Weight of Water

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#21

Concur with Kineo Kid. And you talk about easy to replace if something happens to one of them. You can buy them in almost any store that sells food or gas and sodas, and that is hundreds and hundreds of thousands of places. Also much better (and cheaper) than water bladders, which spring leaks and are hard to replace on the trail, the sip tubes though are nice. But with a little plastic tubing, a sip tube can be rigged up using plastic soda bottles if you really want one. Me, I sort of like to hike awhile, get a little thirsty, then take a break, drink some water and rest for a few minutes with pack off, maybe even eat a little something before preceding.

I think the Nalgene bottles and water bladders and so many other things (high priced hiker/backpacker items) are just trendy and marketing. You can get all your hiking clothes at Walmart, use soda bottles, etc and save a lot of money. Who has the latest and greatest is really not important to me. Important is if it works, is easy to replace, and doesn’t cost a fortune. :slight_smile:

Maintain

#22

To each his own. I have tried the “disposable” bottles and have always come back to Nalgene. I for one like my Nalgene products. During cold weather hiking I put green tea bags and boiling water in my wide mouth polycarbonate one liter Nalgene and sleep with it. In the morning I awake to tea. During warm weather hikes I still make the green tea with boiling water in the Nalgene; I just don’t sleep with it.

A one liter Nalgene widemouth and MSR Dromalite 4 liter bladder have served me well in the Grand Canyon, overnights in the Pinal Mts. and through the length of the AT. Never a failure!!

I have recently purchased the 1.5 liter Nalgene Cantene to do an upcoming PCT section hike. I want the extra .5 liter to share with my new hiking partner, Hank, a 3 yr. old Penbroke Welsh Corgie. In addition to the wide mouth water bottle, I carry three .5 ounce cap. polycarbonate Nalgenes for spices and one 2 oz. capacity polycarbonate Nalgene for olive oil.

The Nalgene is durable (mine are at least 5 years old), multiuse, easy to clean (read sanitary) and you are not creating more solid waste. I also do not care who has the “latest and greatest”. I just have what works for me and would expect no less from other hikers.

Farther

#23

After my first long distance hike on the AT, I was convienced that the one piece of gear that everyone carried was a Nalgene bottle. There seemed to be no consentious on packs, stove, sleeping bags, tents, or anything else. But the one item in common seemed to be the Nalgene bottle.

The next year, I discovered that this was no longer true. Water containers varied as much as everything else.

People use the Nalgene bottles because they are bomb proof and don’t leak. You need to give it some serious abuse before it leaks or breaks. Like freeze it, drive over it, or drop it full from several stories up. The HDPE weights 3.8 ounces.

Some people carry gatorade bottles and the like because they are cheap, and lighter. A 1 liter gatorade weights 1.8 ounces. But, they leak a little around the cap, at least mine does.

I also carry a 3 liter Nalgene Canteen. I put water in it when I get to camp. That way, I can make one trip to the spring, which can be a long way down sometimes. It weights 2.7 ounces.

I suppose the camelbacks and platypus work for some. Their problem is that they tend to leak when you don’t want them to.

Peaks

#24

I concur with Maintain and Kineo. Soda bottles are the way to go.

The Complete Walker IV has a small section on carrying water in soda bottles. The conclusion of Chip Rawlins, the co-author, is that soda bottles are almost bombproof. Like the Nalgene, you need to seriously abuse one to break it. Their only small weakness is the cap. Considering how easily they can be replaced, I’d happily use one to save weight.

Paint it black and you can use the sun to preheat water for dinner. Take an extra cap with holes punched in it and you have hot water for a quick wash-up.

nycman50

#25

You’re all wrong. The best container for water is no container. All you have to do is hike the trail during an El Nino year like I did and you’ll get rain over 100 days out of the 175 that you’re out there! WHen you get thirsty, all you have to do is look at your hiking friend and say “Wow, what a BEAUTIFUL day!” At that, there will be a noticable start from the heavens and a deep-beaming voice will shout down “oh, right…quite sorry about that, Howie” and clouds will instantly appear bringing you your very own fresh, clean, Ph-Balanced, tasty rainwater. All you gotsta do is open your mouth and look up.

-Howie

Hungry Howie

#26

and we’ve known each other a long time. Where else can I put my Portsmouth Brewery sticker but on my worn out leaking Nalgene that lived with me for 2100 miles.

Bushwhack

#27

Hey Howie, have I told you lateley that I love you.

I leave camp with 2.5 to 3 liter platy full. This is usually enough to carry me for miles. I plan lunches near a water source or if I pass one before I will load up my 2 nalgene bottles. I have a large 48 oz one and a standard 32. The 32 is Lexan so it wont retain the taste of other liguids I might put in there. I cook every meal so I always need water for that.
If you carry 6 or 7 lbs of water arent you just sweating more cause your pack weight is more?

Chef

#28

Whenever you see a picture of a beagle or kitten held down with electrodes in it’s brain or parts of it cut off, the equipment used to hold the animal down is made by Nalgene. Many people strongly support the torture of animals. If you are one of these people, you should carry Nalgene Bottles.

Blue Jay

#29

I carried a 1.5 liter Aquafina bottle from Springer to Monson–that’s over 2000 miles of it being dropped, kicked and otherwise abused before I lost it at Shaw’s. It never leaked or developed any kind of funk. And it only cost a little over a buck to replace it. I carried another 1 liter Aquafina that I would use for Kool-Aid, etc. that I replaced a coupla times, but overall they were great. Oh, and a 2.5 liter platy bladder for camp that also doubled as a pillow.

FYI- To whom it may concern: Nalgene doesn’t just do water bottles, they have another division that manufactures restraining devices/cages for animal testing. I thought some of you might like to know.

Cap’n

#30

I’ve broke four nalgene bottle two polycorbanate and HDPE. I like gatoraide bottle because their light weight and sturdier than other bottles. They also have a larger opening.
I did notice that a gatoraid/ power aide bottle does develope funk when you mix sugar drinks in them. Nalgene bottle have a tendency to get pretty nasty especially around the threads if you can’t clean them well.
I do own some nalgene prducts such as container for honey and stuff which I don’t want to leak but for water I use a cheap bottle or a palypus.

Darth Pacman

#31

How did you break the Nalgene bottles? Especially the polycarbonate ones.

Farther

#32

they make testing equipment, but they also make baby bottles and pacifiers (Nalge-Nuc company).

UberPest

#33

I wasn’t into Nalgene bottles but now that I know they make testing equipment, I have to have one. I hear also that the polycarbonate is an oil byproduct. Now I have two reasons to buy one. Capitalist Pig that I am.

Papa Smurf

#34

I carry ONE nalgene and a platypus for carried water. Uses for a wide-mouth nalgene:
Getting water to pour into a small mouth container since I use polar pure and not a water pump.
Making gatorade. Try getting drink mix into a soda bottle. Try cleaning the funk out of a narrow bottle.
Winter hiking. Try to get ice out of the neck of a frozen soda bottle. Or have the frozen bottle crack. Or leak when you turn it over so the ice rises to the top. Or try using a soda bottle for a hot water cozy.
Rehydrating food. Dehydrated foods restore much easier after presoaking for an hour or so.

Alligator

#35

All you gots ta do is drop a full nalgene from a firetower onto a solid rock surface. It helps if the nalgene hits at an angle. Usually, they’ll just split into two equall halves. It’s really a great pastime of mine. You should try it.

-Howie

Hungry Howie

#36

I dropped a polycarbonate bottle about three feet onto a parking lot and it cracked. The HDPE bottles broke after a few months of constant use.

Darth Pacman

#37

breaking them is easy…I dropped one about 200’ down a cliffside…later that day it took about 1/4 hour to clean it up when I circled back towards camp that night…

as for Nalgeen company, they make MANY products, from hiking containers, to baby bottles, to lab equipment (chemical container holders, droppers, centrifuge tubes, molecular biolab equipment, etc)…I believe they originally started as a lab equipment company and expanded into other markets, outdoor gear certainly wasn’t their first and most certainly isn’t their biggest area…You often find alot of companies, from cosmetics, to hygeine product manufacturers, etc etc etc etc etc etc, make products we don’t agree with (example in context, animal testing equipment), but that doesn’t make the whole company bad, or the people who use their products…

As for animal testing, just because you see the equipment doesn’t necessitate WHO made it, several companies make competing equipment…I am finishing my research on enzyme kinetics in a lab, and since they won’t let me use freshmen students as test subjects (Stupid Human Rights Groups!!!), I am forced to do alot of testing on other forms, killing hundred of honeybees and thousands of fruit flies…strangely, PETA has yet to send protesters here, or blow up my car, or snipe me, yet at least…but at least I have the solace knowing it is work like this that, amongst the building blocks to proteomics, will greatly change human medicine and drugs, for the better… :nerd

ok, enough raving form my lame arse… I’m thirsty, now where is my Nalgeen bottle?? :smiley:

xtn

airferret

#38

I only brought up the Nalgene’s other products for the minority of hikers who are actually care about the torture of nonhumans. I am very aware that this concern is a minority position among the hiking population. As for PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of ANIMALS) they have never been accused of car bombing or sniping. I hate to tell you this but humans are usually considered to be animals. You are thinking of the antiabortionists.

Blue Jay

#39

I’m a PETA member.(People Eating Tasty Animals)

Wolf

#40

I believe that the majority of hikers DO care about the torture of animals, but do not think about it much unless it is their dog, cat or other beloved pet. As hikers we try to be as “low impact” as we can while we’re on a trail, feeling a “oneness” and sympathy with nature. It seems to me that this “low impact” action should include NOT using products that we KNOW cause UNNECESSARY pain and harm to Nature (animals included in this of course)- like the other money making lab testing products produced by Nalgene. There ARE alternatives to animal laboratory testing.

Don’t want oil drilling and logging in the wilderness? There are alternatives to that too. Oops, different subject.

Now HOW MUCH does water weigh?

Peep