Yukky homemade "best press"
 

After reviewing a few "recipes" for homemade "Best Press," I whipped up a batch using just water and vodka (no scent). I stored it in a clean, recycled plastic jar and put some in a spray bottle. It worked great, no issues there. However, over time I found dark gunk in the bottom of both the jar and the bottle. It also showed up in the tube leading up to the spray nozzle. Yuk!

Have you had this experience? Do you know what causes it? How it can be prevented? I didn't use the stuff everyday, but certainly frequently.

mold maybe??

I made mine using vodka, distilled water & a few drops of essential oil in October. I is still fine, I actually want to dump it because I didn't like the scent I used but nothing funky floating around.

I made some homemade spray but it's too easy to buy the ready made and I don't have to go to the liquor store which is one store I do not like, for some reason I think liquor stores are creepy. I do like the homemade basting spray because no fumes and it works.

Homemade basting spray??? I will need to search that. Thanks.

I'm guessing it molded as well. I've got a spray bottle still full from a few months ago, when I decided to try this out...it's still looking fine. I started with a new bottle (so no residue) and used distilled water so less particulates as well to begin with. Maybe give it another try?

I had a batch go moldy on me. I washed out the bottle with hot water. I use the stayflo starch concentrate, hot water and vodka. I think the vodka keeps the mold at bay. I use a lot of vodka in my mixture now, about 1/4

Mine is fine. I don't think I even washed the plastic spray bottle between batches (just added to the existing bottle, as I wanted to get rid of the vodka). I used 1 part vodka (cheapest brand) and 3 parts tap water.

bkay

edit: I didn't put starch in mine. The recipe I had didn't call for it.

I've never had a problem with my homemade "best press".

Can't image what the gunk might be. I add more StaFlo starch to mine vodka mixture as I want lots of stiffness to my fabrics. Because of that I keep my mixture in the fridge as the starch will go moldy on you if it gets a bit warm. Found that out the hard way. Anyway, now I make up a gallon at a time as I normally will starch a bunch of fabrics at one time, hang them up to dry and then press them at one time.