Hydro Flask Bottles
Full disclosure: they had me at "Flask" and yeah they're being conservative with the 12 hour hot/24 hr cold claim. It's dope!
To be honest I really didn't think about this product too terribly much mainly because I am so amped to get a hold of Hydro Flask's soon to be released 64oz growler! Fortunately my buddy Shane said I should really give it a go, and so far he hasn't been wrong when he has suggested quality products in the past so I figured what the hell. This little water bottle is a stainless steel, vacuum sealed, double walled wonderment that keeps cold liquids cold for AT LEAST 24hrs and hot liquids hot for AT LEAST 12hrs. Now I am not sure what all of that means but if you ask me the Hydro Flask folks have figured out a way to dial in an excellent insulator through utilizing a vacuum.
So what this review basically comes down to is whether or not the claims made by the company are fooey or factual and well I am sorry to say that they are both, you see Hydro Flask claims the 12hr/24hr stuff as fact and to be honest in our tests we have found that the real world tests actually push those limits closer to 24hrs/72hrs!! Seriously I was and am still very impressed. Here is a quick little break down of the temps during our tests:
I filled the 18oz bottle with 190ºF water and 4 hrs later the temp was 174ºF at 8hrs it was 161ºF and a full 24hrs later it was 119ºF! Which is still pretty darn warm. As for the cold claims I put 6 regular ice cubes in with cold tap water and 3 days later I still have some small slivers of ice in the bottle. The average temps that the bottles were in hovered around 65ºF. But I will say that we took one of the bottles into a sauna for 45 minutes at 165ºF and the water was still ice cold! All of these number will of course change depending on how often you open the bottles etc… but it should let you know that they really do work very well.
As I mentioned the Hydro Flask bottles are stainless steel and have no liners, so there is no risk of BPA contamination or of your water being flavored by something else you had in the bottle previously. You can feel free to fill it with soup, tea, coffee, milk, scotch or whatever and the next time you drink out of it it will taste as if that liquid was the first thing you had ever put in it. The bottle I got is a super sweet orange powder coated bottle that I almost hated to put a sticker on…almost! The powder coating adds a little grip which was nice and due to the vacuum insulation you cannot feel if the contents are hot or cold through the sides of the bottle!
These bottles do weigh a little more than your average plastic bottle but I tell you these suckers are bomber and will last you your life time especially since they are covered by a lifetime warranty. So the price point on them is reasonable (18oz $23.99).
Hydro Flask comes in narrow(1.5"), standard(1.875"), and wide mouth(2.25") openings and in 12, 18, 21, 24, 33, and 64 oz sizes so you can get the size you need for the trip you want. One of my questions about these bottles were their compatibility with water filtration systems and unfortunately it does not appear that they will mate up with them, however Hydro Flask has just released their very own filtration system that can be used in any bottle and is good for 500 gallons of water! But more on that once I have had the chance to use one. This is a great bottle and yes it goes just about everywhere with me!
