Posts Tagged water bottles
Vapur Collapsible Water Bottle
We’re regularly preaching on here about the evils of single-use plastic water bottles, so we like to keep an eye on water bottle designs that make it easier to avoid this marketing-driven environmental disaster.
This reusable, collapsible bottle from Vapur got on my radar recently when I was at an adventure travel trade show and several companies (including Eddie Bauer) were handing them out as promos. I’ve used one a few times now and while it’s kind of an unusual thing to get used to, it has some big advantages.
The main one is that you can pack this thing without taking up any space. Since you can’t go through security with a filled water bottle anyway, you can stow this in your carry-on and then use it at a water fountain on the other side of the TSA security theater. It’s also freezable, so you can have very cold water later on a car trip or even use it as an ice pack in transit. The plastic is BPA-free of course and the top pops off for easy washing. You can buy replacement tops too and keep using the same bottle.
Now you might think this wouldn’t stand upright, but the way it’s designed it will stand up until it gets pretty empty: there’s an extra section on the bottom that expands when the bottle is filled. It also comes with its own carabiner threaded through a whole, so you can hang it on your pack filled or not.
These run about half the price of a stainless steel quality plastic bottle, but there are some disadvantages. Like the Sigg kind of metal ones, this has a narrow opening at the top. That makes it harder to wash if you’re putting something besides water in it.
The other problem is you can’t use this with a SteriPen water purifier. You’d have to purify the water in something else and transfer it to here. Or use a pump filter. This only matters in countries where you can’t trust the water though. Just go from the tap if you’re in the first world.
You can buy direct from Vapur (and order ones with your logo on it if you’re a trade show exhibitor) or check out the selection from Amazon, some of them with cool artist drawings like the one at the right. Or check prices online for other retail outlets.
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Posted by Tim L. in General Gear, Kids and Family, Travel Light on December 22nd, 2011
Tricked-out Hydrapak Jolla for Long Bike Rides
Is your one-liter water bottle coming up short? Need to carry more than what will fit into the pocket on the back of your cycling jersey? Hydrapak has the solution.
I’ve never been sold on the need for hydration packs when hiking. It’s not like it’s hard to pull a water bottle (or two) out of a pocket when you take a break beside the trail and those pouches are no fun to clean. But when you’re on the back of a bicycle, maybe trying to avoid traffic or watch for potholes, it can make sense. This is especially true for long rides, times where even two bottle carriers mounted on the frame are not going to cut it.
This Jolla bag is the largest one from Hydrapak, a company that lets you put three liters of water inside your bag and still have plenty of room to spare. I’ve gone on a few overnight or multi-night rides where I was carrying everything I needed on my back and this Jolla one would be perfect for that. With 1,100 cubic inches of space (18 liters) it’s not going to cut it for days on end, but enough for a couple changes of clothes and some toiletries.
For this company it all starts with the hydration pack and this one solves a lot of problems people complain about with these things in general. The way it’s designed, you can fold the whole thing inside-out to clean it (picture a dry bag construction with a plastic zip-up mechanism for good measure). 
Plus there’s a clip-and-magnet system that allows you to mount the hose end anywhere on the strap and keep it in place. No need to tuck it into a strap or to clip it in an awkward place that doesn’t fit your body type and pack placement. (See a video on how it works here.) In my tests the high-flow drinking valve rarely leaked much, but there’s a twist control on it to shut it off completely if you want.
The pack itself is well-designed and comfortable, with ergonomic straps and ventilation foam in the right places to keep the sweat from building up on your back. I’ve been using this while baking in the hot Florida sun the past couple months and it has performed well in the heat. It’s got loads of pockets in multiple compartments, plus the obligatory MP3 set-up with a headphone port—though use that at your own risk in traffic. There are compression straps, plenty of places to hook things on, and straps for your waist and sternum if you want. There’s a handle on the top for picking it up, with I always appreciate. All made from rugged ripstop nylon.
The place where you stow all your gadgets inside is attached by a Velcro strap and is a removable pouch. That means you can leave your pack one place and take all the things that are really worth a lot with you.
This pack has a thin profile and with all the compression straps you can keep it more narrow than your body. So it shouldn’t create much drag if you’re biking through wine country or doing a daily commute.
This pack lists for $150, which isn’t exactly a screaming bargain, but you can probably find it discounted by following these direct links for Department of Goods, or Amazon. Or you can just get the Hydrapak hydration pouch from Amazon and stick it in your own streamlined backpack.
See other smaller pack sizes at Hydrapak.com.
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Posted by Tim L. in Adventure Gear, Travel Light on November 16th, 2011
Advanced Water Bottle From Under Armour and Thermos
When reviewing advanced water bottles in the past, the reality has pretty much never lived up to the hype. When I received this one, called Dominate, I was skeptical but I got humbled quickly. The new collaboration between Thermos and UnderArmour has produced a water bottle that keeps cold water cold for an amazingly long time. For once, I had to admit the marketing braggadocio was for real.
There are a seemingly infinite number of water bottle manufacturers out there, and for good reason: the margins on these products would make Uncle Scrooge drool, they’re cheap to ship, and anyone who travels or works out keeps buying another one (or three) each year. But do we really need another brand on the shelves?
Before I would have said no, but after using this new stainless steel bottle—a collaboration between Thermos and Under Armour—I have to say this one really does dominate. It’s a double-walled, vacuum insulated bottle that does an amazing job of really insulating. After I found my ice still clinking around four hours after I put it in there, with no sweat on the outside of the bottle, I was already impressed. So then I started subjecting the bottle to harsher conditions than the inside of an air-conditioned house to see how it would hold up. The results were surprising.
I filled the bottle up with six ice cubes and tap water and brought it with me to run errands in the car. It sat in the Florida heat inside a vehicle for two hours solid once and was still ice cold. I sat the bottle outside in the blazing sun for three hours the next day. The water was still cold. OK, the ice melted, but that’s it. Multiple times now, I’ve filled it up one day and it’s still been far colder than the tap water the next day, 12 hours later, just like the claims.
So all that alone is enough to set this water bottle apart from the pack. But it’s also got some nifty features you see in some other bottles, like a snap-on plastic covering that can lock into place or be released by a button pressed with one finger. There’s a handy rubber grip on the side and the bottle is oval-shaped, which makes it easier to hold. A ring on a hinge in the back allows you to hook it only a backpack or attach something to it.
See the full line of Under Armour bottles from Thermos and get more details on the Dominate one I tried here. You can order it from Amazon. It is BPA-free, comes in two colors, and lists for close to $30. Pricey maybe, but it delivers.
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Posted by Tim L. in Adventure Gear, General Gear on July 21st, 2011
H2Mio Two-piece Water Bottle from Seattle Sports
“Do you realize your water bottle has a layer of dirt on the inside of it?” I asked my wife one day when she asked me to fill hers up. There had been a dusty windstorm the past couple days where we live and her bottle had been sitting around outside with the top off for a while.
“Gross!” was the understandable reply when she took a look. Twenty minutes later she finally had it cleaned up, thanks to an improvised bottle brush and lots of strategic wiping.
If she’d been using one of these Seattle Sports H2Mio bottles, the clean-up would have been a cinch.
That’s because it’s a two-piece water bottle that screws together. You can just rinse it out and leave it in the drying rack as usual, or take it apart and really give it a good scrubbing. That’s no big deal to design and others have done it, so the nifty part here is that when you take it apart, the top part becomes a cup resting on a pedastal. (Raised pinky optional.) So should you decide to sit down at a table at drink water with your meal, you can feel civilized while you’re doing it.
The H2Mio bottles from Seattle Sports are all brushed stainless steel at the bottom, but come in a variety of colors for the top cup part. They also come with a rubber piece that looks like it’s just decorative or to cover the top of the cup with. I found a more practical use for it later though when I encountered this design’s expected problem, the reason everybody isn’t making two-piece bottles that screw together: sometimes it leaks. After it dribbling on my daypack twice, I finally figured out that putting this band around the seam mostly solved the problem. No more leaks. (And the band glows in the dark, in case you can’t find it on your nightstand.)
I recently took this bottle on a two week trip through Panama and Peru, using it in conjunction with my Steripen Opti to avoid having to buy any bottled water. It worked great since this has a wide enough mouth for the purifier and holds enough to keep me going much of the day—more than a liter. Naturally it’s BPA free and naturally it suffers from the same issues any BPA-free stainless steel bottle does: a metallic tinge to the taste and a propensity to dent easily. But the price is right ($17.95 list) and it’s even got a little built-in hook at the top for carrying it or hooking it onto something.
Retail availability of this bottle is spotty, but you can order direct from Seattle Sports if you can’t find it locally.
See other reviews of water bottles on Practical Travel Gear.
Posted by Tim L. in Adventure Gear, General Gear on June 15th, 2011
A CamelBak Bottle That Makes Your Water Taste Better
I’ve raged and barked plenty on here about the need to carry a re-usable water bottle (and compact water purifier when necessary) in order to keep from soiling our land and oceans on a daily basis. Sure, you can point to your house recycling bin and justify that case of plastic from Costco, but reality is that some 3/4 of those single-use bottles—even in developed countries—just get drunk from and tossed. Here’s what happens to them.
There’s a tendency among many to drink bottled water because it tastes more neutral, with no trace of chlorine. So if we can eliminate that problem, will you stop buying disposable plastic?
CamelBak is hoping you’ll say yes, because they’ve solved that issue with this new Groove water bottle with a built-in filter. All you need to do is fill it up and drink. The built-in filter removes all the tastes you don’t want.
I’ve used a few different bottles with built-in filters before and have been less than satisfied. Either they made me work like a p0rn queen to get the water out or the filter would eventually fall into the bottle and fill it with charcoal.
This one, I’m happy to say, is a different story. CamelBak is one of the best-known manufacturers of water bottles and they seem to be trying harder than anyone to wean our population off their bottled water addiction. So they did this right. This Groove one feels like a regular water bottle, with a flip-top bite nozzle and a normal shape. You don’t have to suck on that nozzle any harder than you would normally.
It’s BPA-free, dishwasher safe, and comes in a variety of colors. (Mine is cool white, but I like this picture because you can see the filter.) It holds 20 ounces of water, or 0.6 liters. The list price is $25 for plastic, $35 for steel.
Alas, as with a hybrid car, eventually you’ve got to cough up more cash to be a good citizen of the planet. Here’s the official word on the filter: “Each Fresh Filter reliably reduces contaminants for 300 refills of the bottle, or approximately 3 months of use at 3–4 full bottles per day.” That adds up to 48 gallons or 180 liters, which even a constantly water-sucking/bathroom-going health nut like my wife will take a while to cycle through. When it’s time to get more, you’ll pay $10 for two filters or $25 for six.
Also, don’t expect to use this in countries where you can’t drink the water to start with, or to drink from a stream where you don’t know the source. This is a primarily a taste filter, not one meant to keep you from getting sick. Think of it as a Brita pitcher to go.
Order the CamelBak Groove filter bottle from Backcountry in BPA-free plastic or metal.
Posted by Tim L. in General Gear, Kids and Family on April 7th, 2011
