Waterbottles for Nerds

I’m very concerned with maintaining a healthy lifestyle and one of the most important things you can do to stay in good healthy standing order is to drink a lot of water (especially if you live in Phoenix, like I do – where temps are regularly above 90 or 100) . In my quest to consume more water I’ve found that in order to do so I need to make it easier to do without risking spilling water all over my keyboard and/or laptop. Using a regular cup doesnt really work. I’m a klutz and tend to knock over cups quite easily. So in order to make sure I can drink water without ruining tons of electronics I set out on goal to find the best water bottle that fit a few common parameters …

• – Held at least 16oz of water.
• – Had a sealing lid that would withstand being knocked over and not leak.
• – Looked decent.
• – Made it easy to drink out of.

I’ve tried a slew of different water bottles everything from the wide mouth Nalgene bottles to simple aluminum water bottles to basic cups with straws built in all the way down to using my protein blender bottle to drink water out of. Nothing worked great. However, about 4 years ago I made the discovery of a CamelBak Better Bottle, shown below.

In the immediate short term I ended up loving this bottle (I even bought a couple for a few other nerd friends I liked it so much). I even bought the children’s version of this bottle, which my daughter loved. I had thought I had found the bottle that I was looking for. However, after buying 4 of them over the last couple of years and having the bite nozzles degrade and fall apart (and literally replacing them 5 or 6 times) I decided I might not have found the holy grail of nerd water bottles. Then some problems began to surface, ones that were deal breakers. The main one being, it started to leak around the lid after about 6 months. The other was that water would leak/squirt from the top if the temperature raised about 10 degrees between drinks (example: going from inside to outside). Long story short … it was time to find another.

I’m trying to keep this somewhat short, so I’ll cut to the chase  – after a few more water bottle experiements I found the bottle I was looking for. The CamelBack Podium Chill (BPA Free) bottle as shown below.

This bottle did not leak from the lid, did not leak when the temperature changed (though if pressure raises enough you can hear the pressure escaping through the valve – which is fine when contrasted to the other bottle squirting water all over).  This bottle is also insulated so you can put ice water into the bottle and it will stay “chilled” for longer. The thing I really like about this bottle is how easy it is to drink out of. Simply grab it, turn it upwards and take a pull (or squeeze it). I use it every single day for work, day to day activities and even at CrossFit and my wife ended up liking it so much that we ended up arguing who could use the bottle. Since then I’ve bought 4 more of them and we always have clean ones in the house so we can all use them. This was a win and still is my favorite water bottle. I cannot recommend it enough. My infant (10 mos old at the time) easily learned to drink from the bottle and my Toddler liked it too. However, it was a little too big for them to hold on a consistent basis. So we needed another option for them.

Kids Water Bottles

I’ve bought all kinds of nonsense water bottles for kids from Target, Babys R Us, Bye Bye Baby, you name it. 95% of the time, they’re total garbage and are a PITA to clean and leak regardless of how they’re sitting (except upright). After going through the same process for finding a water bottle for the kids I landed on a winner – the Nalgene Tritan Grip-N-Gulp , which is also BPA Free, shown below

Both my infant son (started using this around 8-9 mos old) and my 3 year old love this bottle. We ended up buying 5 of them, in different colors (pink for the girl, blue for boy and green they both can use). They love these water bottles and they’re super durable and easy to clean. Three parts – the lid, the bottle and then a plastic seal (which you can buy extras for cheap). The bottles are perfect size for them and we dont worry about them leaking on the floor/car/table/etc. They just work and the kids love them.

Finding the correct water bottle has been an adventure on Amazon, Sports Authority, Sports Chalet, REI and a TON of other stores. But finally, we have great water bottles that fit our active lifestyle. Even if you’re not an active person these water bottles are great because they make it easy to drink water from, don’t leak and look somewhat decent.