemon and vitamins/minerals/coloring in the tablets stain the metal I misread op, they have an aluminum bottle so the stainless steel part doesn't matter. As far as I can tell from the website, the aluminum bottles don't have a lining (no bpa, didn't say no epoxy). From the inside being yellow I still think it's stained by the lemon and tablets even if it's lined, especially if it didn't start that way
If it's a water vessel I'd only put water in it. Aluminum cans are lined with a specially designed polymer liner for the particular food or drink in the can. Your water bottle is likely not. Don't put anything but water in it.
As others mentioned there's plastic between the soda and can. You can see it in this NurdRage video. Odds are that your bottle doesn't have it, so it's probably a bad idea to store acidic drinks in it. (Including sodas.)
there's a reason beer was the first canned beverage. more acidic things like some sodas corroded aluminum too much until plastic liners were introduced
these fizzy tablets should be ok, but lemon is probably a nope
Buy a stainless steel bottle. (Or glass or plastics)
Regarding the comments with the plastic coating: I don't think that applies to bottles. Maybe soda cans. I've found this, but that doesn't sound like a particularly good article: