Sometimes in life, you have to follow a certain set of principles. This water bottle purchase from Amazon allowed me to follow mine: Keep it simple. I bought this to replace a 3-month old Camelbak Eddy bottle that, despite a fancy bite valve and straw and 'leak-proof' design, leaked all over the place constantly. This bottle has no fancy features, no valve, no straw, no vacuum/hermetically sealed gasket design, no space-age materials designed to keep the H20 firmly inside the plastic until you want it in your mouth-hole. No sir. This has no such accoutrements. This has a cap. And a darn sturdy one at that. And it has a bottle, which is important, because you want to buy a water bottle. The bottle holds the water very well. The cap does an admirable job of keeping the water inside of the bottle, which is an important feature that high-tech gizmos don't do so well. So basically you've got a bottle, and a cap, and it holds water. Now lets get to the specifics: It holds water -- a liter of it, to be precise. It's got markings for ounces for us Yankees who are more geared to the 'standard' mindset, but this bottle is an international traveler! You want to go abroad? Nalgene's got you covered. No more will you wonder "How many milliliters of water should I ask the waiter at this Paris cafe for? I really want 16 ounces of water, but I don't know how that converts!" All you've got to do is look at the other side of the markings! Turns out 16 ounces of water is pretty much a half a liter or so, or 500 milliliters for those of you who never paid attention to the metric system/base 10 unit in 7th grade. The plastic is grey. Not like grey like a cloud, because you can't see through them very well. This thing is clear, but grey. It's like it's two colors that aren't colors at all. It's like a bad pair of sunglasses. This would make bad sunglasses because it wouldn't be comfortable to strap to your face. I tried. Not worth it. Oh, and it's BPA free, which means you won't grow extra arms from drinking out of it. The only drawback to this bottle is cleaning. It starts to smell a little funky after several refills if you're not washing it in between. Buy a bottle brush, or just toss some soap in with some water, swish around furiously for 30 seconds and call it good like I do. All in all, this is a great bottle that holds water, is capable of metric conversions, and can be cleaned. If you're looking for a no nonsense piece of equipment that will do these things, buy this Nalgene Tritan bottle. It's worth the few dollars they charge for it. Read more
I have several Nalgene bottles, both wide and narrow-mouth, but my smoke grey was my main one. The one I used everywhere. It accompanied me on so many trips, and had so many miles on it. It had been accidentally dropped countless times, including once falling out of my backpack onto a hard airport terminal floor then accidentally kicked across the same. Been tossed around, hung from its cap strap on carabineers while both full and empty. Once I even accidentally stepped on it. It was scratched, it was scuffed, it had scars. The logo and measurement marking paint was worn or outright missing in many places. But it remained perfectly functional and leak-free. I began to like the scars it had, evidence of just how tough it was and how well it had served me for almost ten years. Then last year we had bitterly cold temperatures in this region and many people in my state lost power. I was without it for almost a week, while some others in the state didn't get it back for two. The house became very cold, near-freezing. One day I was wiping off and cleaning the outside of my half-filled bottle when it slipped out of my hand and hit the floor. It shattered. The shoulders with the neck/cap broke right off. I felt sick. I was absolutely gutted. I looked at the pieces heartbroken. After all the drops it shrugged off, this one killed it. The only explanation I can think of is that the extreme cold made it more brittle. Being that cold for an extended period of time probably didn't help, either. I mean I've frozen liquids in it before and it survived no problem, but I guess the cold plus the drop was too much for it. I honestly felt like giving it a "proper" burial. To lay it to rest after serving so well for so many years. I didn't, but the feeling took awhile to fade. I mourned for my fallen soldier. Sounds crazy? These bottles are that good. Never in my life would I've expected to become so attached to a water bottle. But I wouldn't have traded that bottle for any other fancy, high-priced bottle in the world. With Nalgene's lifetime warranty I got a free replacement in the same color. It's already got some light scratches, and while it's not my original it's well on its way to serving just as well. Are you looking for a water bottle? Get Nalgene. Forget every other bottle with overblown claims. You'll pay more and get far less. Read more
100% satisfied with my Nalgene narrow mouth bottle. For any who need clarification, the 1 quart size is the same as the 32 oz. It even has the approximate volume in ounces and mL. For some reason the 1 quart model was cheaper so I went with it. Anyways, the bottle itself is durable as expected and the color for the grey variation is spot on. I've already dropped it, full of water, and there are no cracks or any other damage to the bottle or screw cap. I carry the bottle by the plastic that connects the bottle to the cap, and it handled the weight without issue. The narrow mouth bottle is awesome for drinking water on the go and prevents spilling on yourself, especially while walking, driving, or exercising. Of course, it can be more difficult to fill up than the wide mouth version but it truly isn't that big of a deal for me. For cleaning, you can purchase a bottle cleaning brush which is relatively cheap at most Target or Walmart stores, or use the old "fill with soapy water and shake the heck out of it" method. Both work well. It is also worth noting that your water will not stay cold very long in this bottle, definitely nothing like one of those newfangled HydroFlask bottles. This is actually a plus for me since I highly prefer room temperature water, but it is good to keep in mind. I imagine ice cubes might be a pain to put in the narrow mouth, so if that's an issue for you I'd recommend to get the wide mouth or spend the extra $$$ on an ultra-insulated bottle. Last but not least, the bottle is made in the good ol' U.S. of A. Read more
