Water bottle showdown

Mike Hedman

What do you get when you cross an injured hamstring, a geek, and a person who sweats a LOT?  Science baby!  Since today was a stand-down day for me, I decided to to my water bottle showdown to answer the question: "Do insulated bottles really help?"

The "final straw" was the release of the Camelbak Podium Ice bottle, that they claim keeps water cold 4x longer than a regular bottle.  Well, I didn't really test for that - I don't have a place where I can keep the temperature constant, and it would just take too long.  Instead, I filled a bunch of bottles up with ice water, and measured the temperatures every 15 minutes or so for a couple of hours.

Short answer - the 21oz Podium Ice bottle in fact WAS the best.  The worst was a standard (uninsulated) 8oz Fuel Belt bottle. 

Here was my setup (you can see the fishtank thermometer in the middle bottle):

http://i1221.photobucket.com/albums...leTest.jpg" width="500" >

Here was my protocol:

1. Mixed up 60oz of ice water in a 3 gallon jug.
2. Filled each bottle quickly, straining the water to remove ice chips.
3. Record the time and temperature of each bottle (only the times of the first bottle went into the spreadsheet).
4. Wait 15 minutes, "soak" the thermometer for 2.5 min in the first bottle to get it in the right temperature range.
5. Record the time and temperature of each bottle, letting the thermometer "soak" a minute between bottles.
6. Record the air temperature every other time.

Here are the results:

. Time Regular(Specialized uninsulated) Polar Podium Ice Chill Jacket Fuel belt Air temp .   24 oz 24 oz 21 oz 21 oz 8 oz   . 17:02:00 52 50 50 50 51 75 . 17:23:30 58 55 53 53 58   . 17:43:05 60 58 56 56 61 72 . 18:03:45 62 60 58 58 63   . 18:22:00 65 61 59 60 64   . 18:40:30 65 62 61 61 67 68 . 19:42:30 68 65 63 64 68 68

Note - that last reading was an hour later (after dinner!).  By then, the insulated bottles had caught up to the air temp.

I think the initial 52 degree reading was maybe a bit high for the regular bottle - that's where I realized I needed to let the thermometer soak for a while to cool down to the water temp.  I had thought that the extra fluid in the Polar bottle would help keep it cooler, but it didn't fare as well as the two Camelbak bottles.

What is clear is that the insulation does work.  Due to their small size (and thus, greater surface area to volume ratio) the FB bottles did the worst - which matches with my personal experience.  Other than the statistical dead heat with the other Camelbak bottle - the Camelbak Podium was at the top of the "Podium".  What's less clear is that the $20 Podium Ice bottle is THAT much better than the other insulated bottles.

Aside from the numbers, here are some subjective observations about these bottles:

• The Polar bottles are BIG.  Also, they can be hard to open and close with your teeth.
• The Camelbak bottles have a sure-seal system, when they are closed, they are closed, yet they don't drip when open.
• FB bottles are a pain to clean - just sayin'.
• The Podium Ice bottle comes with a white top - wow what a good idea.  Sometimes I've been really surprised at how hot a black Specialized cap can get - not pleasant.

Long run with a feed bottle that needs to last 3+ hours?  Go for the Camelbak.

Mike

Michele Cellai

My only problem with the camelbak bottles... have you seen the black fungus growing inside the mouthpiece area? Very hard to clean and just gross. I was using the camelbaks and couldn't stand to put it in my mouth. I went back to regular bottles.

Mike Hedman

Michelle, bad news...I think you'll find that there's black crud growing on the other ones, but since the caps are black you don't see it. I try to remember to soak all my caps periodically.
Mike