I recently noticed that the water from the bottles I use on the bike tasted funny. I tend to use a hodgepodge of bottles gathered over the years. They are generally clear plastic, generic bottles. I realized that if I can taste the “bottle”, I’m drinking some chemicals from the plastic. That can’t be good. Coincidentally, Camel Back now makes an insulated stainless steel bottle, the Better Bottle. I figured it was a good time to make a change. When I went to the store I found that the SS bottle was too large for a standard bottle cage. Fortunately Topeak makes an adjustable bottle cage that will hold the SS bottle - the Modula Cage. While in the store I found that Camel Back also makes insulated plastic bottles – the Podium ChillJacket, challenging Polar, the established king of the insulated bottle market. I don’t use Polar bottles because I find them hard to squeeze on the bike, but Veronica uses them, so we have several in the house. Clearly, it was time for a show down. Could Camelback’s insulated plastic bottle get the best of the reigning king? Could I get the larger SS bottle to fit on my bike? Would the SS bottle be good enough to justify the $30 price vs $12 for the ChillJacket?
Each bottle was cleaned and set on the counter for 30 minutes, with the lid off. The room temperature was approximately 80 degrees. I filled each bottle with 250 ml of water from the refrigerator and enough ice to bring the displaced volume to 450 ml. With the cap on each bottle and the spouts in the closed position, I set the bottles outside in the sun. The outside temperature was 88 degrees F. I noticed that in the few minutes of sitting on the counter while I filled bottles, the outside of the Polar bottle became cool to the touch.
After 30 minutes, all the bottles reported the same water temperature: 34 F. There was still a lot of ice in each bottle, but the SS bottle clearly had more ice left. The outside of the SS bottle was warm from the sun, while the plastic bottles were cool.
After 75 minutes (total time), the water in the ChillJacket was 44 F, with a small ice cube left. The Polar bottle water temp was 51 F, with no ice. The SS bottle water temp was 34 F, with a lot of ice left.
After 2 hours (total time), the temperature of the water in the Polar bottle was 74 F, the plastic Camelbak temperature was 70 F and the SS bottle temperature was 34F with a lot of ice remaining. The bottles remained in the sun the entire time, while the air temperature dropped to 85 F.
Clearly the SS water bottle is the best solution for keeping your water cold. However, it is a heavy bottle. If you care about bike weight, you can probably just skip this part. The Polar bottle weighs 4.8 oz, 134 grams. The plastic Camelbak weighs 3.7 oz, 104 grams. The SS bottle weighs a whopping 13.9 oz, 394 grams. Considering that it is essentially two bottles because of the double walled construction, this is not surprising.
After I measured the final temperatures we did a taste test. The SS bottle did not impart any flavor to the water. Since the temperature was so much lower than the water from the plastic bottles we compared those two separately. The water from the Polar was OK, until you compared it to the plastic Camelbak. Side by side, it was easy to detect a distinct plastic flavor to the water from the Polar and no flavor from the plastic Camelbak. In reality all the water had a very slight “ice cube freezer” flavor, but the water from the Polar had an additional taste from the plastic.
The Modula cage fit easily on my bike, but I might not be able to get two SS bottles on the bike. I don’t think that is a problem, because the plastic Camelbak did an OK job for about an hour. I’ll try riding with the ChillJacket as my first bottle and the SS bottle as the second bottle, that way I’ll have cold water later in the ride.
Each bottle was cleaned and set on the counter for 30 minutes, with the lid off. The room temperature was approximately 80 degrees. I filled each bottle with 250 ml of water from the refrigerator and enough ice to bring the displaced volume to 450 ml. With the cap on each bottle and the spouts in the closed position, I set the bottles outside in the sun. The outside temperature was 88 degrees F. I noticed that in the few minutes of sitting on the counter while I filled bottles, the outside of the Polar bottle became cool to the touch.
After 30 minutes, all the bottles reported the same water temperature: 34 F. There was still a lot of ice in each bottle, but the SS bottle clearly had more ice left. The outside of the SS bottle was warm from the sun, while the plastic bottles were cool.
After 75 minutes (total time), the water in the ChillJacket was 44 F, with a small ice cube left. The Polar bottle water temp was 51 F, with no ice. The SS bottle water temp was 34 F, with a lot of ice left.
After 2 hours (total time), the temperature of the water in the Polar bottle was 74 F, the plastic Camelbak temperature was 70 F and the SS bottle temperature was 34F with a lot of ice remaining. The bottles remained in the sun the entire time, while the air temperature dropped to 85 F.
Clearly the SS water bottle is the best solution for keeping your water cold. However, it is a heavy bottle. If you care about bike weight, you can probably just skip this part. The Polar bottle weighs 4.8 oz, 134 grams. The plastic Camelbak weighs 3.7 oz, 104 grams. The SS bottle weighs a whopping 13.9 oz, 394 grams. Considering that it is essentially two bottles because of the double walled construction, this is not surprising.
After I measured the final temperatures we did a taste test. The SS bottle did not impart any flavor to the water. Since the temperature was so much lower than the water from the plastic bottles we compared those two separately. The water from the Polar was OK, until you compared it to the plastic Camelbak. Side by side, it was easy to detect a distinct plastic flavor to the water from the Polar and no flavor from the plastic Camelbak. In reality all the water had a very slight “ice cube freezer” flavor, but the water from the Polar had an additional taste from the plastic.
The Modula cage fit easily on my bike, but I might not be able to get two SS bottles on the bike. I don’t think that is a problem, because the plastic Camelbak did an OK job for about an hour. I’ll try riding with the ChillJacket as my first bottle and the SS bottle as the second bottle, that way I’ll have cold water later in the ride.
