Canteen or water bottle?

cramsey3006

cramsey3006

Joined
Aug 2, 2010
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2,129
What's everyone think?

I usually use either wide-mouth or regular sports bottles. The sports type bottles (with a push-pull valve) seem to leak more than half the time, either from the valve or where the cap screws on. Or the valve gets gunked up, stuck, broke, etc. I can't see any appreciable advantage of a wide-mouth bottle (other than a wide mouth) over a canteen. You have to take the top off to drink out of both.

I'm thinking of getting a couple of canteens and covers with gear pockets in them, like they sell at canteen shop. The canteens seem a better design and since a canteen cup fits in the pouch too, that's one less thing to carry in another bag.

What say you?
 
I use a mix of Canteens and "Nalgyne" type bottles but favor the Canteens. They are the same price, if not less and the cases sure are a lot lesss. I also have a sports bottle for my bike that spends most of it's time in my work backpack with my uniform. Never had a problem with leaking.

When hiking, I'll sometimes take a drink with out stopped and tend to spill less water from the canteens.

Heber
 
cramsey3006 said:
What say you?
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Nothing wrong with canteens, IMO.
I started using wide-mouth Nalgenes over a dozen years ago, mainly because they worked with my water filter, and the mesh pockets on multiple packs I had were made to fit them.
Other than that, I would still be using GI canteens. Been tempted lately to go back to a 2qt. canteen, but Humangear fixed Nalgenes for me. My newer packs are also made for carrying them, and I still use the same filter. Before the Capcap, I never really liked Nalgenes all that much, except the smaller narrow mouth ones.
I'm really picky though.
Never liked sports bottles. Quality ones are rare, and they don't put out enough fluid. Don't like having to squeeze them, and the mouthpiece is unprotected on most of them.
Don't care for this SS bottle fad, either. Taste funny despite claims to the contrary, look like crap after a little use, and I really hate drinking from the ones where the cap doesn't screw down over the part you drink from. I'll use freebies from work, but not outdoors. The only one I'd actually buy would be a widemouth KleenKanteen.
Bought some of the Camelbak bottles along the way, too, but didn't like the unprotected bite tube on those.
So...canteens are still pretty high on my list.
 
I like the wide mouth KleenKanteen. We have around 6 and usually will carry 2 with me and the wife also has 2 on her pack.
 
When you say "canteen", are you specifically talking about the military kidney-shaped canteen?
 
The Nalgene can't boil water, can they? Sorry if I sound stupid. I'm a noob.

Jordan
 
jnich67 said:
The Nalgene can't boil water, can they? Sorry if I sound stupid. I'm a noob.

Jordan
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the metal ones can I think, just not the plastic ones. They also can't be insulated, have to be single walled.
 
JCK said:
the metal ones can I think, just not the plastic ones. They also can't be insulated, have to be single walled.
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You can do it in the plastic ones if you have to, it's just not something you would want to do all the time. The water will absorb most of the heat and keep the plastic from melting.

I like the soft, flexible canteens that Nalgene and Platypus make. They hold water just fine and pack away easily when they are empty. I use one of the 4L Platypus ones in camp to store filtered water for cooking and cleaning.
 
I find the narrow neck on canteens make them a PITA to clean. I prefer Nalgenes. Sports bottles with the push pull valve are pretty useless to me. They always leak.
 
TKAZ said:
I like the wide mouth KleenKanteen. We have around 6 and usually will carry 2 with me and the wife also has 2 on her pack.
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+1 on the kleankanteen... Got a couple of the 40oz ones and 4 of the 24oz'ers. Even like the "all new" sports caps, even though they still squeal slightly when you drink through them.

/dusty
 
Slidetechnik said:
I find the narrow neck on canteens make them a PITA to clean. I prefer Nalgenes. Sports bottles with the push pull valve are pretty useless to me. They always leak.
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I agree about the narrow neck making it a pita to clean. However, I find that a 2" opening makes it much easier to drink while on the move. Its easier fro me to control the flow of liquid. Pull tops are also useless in my opinion.
 
You could say I have a few bottles...

(click to enlarge)

If you like to do the bushcraft thing and boil your bottle, you gotta go with a stainless Klean Kanteen or a Guyot/Nalgene.

Otherwise, the Camelbak Better Bottle is so good it's hardly a fair comparison. They are a little harder to clean than the rest (pull off the valve and stick a Q-tip in there) but so worth it for one-handed, spill-free drinking.
 
cramsey3006 said:
Yeah, I was leaning that way. Something to ride on a belt.
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I love the kidney-shaped ones from my Army days, for the way it hugs the waist and for the ease of using mil-spec gear with it (carriers and canteen cups). But I wish more people made them out of stainless steel instead of plastic. It's great to be able to apply heat to your canteen, if you need to.

I had searched quite a bit for a stainless military canteen (I don't really like the WWII-style aluminum ones). I only found a couple that I really lilked:

http://www.dhki.com/Defense/p_solbotle.htm

I want several of these, bad! I actually emailed the company, seeing if it's something I could purchase; but they don't do retail. I think they actually make them for government use...not sure who gets them, though.

http://www.uscanteen.com/PolishedStainlessSteelSingleWalledCanteen-idv-1-1.html

I think this one is a little smaller than the GI one - 24 oz vs 32 oz - but it gets great reviews. I might get one of these if I cannot find anything else.

Hey, does anyone have the Nalgene Triton (BPA-free) kidney shaped canteen? If so, what do you think of it? Does it fit all the GI-spec carriers and cups?
 
depends. i have both canteens and bottles. the only factor is the size of the holder ill be puting it in and how it fits. when i use my extra large multi day pack i use kanteens bc they fit very will in the side net pocket. smaller bags, i use the bottles/nalgenes
 
I used to hate Nalgene bottles but now I love them.
-The wide mouth works great with my steripen purification system.
-It's clear, so I can always see what lurks there, and as I've done one time out of necessity, I left the clear bottle in the sun to kill the baddies.
-Easier to clean.

As far as carrying one, I made myself a bottle carrier out of paracord and cheap carabiners. Could post a pic later if interested.

Push-pull systems are a breeding place for bacteria, so I steer clear of those.
Hope it helps.
 
I bought a 2 liter Camelback Bladder for about less than $10. Works pretty well. Stopped carrying around canteens.
 
I prefer the widemouth Nalgene water bottles and just pair them with the Humangear Capcap

IMG_1120.jpg


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