So I’ve decided to join the horde and get a Nalgene bottle. From what I’m told, they are indestructable and (more importantly) are great for keeping your sunglasses dry on the beach.
A couple questions-
What is with the N-generation thing? Are they better, or should I stick with the classic widemouth?
And what accessories can I buy for these things. I’ve already found an awesome french press that screws on. And from what I can tell, a splash gaurd thing is important to have. Is there anything else cool I can kit it up with?
All I can tell you is the cap is most definitely destructible. I bought an Eddie Bauer one a couple years ago. I brought it to work and when my boss was in a pissy mood, I demonstrated how I could chuck it straight in the air and nothing would happen to it at all.
Of course, it landed directly on the cap and busted and water went everywhere.
I don’t know what the N-generation thing is and don’t know what yer talkin’ 'bout with this “keep your sunglasses dry” business, but I’ve still got nalgene bottles I’ve had since college, maybe almost ten years old. The stickers have worn off. Love them.
I like the wide-mouths for hot tea or other flavored drinks (easier to clean out) but mostly I like the more drinking-in-motion friendly smaller mouthed ones.
I have one that has a stretch mark from when I froze it and it was a wee bit too full. You can pour just off boiling water in them and stick them at the base of your sleeping bag as a warmer.
They are like house keys though–I may have as many as six around here but I can only ever find, at most, three at any given time.
I think widemouth is better. It’s easier to clean plus you don’t have to worry about being able to fit ice cubes or whatnot in there.
And I don’t know about you, but my Nalgene is indestructible. I’ve abused the damn thing to no end and it shows no sign of damage. I’ve had my friends who drive the school buses around here tell me that they’ve run over their Nalgenes with the buses and they don’t break! :eek: They did it for purely experimental reasons, of course.
I like them. The caps are even more indestructable then the widemouths and the carabiner ring won’t wear out like the nalgene widemouth straps. Unfortunately they have smaller mouths and hold less liquid.
Don’t use bleach/hard detergents to clean your nalgene. Supposedly it leaches a small amount of carcinogenic chemicals out of the polycarbonate. I don’t know if I believe it, but better safe then sorry.
The eddie bauer bottle is NOT a nalgene. Buy a nalgene and compare it to any other lexan bottle on the market. The real nalgenes are ALWAYS better. I’m usually one for buying generics, but in this case nalgene really is king.
I only ever use nalgene bottles for hiking and camping. My father has some that are probably older than I am (making them probably at least 25 years old) and they still work just fine. I use them in the lab a lot for holding various solutions.
Has anyone else ever owned a Platypus? I’m not sure they’re as sturdy, but the flexibility is a real plus at times, especially when backpacking.
I only saw one once, and it was used as a bladder inside a hydration pack. It was a bitch to fill. He’s said he’d had it for 2 or so years, but I don’t know if he’s ever fallen on the pack(i’ve fallen on my camal bak and it was fine)
I simply do not understand the cult of Nalgene. One day in AP Biology lab, I was drinking out of a full one, recapped it and it just plain slipped out of my hand and went on to hit the concrete floor and break into pieces in a quite convincing fashion. I challenge anyone to fill up a 1-liter Nalgene, throw it as high up into the air as possible above a parking lot a few times, and then come back and tell me that there’s some sort of invisible force field protecting the bottle.
Also, the straps break within a year or so of regular use, they smell funky and are hard to clean where spit accumulates and “slime” starts to grow.
They’re fine but nothing magical compared to other polycarbonate bottles of the same thickness. They’re tough but far from incinvible.
The jury’s not totally in yet, but if I were you I’d think about using a glass bottle or one of the safer plastics (according to the second link above, #2, #5, and #4 are safe). Besides, it really is true that things taste better out of glass than plastic, plastic leaches into the liquid and gives it a really chemical taste.
Our family has used Nalgene bottles for over 10 years. Not only have I seen my kids drop them on parking lots or in a natatorium, but I’ve seen countless other kids do it. My wife once left one under the driver’s car seat in “my car”. I’m more than a foot taller, so I have to put the seat way back. I couldn’t seem to get it to go far enough, so I rammed it back. Months later, I looked under the seat. The bottle was dented and scratched, but eventually recovered. The only part of a bottle I’ve ever seen break is the strap to a wide mouth lid.
As far as which bottle, I prefer the wide mouth in many situations. I use the new type in the car and at the pool. It fits better in the cup holders, and it is easier to open it, grab a drink between sets at the pool, and close it. (Flip turns can fill a wide mouth, and occassionally someone knocks your bottle over, hence the advantage of a quick closing bottle.)
Just to give a little bit of a different perspective on whether or not Nalgene bottles cause cancer, here’s another article from the American Coucncil on Science and Health which says that the Nalgene-cancer scare was one of the top ten unfounded health scares of 2004.
I think the only way a Nalgene bottle is gonna kill someone is if you freeze it and use it to bludgeon them to death.
I once rescued one at Devil’s Tower after it had been dropped by some climbers about 80 feet up. It was still intact.
When I go car camping I always take a couple of 96oz naglene canteens with ATB caps . Easy to carry, easy to fill up and pour, and they pack a lot better than a big water jug.
My mom works at a animal supply store and gave me about twelve Nalgene bottles (number 4) used for calf bottles because that style had been discontinued. Love 'em, I’ll tell ya. I’ve never had one break, and I’m a person who frequently drops things. The caps never leak, and they don’t give that nasty plastic taste to my iced tea. They don’t stain, either. Hubby left one in his car for about a month with a bit of tea in the bottom. It came clean very easily.
I have a Nalgene bottle problem. I have been addicted for about 10 years, and need to have one in every color. I think I’m up to about 20 now, both wide and narrow mouth, plus a bike bottle with a flip top. Did you know that a standard Nalgene can hold a full 750ml bottle of wine, with room to spare?
