What goes wrong

It did not survive the refills

On this page11

The thread wore out The pump failed before the bottle So sell replacement closures It was washed in water that was too hot Which has to be on the label Residue built up And it changes the tare The label came off Test the way a customer will use it Then state the number you measured References

The refill count is the whole promise. A bottle that fails early undoes the argument.

The thread wore out

A closure taken on and off weekly for two years is a different duty cycle from a bottle opened once. Threads strip, and a bottle that will not seal is finished.

The pump failed before the bottle

Which is the usual order. A lotion or foamer pump has moving parts and a dip tube, and it is the component that decides how long the unit lasts.

So sell replacement closures

A shop that can sell a new pump for an old bottle keeps the bottle in service. Standardising on one or two necks is what makes that possible: 194 containers here are 24-410.

It was washed in water that was too hot

PET softens well below the temperature a dishwasher reaches. A customer told to sanitise between refills will put it through a dishwasher, and it will deform.

Which has to be on the label

Hand wash, warm water, air dry. Three words that are the difference between a hundred fills and ten.

Residue built up

A bottle refilled without being emptied and cleaned carries old product into new. For a surfactant it is cosmetic; for anything with a shelf life it is not.

And it changes the tare

Which connects the two halves of this property. A dirty container weighs more than its recorded tare and the customer is paying for the difference.

The label came off

A bottle in a shower or under a sink, wet weekly. An unlabelled refill bottle is a safety problem in a house with children and a guessing game in any house.

Test the way a customer will use it

Fill, empty, wash, refill, twenty times, by hand, with wet hands, and drop it once on a hard floor. That is the actual duty cycle and it is nothing like a single-use bottle test.

Then state the number you measured

Not a hundred because it sounds good. Whatever survived the test, which is a claim you can stand behind and a customer can check.

References

The Davis Pack Supply catalog, measured 19 October 2026. The refill and zero waste shelf is 917 rows: 485 containers and 432 closures. 100 mL to 7,571 mL with a median of 237; 166 containers over a pint, 82 over a quart, 35 over two quarts and 23 over a gallon. 324 PET, 152 HDPE, 7 PP and 2 glass. 443 bottles, 15 jars, 15 tubs and pails and 12 jugs. 134 white, 111 clear, 76 amber, 54 natural. Closures: 268 continuous thread, 39 lotion pumps, 37 disc top, 15 flip top, 13 dome lids, 11 treatment pumps, 9 phenolic, 7 buttress, 7 round tubs, 5 foamer pumps, 5 liners and sealing discs. Necks: 194 at 24-410, 91 at 38-400, 51 at 28-410, 44 at 45-400.

NIST Handbook 130, 2023, Uniform Weights and Measures Law. Section 1.2: "The term 'weight' as used in connection with any commodity or service means net weight. When a commodity is sold by drained weight, the term means net drained weight." Section 1.8 defines net mass or net weight as "the weight of a commodity excluding any materials, substances, or items not considered to be part of the commodity. Materials, substances, or items not considered to be part of the commodity include, but are not limited to, containers, conveyances, bags, wrappers, packaging materials, labels, individual piece coverings, decorative accompaniments, and coupons, except that, depending on the type of service rendered, packaging materials may be considered to be part of the service." nist.gov

Written from NIST Handbook 130, 2023 edition, and from the catalog as it stood on 19 October 2026. Handbook 130 is a compilation of model laws rather than federal law, and states adopt it in different forms, from different years, or not at all; the binding text is your state's. Nothing here concerns whether a scale is legal for trade, which is Handbook 44 and a state device approval, or the retail food rules for refilling a customer's food container, which belong to whoever licenses the shop.