Pinterest FAIL: Cleaning Old Bottles with Alka Seltzer

I saw on pinterest (and a few other sources) that Alka Seltzer can be used as a cleaning agent.  One pin specifically, claimed that it could be used to clean the gunk out of a narrow vase.  Hmm, vase..old bottles..similar right?  I had a few old glass bottles that my dad found on our property in "the country", and a box of Alka Seltzer that I couldn't stomach, so I thought I'd give it a try.  

1. Fill bottle/vase half full with warm water.

2. Drop in 2 Alka Seltzer tablets.  These are the kind I had:

I had to break the tablets into pieces to fit into the opening.  

3. Cover the opening and give the bottle/vase a good shake.

*Use caution.  My shirt looked like this after shaking:

According to the internet, you just rinse and voila, it's miraculously clean.  Since these bottles have been sitting on the side of Highway P for Godonlyknowshowlong, I let them soak for about 30 minutes.  After changing my shirt, I went back to my bottles and repeated steps 1-3.  Round 1 had loosened a little bit of the gunk, but nothing noticeable.  After round 2, I decided to use a q-tip to wipe out what I could reach.  This helped, but still no miracle was happening.  I squirted dishwashing soap and hot water in each bottle and let that sit for another 30 minutes.  Looks like I'll be buying a bottle brush.  :)

This may work better on a freshly used vase, and maybe it was the type of Alka Seltzer that I used.  I also found a pin that said it could be used to clean your toilet.  Guess what I'll be trying next!  And no, I will not be sharing those before pics.