Pros: Rock solid, indestructable, absolutely Tops. Consider the source, Nalgene.
Cons: Pricey and rigid. May leak in a pressurized aircraft environment.
The Bottom Line: An extraordinary but bland looking product. The finest, toughest, lightest, leakproof beverage bottles on the planet. Rigid wall Lexan version not yet tested for leaks on an aircraft.
zlotmachinskyr's Full Review: Nalgene 32 oz Wide Mouth Water Bottle
How exciting can a plastic bottle be, for Heavens sake? Actually, very exciting when it is a Nalgene Lexan one Liter (slightly larger than a 32 oz U.S. quarter gallon) wide mouth bottle. This bottle is so rock solidly tough that I have yet to break one in my normal daily camping and hiking routines.
A little Nalgene History.
The original version of this bottle came in a milky translucent white color only and it was also a semi-soft polyethylene plastic. The original Nalgene one liter wide mouth water bottle was quite tough and could withstand boiling hot water for use as a hot water bottle without leaking. I never had one of these softer plastic Nalgene bottles ever break or crack when new. As the softer plastic one liter nalgene bottles aged they would start to discolor to a yellowish color and become increasingly brittle. The failure would be catastrophic and sudden such as when a full bottle was dropped on the ground, then it could crack in half across the diameter or simply develop a split top to bottom.
End of story for that ruptured bottle. It took many years for the original softer polyethylene nalgene wide mouth bottles to become brittle. They were half the price of the newer version in lexan.
Colors NE1?
Now The One Liter (32 oz) Lexan wide mouth water bottle comes in colors in addition to the standard smoked grey color.
Lexan is one of those invented words in General Electric's Lexicon for this synthetic polymer material. LEXAN is actually a type of polycarbonate.
Lexan plates have been used in bullet-resistant and bullet- proof body wear used by Police and U.S. Military as well as by U.S. presidents if and when deemed necessary. Lexan is considered to be an extremely tough and durable material.
Lexan tends to be an expensive material. It is a High Tec Material (AKA space-age material or plastic if you will).
No Fear (of cracks) with Lexan Nalgene Wide-Mouth 32 oz bottles.
I have yet to crack or rupture a lexan wide mouth 32 oz bottle. This bottle will cost you plenty about $12 -$13 U.S. and I have seen them in cool temperature colors and hot colors, e.g.: blue, green, purple for cool colors and yellow, red and orange for the hot colors. The colors can help a back-packing group identify whos bottle is whos' which is especially helpful in isolating the person with the recent onset of the common cold or other illness. I like to number these bottles on the top of the cap along with the users initials. Isolating the sick person to their own water bottles has prevented spreadng of illness amoung my groups of 4 or more hikers.
Fill Em Up Please.
These bottles are so useful on the trail and in camp because many of the best water filters connect directly on top of the Nalgene wide mouth 32 oz (one Liter) bottles. This is a boon to those who need to drink lots of fluids to replace insensible water loss via breathing and the sweat seen dripping off the users face and body. A full liter of water weighs 2.2 pounds U.S. measure. So fluids are heavy and the lexan 1 liter wide mouth water bottle is rather light.
Fill several one liter Nalgene bottles up with pumped clean water and the camp chef can begin the first of several hot beverages and reconstituted freeze dried backpacking meals or dehydrated type foods if that is what you have for meals. You can save a lot of weight by not having to carry extra fuel to boil drinking water or camp cooking water for ten minutes covered to sterilize it. Clean filtered water is not sterile since the possibility of viruses still exist even after going through a micropore filter.
Method to the madness.
What to do if viruses are suspected (usually not) in your nalgene bottles filled with newly filtered water. Add a chemical, (e.g. iodine, Chlorine bleach, or commercial preperation). The Nalgene bottles are not effected by water disinfectant chemicals.
If you filter through a carbon cored micropore filter after chemical treatment of your water, it will improve the taste of the chemically treated water. I would kill suspected viruses this way as my personal choice.
Boil those germs away.
You could boil all drinking water for approximately 10 minutes (timing is subject to altitude which has a lower partial pressure of atmospheric gases than at sea level (i.e. 760 mm Hg) and thus water will boil at a much lower temperature and therefore require additional time boiling to kill bugs by heat (lower temp = longer time needed as in Pasteurization). Need more fuel to persue this method. A light weight pressure cooker is another solution and saves fuel.
Don't forget to add boiling water! Tea for two or my two cold feet want that tea too, as a hotwater bottle!
The Nalgene Lexan wide-mouth 32 oz (i.e. one Liter) can be filled with boiling water and tea bags placed inside and set aside for a few and when recovered provides some very relaxing pepppermint, or other, flavored tea which will stay warm for a very long time if you drink out of a nice 14 oz insulated beverage cup (e.g. the REI clear plastic double walled cup approximately $5.00 U.S.).
Easy to clean!
I clean out my nalgene 32 oz bottles by pouring in a small quantity of scalding hot water inside, capping it and rolling all the water around inside and then upend and partially unscrew the cap and let the hot water clean the threads of the bottle and cap too. It usually turns to steam in the end.
The Nalgenes don't leak, except on an airplane.
Curiously the Nalgene 32 oz wide mouth original and Lexan bottles have a non-gasketed cap but it is of a softer material then the lexan bottle body. The Lexan bottle cap is not loseable with its cap retaining harness that includes a ring that clips to the top of the bottle. The cap harness top attachment allows easy spinning of the cap on or off. The bottle has volumemetric measurements on the side in cc and oz measurements but eventually wear off as the bottle is very long lived.
Who needs it?
A remarkable water bottle for backpackers, travelers, Sailors, RV trips, home uses too e.g. home-made teas stored in the refrigerator, a makeshift vase for transport of flowers.
Any Leaks?
I have only had minor leaks on pressurized commercial aircraft with the softer original 32 oz wide mouth bottle and have yet to test the lexan version in a pressurized commercial aircraft. My expectations would be no leaking with the rigid walled Lexan bottle. However, air in any bottle would expand and contract such that a leak might result.
If you own such bottles such as the Nalgene Lexan wide-mouth 32 oz bottle, you will find that they will fit right in with your everyday living.
Such a great product. And Nalgene manufactures a huge number of bottles for medical and industrial use and are leaders in their industry.
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