# Fastest way to drain water from a closed container with a narrow nozzle? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 25, 2013, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fastest-way-to-drain-water-from-a-closed-container-with-a-narrow-nozzle/651380 "2013-02-25T21:55:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fastest-way-to-drain-water-from-a-closed-container-with-a-narrow-nozzle/651380/1 "2013-02-25T21:55:07Z")
As anyone who has ever tried to empty a 2L soda bottle knows, there are essentially two ways to do it while leaving the bottle intact: 1) you can flip the bottle upside down, hold it more or less vertically, and let the water come out in erratic spurts, alternating with the intake of air, or 2) you can hold the bottle at an angle and constantly adjust it so that the water level in the bottle is low enough below the lip of the nozzle that there is just enough room for air to flow in and allow a steady stream of water. Obviously, 1) can be rather messy and imprecise due to the erratic flow, and 2) requires paying attention and constantly adjusting the angle of the bottle to maintain a steady flow without choking off the entry of air. So, if you are doing something in the kitchen/house, you will probably use method #2, and if you are just emptying out an old container onto the lawn you will use method #1. My question is: if you simply want to empty the bottle without regard to any other factors (i.e. cleanliness or precision), what is the fastest means of doing so? From personal experience, it _seems_ that method #2 results in a faster emptying of the bottle, but I suspect this may be an illusion and that method #1 may merely _appear_ slower due to the erratic nature of the flow. At some point I will do an experiment to find out. But I wonder if anyone can make a theoretical argument for one or the other? ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fastest-way-to-drain-water-from-a-closed-container-with-a-narrow-nozzle/651380/2 "2013-02-25T22:05:45Z")
Third Way: put one end of a flexible tube into the bottle, tip the bottle upside down, and blow into the tube. ---
**Author:** ![Rain\_Soaked](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19adc/32.png) [@Rain\_Soaked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rain_Soaked)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fastest-way-to-drain-water-from-a-closed-container-with-a-narrow-nozzle/651380/3 "2013-02-25T23:02:48Z")
I remember some physics professor doing tests on this. They found that turning the bottle upside down and swirling the liquid was the fastest. The air was able to go up the central vortex while the liquid swirled down around the edges of the neck. ---
**Author:** ![Rain\_Soaked](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19adc/32.png) [@Rain\_Soaked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rain_Soaked)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fastest-way-to-drain-water-from-a-closed-container-with-a-narrow-nozzle/651380/4 "2013-02-25T23:21:05Z")
[Here](http://weirdsciencekids.com/hurricanceinabottle.html) is a link to what I was trying to describe. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fastest-way-to-drain-water-from-a-closed-container-with-a-narrow-nozzle/651380/5 "2013-02-25T23:28:56Z")
both message 2 and 3 methods work, message 3 method faster. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fastest-way-to-drain-water-from-a-closed-container-with-a-narrow-nozzle/651380/6 "2013-02-25T23:31:17Z")
Once you’ve inverted the bottle, punch or cut a hole above the soda line that’s at least as large as the opening. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fastest-way-to-drain-water-from-a-closed-container-with-a-narrow-nozzle/651380/7 "2013-02-25T23:35:37Z")
That violates the “leave the bottle intact” clause. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fastest-way-to-drain-water-from-a-closed-container-with-a-narrow-nozzle/651380/8 "2013-02-25T23:35:43Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Once you’ve inverted the bottle, punch or cut a hole above the soda line that’s at least as large as the opening. I think that breaks a condition in the OP: " while leaving the bottle intact". ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fastest-way-to-drain-water-from-a-closed-container-with-a-narrow-nozzle/651380/9 "2013-02-25T23:35:56Z")
It’s much faster to alternately squeeze and relax the bottle, given that these are generally flexible. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fastest-way-to-drain-water-from-a-closed-container-with-a-narrow-nozzle/651380/10 "2013-02-25T23:37:00Z")
But that violates the OPs constraint of ‘leaving the bottle intact’. The swirly method works for me, ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fastest-way-to-drain-water-from-a-closed-container-with-a-narrow-nozzle/651380/11 "2013-02-25T23:39:47Z")
Bah, double ninjaed And the swirly method was recently advocated in a [MPSIMS thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=680868), talking about winebottles which are kind of hard to puncture, or squeeze and relax. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fastest-way-to-drain-water-from-a-closed-container-with-a-narrow-nozzle/651380/12 "2013-02-25T23:57:09Z")
> [@lisiate](#): > > But that violates the OPs constraint of ‘leaving the bottle intact’. > > The swirly method works for me, woops, missed that. Whenever I need to empty out a full carboy of water, I’ll start it swirling because once I’ve got the vortex going it’s just a straight drain–if it’s going glub, glub, glub it’s jerking up and down and that’s not a good thing with a big, wet glass bottle. Plus, it’s cool.