For something as simple and basic as a water bottle, we sure have had a lot of innovation the past few years! We had the BPA fiasco and all the new BPA-free bottles, bottles with new types of insulation, and bottles with new bite valves on the lids.

Well, now we have bottles that don’t need washed! OK, so that’s not exactly true, but these FLEXR Sports Water Bottles I’m testing out have some very new and interesting features.

Most obvious is how, rather than pour your drink directly into the bottle, you actually put a special liner in the bottle first. It’s a lot like putting a trash bag in a trash can… except more sanitary!

What’s the purpose for a bottle liner? Oh, only to prevent your bottle from becoming a foul-smelling, mold-infested, awful-tasting bacteria breeding ground!

The thing with us mountain bike racers is that we often spend the weekends at races, living out of our car and/or a tent. We don’t exactly have the greatest facilities to keep our water bottles clean and fresh for each race. Heck, we don’t have time to do such things – we’re too focused on racing.

Then when it’s all over, we’re too worn out to clean up our mess, so we toss our water bottles aside for later. It’s not uncommon for my bottles to spend a few days in the trunk of my car still partially full of some sugary, protein-enriched sports drink.

This means the bottle probably has some nasty bacteria growing in it, and even after cleaning, it could retain a hint of the flavor from said drink.

Sometimes, this means water bottles get thrown out, even though they’re still perfectly functional. With the Flexr system, you just toss the liner, and you’re left with a clean bottle.

How-To Video

This one minute video shows you how to use the liners in your bottle:

Sounds great, but does it work as advertised?

My Experience With the Flexr Bottles

I love innovative new products, but man, I had a hard time with these Flexr bottles!

To start with, I couldn’t even drink out of them the first week I had them. For whatever reason, the smell of their plastic was awful. It was so overpowering that putting the bottle near my nose literally made me feel sick. (The liner had no smell, but the plastic bottle and cap sure did.)

I spent close to five days washing the bottles, soaking them in Dawn dish soap, soaking them in bleach, washing again, soaking in baking soda + vinegar, and washing again. Finally the smell diminished to a tolerable level.

As if I wasn’t annoyed enough at that point, when I pulled the liner out of the 16oz bottle prior to washing, I found two dead spiders beneath it! Apparently they crawled in the vent hole on the bottle and got stuck in there!

Hold on – let’s talk about this vent hole…

Do NOT fill up a Flexr bottle without a liner in it! I probably wouldn’t have thought about this if I hadn’t gotten a 16oz Flexr run bottle, but each bottle has a hole in it! (On the 21oz bottle, the air escape hole is hidden behind the neoprene sleeve, so you don’t notice it.)

This means you can’t use these bottles without using the liners. Which does make sense if you think about it. If you put a liner in the bottle, the bottle is filled with air and the liner. When you fill the liner with liquid, the air between the liner and bottle needs a way to escape without blowing the liner off the top of the bottle! Hence the vent hole in the bottle.

Anyway, none of that would be a big deal if the bottles worked as promised. Just look at some of these purported benefits:

• You don’t have to tilt the bottle or your head to drink from it.
• The liners contract as you drink, preventing the liquid from sloshing up and down. (Very, very annoying when running!)
• Flexible bottle is easy to squeeze.
• Sleep well at night since the bottle is eco-friendly.

Unfortunately, I have no proof that any of those benefits exist. I’m extremely disappointed, because I would have loved the bottle if it did all that!!

Let’s talk about drinking out of the bottle.

The bottle is easy to squeeze, yes. But squeezing the bottle isn’t as simple as it sounds. For one thing, you have to put your finger over the vent hole whenever you drink, or else you’re just squeezing air out the side rather than water out of the top. Even then, it’s like clamping down on a puppy’s squishy chew toy.

To actually get water out, I ended up using both hands at once, squeezing the bottle like an old tube of toothpaste! And I most certainly had to tilt the bottle upside down as well!

And seriously, I have to put my finger over the vent hole when I drink?! If I’m racing, there’s no way I’m going to take the time to feel around the bottle for the vent hole. That’s just plain ridiculous, not to mention inefficient and dangerous.

Did I mention the cap is hard plastic, i.e. not comfortable whatsoever if it touches your lips?

What about those liners?

There’s nothing magical about these liners. They are one size the whole time – there is no expanding when filled up and contracting as the bottle empties out.

This means, you guessed it, that the water still sloshes around just like any other bottle!

I’m not really sold on the “eco-friendly” claims either. I must be in the minority, but even if my bottles get nasty inside, a good scrubbing with Dawn dish soap and a bottle brush does the trick 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time, a follow-up soak with baking soda and white vinegar is all that’s needed to remove any scent or taste.

These people throwing away perfectly good bottles all the time must never have learned to do the dishes!

So, I don’t go through bottles very often. For me, these bottle liners would be excess trash piling up beside my energy bar and gel wrappers. Even if they do biodegrade quickly in landfills, consider that the liners must be produced in a factory and once used, will require some sort of garbage truck to transport them to the landfill.

OK, I’ve made my point – I don’t like the bottles. But if you race time trials or triathlons, keep reading!

Flexr for Time Trials and Triathlons

For you time trialists and triathletes out there, Flexr makes a 28oz aerodynamic bottle that looks perfect for you. You can even turn it into a full-on aero hydration system with one of their kits (pictured.)

It’s almost funny, because this type of setup would negate most of my complaints!

• The bottle isn’t near your face, so you don’t smell it.
• You don’t have to squeeze it, keep your finger on the vent hole, or any of that nonsense.
• You have a soft bite valve, rather than a hard cap spout.
• If the water sloshes on your bike, you’ll hardly notice.

Plus, this is cheaper than most similar hydration set ups! If I was in charge of Flexr, I’d make this my flagship product!

I can’t give you a review on this bottle setup, but let me say this: Despite my disgust with the regular Flexr bottles, I’d still be willing to spend $50 on this remote hydration setup!

For what it’s worth, this bottle holder that Velcros to my hand in pretty nifty!

My final verdict is…

Flexr has an interesting idea, but by solving one small problem, they brought on many new problems. Since I’ve never had a serious problem with cleaning bottles, I’ll be sticking with my Specialized Big Mouth bottles and CamelBak Podium bottles.

However, the Flexr system looks awesome for a TT or triathlon remote hydration setup. If that’s what you’re looking for, I definitely suggest considering the Flexr products.

Official website: www.FlexrSports.com

Today’s question is about using the proper type of water bottle that does not leech chemicals into your water…

Have you blogged about the proper kind of water bottle to use? Knowing that so many plastics leech into the water. Are there any metal insulated types available? thanks!

Plastified Pete

Hi Pete,

I’m no scientist, but I did write one article about the newer, BPA-free plastic bottles. That link will give you a good overview of your options for safer plastic bottles.

There are some metal bottles, though. The two main choices have always been Klean Kanteen and Sigg. The Klean Kanteen is a stainless steel water bottle, and the Sigg is an aluminum bottle that uses a special liner that is supposed to be safe. Both bottles are about $30. (Personally I’d stick with the full stainless steel Klean Kanteen.)

The CamelBak Better Bottle, which I mentioned in my previous article, comes in a stainless steel version now (for $24.) There is even an insulated stainless steel Better Bottle ($30.)

Those metal bottles aren’t the most convenient for on-bike use, though, so I’d also consider the plastic bottles from CamelBak.

Definitely check out the CamelBak Podium bottle. At $9, it’s expensive for a water bottle, but it’s rather nice (and BPA-free.) Even better is the Podium Ice bottle, the high-tech insulated version ($20.)

While I was trying out a Camelbak Podium bottle, I couldn’t resist also trying a CamelBak ChillJacket Podium bottle, which is the insulated version.

The ChillJacket bottle has all the features of the regular Podium bottle, but the insulation is supposed to keep drinks hot or cold for hours. It’s a lot like the popular Polar bottle, but with Camelbak’s new twists.

I used to use the Polar bottle, but that was many years ago, so my memory is kind of fuzzy on how well it worked. However, I do remember it broke eventually, and I didn’t bother buying any more Polar bottles after that.

But once another insulated bottle option is out, I’m happy to test it. So let’s get going…

To start with, this is virtually identical to the regular Podium bottle. The pros and cons are nearly identical.

To recap, I really like the ease of use of the Podium bottle, thanks to its JetValve. It’s like having a bite valve from a hydration pack on your water bottle. No need to pull the valve open with your teeth then hip slam it closed – you just squeeze the bottle and it squirts water into your mouth. The valve opens and closes automatically, which is very convenient.

The downfall is the fact that the valve takes more effort than usual to clean out. If you carry sports drinks in this bottle, you’re almost guaranteed to get some nice mold growing in the crevices! Then you have to pull the valve apart and clean it with Q-tips and toothpicks.

Another downfall is that, unless you are extremely careful, you’re going to spill some. While the bottle is leakproof if you don’t mess with it, it’s virtually impossible not to spill some fluid if you’re using the bottle while riding.

One difference is that the ChillJacket is a 21oz bottle while the regular Podium will hold 24oz. This is usually the case with any insulated bottle because insulation takes up space. So the slightly smaller 21oz capacity isn’t a big deal.

But the redeeming factor here is that the ChillJacket bottle might just keep our drinks colder for longer periods! I love cold water on a long, hot ride, so I’m excited about this bottle!

I like the squeezeability of this bottle as well. I remember the Polar bottle being way too stiff and hard to squeeze. However, Camelbak’s Chilljacket bottle is just as easy to squeeze as a standard water bottle. (It’s even softer than my regular Podium bottle… possibly because I used it more often and it’s now broken in? Hmm.)

Testing the Insulation

How does this bottle hold up in hot and cold weather? Let’s test it to see just how long this bottle will actually keep your beverage warm or cold, depending on the outside temperature.

In Cold Weather:

For this test, I took the regular Podium bottle and the ChillJacket bottle and filled them with warm green tea. I then placed them outside in 25 degree F weather. I sipped from each bottle about every 15 minutes (starting at 1:00 PM.)

The tea started out comfortably warm in both bottles. At the 15 minute mark, things remained the same.

At 30 minutes, I was able to notice that the tea in the ChillJacket was slightly warmer than in the regular Podium bottle.

At 45 minutes, there was a noticeable difference. The tea had become cool in the regular bottle, while in the ChillJacket, the tea was still warmer than room temperature.

After one hour, the bottles started to even up. The tea in the regular bottle was cool, and in the ChillJacket bottle, it was room temperature (no longer considered warm.)

After an hour and a half, the teas were both cooling off slightly, although the ChillJacket’s tea was still hovering around room temperature. Finally, at the two hour mark, the teas were both cool.

At three hours, both bottles had cooled off. The difference is that the regular bottle’s valve had frozen shut. I had to blow warm breath on it, and squeeze it really hard to break through the frozen part so I could get some liquid.

Now it’s been four hours! Both bottles contain cool, but not quite cold, liquid. The only real difference is the regular Podium bottle had the valve freeze shut completely. The ChillJacket bottle functioned much better, but the valve was starting to freeze a bit.

For keeping drinks warm, the ChillJacket definitely helped. However, the difference wasn’t as much as I expected.

Also, there is another issue in cold weather. It’s not that the water in the bottle will freeze fast, it’s that the valve itself will freeze shut. The valve can easily freeze shut in 15 minutes, even if the drink inside stays liquid for a couple hours.

This problem plagued even the ChillJacket bottle. Water droplets coat the soft part of the valve, freezing it shut. With enough pressure, you can usually break it free though. Unfortunately, the material becomes less flexible in the cold, so the valve will no longer seal properly. It is much less likely to close completely in cold weather.

I’ve actually had the valve freeze in the open position! If this happens, the trick is to squeeze the bottle a few times. Eventually the air pressure should result in the valve pulling closed again. But watch out because it might not lay back down fully sealed!

In Hot Weather:

For this test, I took the regular Podium bottle and the ChillJacket bottle and filled them with ice water. I then placed them outside in the sun, in 80 degree F weather. I sipped from each bottle every 15 minutes.

[True test results coming when I can find hot, sunny weather!]

What I can say in the meantime is I did find some benefits to the ChillJacket’s insulation on hot days. It definitely kept my drinks cooler for a little longer than a regular bottle.

I don’t have any hard numbers (and they’d vary so much based on heat, sun, humidity, etc.,) but if you’re riding in super hot weather, anything helps! So definitely look at the ChillJacket bottle.

My final verdict is…

Over the past six months, this bottle has been getting used more than any others in my collection. I use it almost every day, whether it’s in my car, in the gym, or out on the ski trails. I even take it on some road bike rides, but like I mentioned before, my Specialized bottles still get used most often on my bikes.

That said, I highly recommend you try this bottle. You might just like it for bike riding, and if not, you’ll still find many uses for it.

Official website: www.Camelbak.com

Buy online: www.REI.com

Back when I first wrote about BPA-free water bottles, I mentioned the new Camelbak bottles as one choice. Once I noticed how cool the CamelBak Podium bottle was, I had to get one. It’s like a regular water bottle but with a valve akin to the bite valves on Camelbak’s hydration packs.

The premise is that you can easily access the water in this bottle either by sucking on the valve or squeezing the bottle with your hand. With virtually every other water bottle, you bite and pull the top with your teeth, squeeze the bottle, and then slam it shut on your hip. So this Podium bottle should be much easier to deal with while riding.

In theory, it shouldn’t leak, since the valve automatically stays closed. (It really sucks to get sports drink dripping on your frame, and also your gloves, because then it ends up on your bar tape too.) You can also lock the valve closed using a simple twist-lock lever on the lid.

The one downside I see, much like with a hydration pack, is that it’s hard to clean inside the bite valve. If you use sports drinks, chances are there will be gunk built up in there, which will eventually turn to mold.

But enough with the theory… let’s see how this works in real life…

Buying: This bottle is about $9, which is a little steep compared to your typical $4 water bottle.

Filling: This was simple, like a regular water bottle. The opening is big enough for ice cubes, so there’s no problem here.

Carrying: It fits in a standard size water bottle cage and stays in place. It will also slide into a jersey pocket if you like.

Handling: My first thought with this bottle is that it will take some getting used to! For one thing, I kept wanting to pull the valve open with my teeth, but after a week or so I got past that.

What bothered me is grabbing it out of the bottle cage. You have to grab the top of the bottle so that you don’t end up squeezing the center (which would spray your drink straight onto your bike.) Then once you are holding the bottle, you have to slide your hand down to the center to squeeze it properly. (You could squeeze from the top, but it felt awkward to me.)

I almost dropped this bottle a few times at first, thanks to the odd feel. Also, it gets pretty slippery.

I much prefer grabbing a Specialized Big Mouth bottle, which has a textured grip at just the right spot. It also feels softer, which makes it feel right in my hand. The Podium bottle is rather stiff.

Drinking: This is where the bottle really shines. It really is super easy to drink from. You don’t even have to put it in your mouth at all, so that makes it easy on your teeth.

Just a good squeeze on the middle of the bottle sends a good stream of water into your mouth. You can also suck on the valve if you prefer.

Best part – I really like how I don’t have to slam the valve shut on my hip or chest after getting a drink.

Cleaning: As suspected, this bottle is a huge pain in the behind when it’s time for a cleaning!

If you use sports drinks in your bottles, you’ll end up with sugary residue trapped around the soft part of the valve. That means you need to use a toothpick and/or a Q-tip to get down in there and clean off any built-up sports drink or resultant mold.

See, I want bottles where I can use sports drinks since I hate putting anything sugary in my hydration pack (residue and mold in the tube and bite valve sucks!!) So putting a sort of bite valve on the Podium bottle doesn’t do me much good at all!

Finally, the million dollar question…

Is this bottle leak-proof?

In theory, yes. In reality, no. This is most definitely not a 100% leak-proof water bottle.

First of all, let’s say you’re mixing up a sports drink powder in the bottle. If you start shaking the bottle, the force inside will open the valve and send a stream of water onto your kitchen table, car seat, riding buddies, or wherever you’re standing. So if you are mixing up a drink, make sure the twist-close lever on the lid is turned to the locked position!

Second, when you’re grabbing the water bottle and pulling it out of the bottle cage, you have to grab it perfectly. If you put too much pressure in the wrong area, you’re going to squirt your drink straight onto your bike’s frame.

Third, after mountain biking with this bottle for a few hours, I checked my bike and found my down tube covered in stickiness. I’m not sure if that was from me handling the bottle or from the roughness of the trails shaking the valve open, letting a few drops escape each time.

Fourth, I noticed that most of the time, there are a few leftover drops of liquid sitting on top the valve once it closes. If I just have the bottle sitting on a table, these drops end up on my shirt the next time I go for a drink. If the bottle is on my bike, I bet the drops fly off onto my down tube.

Let’s face it – you’ll still get sports drink residue somewhere if that’s what you’re using. You could probably lessen that by always locking the lid, but if you’re racing, you’re not going to take the time to spin the lever to the locked position after each sip. And if you’re mountain biking, you probably won’t have time to perform such a maneuver while moving.

Sure, if your goal is to transport a full bottle of sports drink from point A to point B, without drinking it, this bottle would work perfect and not leak. But if you’re messing around with it, you’re bound to spill a few drops of sports drink somehow.

So…

What did I really like about this bottle?

While this bottle isn’t perfect, there are a few things I like about it. As mentioned, not having to slam the top shut on my hip is awesome.

Despite not liking the feel of the plastic, I like the taste of it. That is, even on the first use, there was no plastic taste. The water tasted nice and fresh each time.

One thing that made this really cool for mountain biking is not having to put my mouth on the valve. As you know, water bottles get dirty when mountain biking, and it sucks to get that built-up mud in your mouth each time you take a sip. With the Podium bottle, you keep the muddy valve at a distance and just squeeze out the fresh drink.

(Unfortunately, due to the openness of the valve, it can get filled with mud, which then means you’re squirting chunks of mud into your mouth with each burst of water!)

What I ended up doing with this bottle is using it primarily for other sports. It’s cool because I can carry the filled bottle in a backpack or duffel bag with the twist-lock lever locked shut, and it won’t leak at all (even if squeezed.) I actually ended up loving this bottle for things like weight lifting, squash, and other sports where I don’t have to carry the bottle around in a cage.

It’s also great for road trips in the car. I always have my Podium ChillJacket bottle right beside me.

My final verdict is…

While I give CamelBak an A+ in innovation, and I was really excited about this bottle, it didn’t impress me as much as expected. For me, it brought on more problems than it solved. It’s a cool bottle, but in the end, I’m happier with my tried-and-true Specialized Big Mouth bottles.

I do love the bottle for other sports use, so I got my money’s worth. I actually use them all the time. It’s just that for cycling it doesn’t seem any better than usual. And I don’t use sports drinks in them.

You might really like these Podium bottles though (as many others do,) so you should still check them out.

Official website: www.Camelbak.com

Buy online: www.REI.com

If you’re new to cycling, here’s one thing you need to know: the Specialized Big Mouth Bottle is the standard bottle by which all other water bottles are judged. I have been using these bottles as long as I can remember, I just haven’t reviewed them since it seems like such an obvious choice for a water bottle.

But to point out all the reasons why I use Specialized water bottles, here is my review…

As you can see from the picture above, Specialized bottles are available in a variety of color schemes thanks to many companies using them as promotional items. That’s great news because it means you can often get these bottles for free! (One of the many reasons I like them!)

I paid like $5 for the Clif bottle since I needed one in an emergency, but the others were courtesy of Bike Barn in Whitman, MA and Marathon Physical Therapy in Norton, MA.

Speaking of the bottle itself, let’s start at the top. The bite valve is big and soft, which means you can get a lot of water out at once, and it’s comfortable to open with your teeth.

The openness also means it’s easy to clean. If you use sports drinks like Gatorade or Heed, or messy stuff like Accelerade, you don’t have to hassle with cleaning hard-to-reach locations.

The top seals extremely well, making this bottle virtually leak-proof. Some of my bottles have been in use for five years or so, and none of them leak one bit! The only way to get this to leak is to not close the bite valve the whole way.

The main part of the bottle is made of thick, durable plastic. It can stand up to years of abuse being shoved into water bottle cages. I’ve pitched some bottles because they got scraped up so bad, but I don’t remember any actually cracking or wearing through.

The large opening means it’s easy to fill. You can easily fit full-size ice cubes in there.

The middle of the bottle is easy to hold. It is just the right size for my hands, and the shape feels just right. It even has a knurled grip section where your thumb and index finger hold it. That way you can keep a hold even when it’s wet.

It is also the perfect size for a water bottle cage. This bottle holds 21 or 24oz, and it slides in and out of a bottle cage easily.

There’s not much else to say except that I think this bottle is just plain great.

I would suggest getting white bottles if you can, because white does the best job of reflecting light. That seems to keep your drink colder just a tad longer than the clear ones or the darker colors.

The only downside I could come up with is that there is no insulated version. If you need an insulated bottle you might want to check out the Camelbak Podium bottle, which offers an insulated version.

I tried the Camelbak Podium bottle and expected it to be way better than the Specialized Big Mouth, but after a year switching between both, I actually still prefer the Specialized bottle most of the time!

My final verdict is…

This is without doubt the best water bottle out there for cyclists. Get some, use them, and be happy.

Official website: www.Specialized.com