Best Water Bottle of 2021

Best Overall Water Bottle

YETI Rambler 26

Weight: 22 oz | Body Material: 8/18 stainless steel

The Yeti Rambler remains our favorite all-around water bottle this season, despite tough competition from Hydro Flask. The Rambler's impressive insulating abilities, perfect size, wide mouth, and innovative Chug Cap make it our top recommendation. It's portable, yet easy to fill and clean due to its wide mouth. We found it easy to fill the bottle with ice cubes, allowing cold drinks all day long. The updated Chug Cap is essentially a spout insert that eliminates any spillage that occurred with the old wide-mouth design, making drinking on the move more convenient.

Though the list of positives is long, we should also mention a few hang-ups we have with this bottle. Like most things Yeti makes, this bottle is far from lightweight. Its design is durable yet bulky, weighing in significantly more than its competitors and making us far less inclined to put it in our pack for hiking or climbing in the mountains. The spout is awesome for cold drinks but should be removed when drinking hot liquids. Additionally, the Rambler costs a pretty penny. However, we believe it's a good investment because the bottle lasts a long time and works in a wide range of situations. For daily life, this is our favorite bottle to keep us hydrated throughout the day.

Read review: Yeti Rambler 26

Best Bang for the Buck

Nalgene Wide-Mouth

Weight: 6.25 oz | Body Material: Eastman Tritan copolyester

If you are looking for a simple, affordable, easy-to-use bottle, look no further than the Nalgene Wide-Mouth. It's no wonder this classic bottle is ubiquitous in the outdoor world. It is durable, light, straightforward to use and clean, and together these attributes combine to make it one of the top-ranked plastic models we tested. The mL and ounce measuring markers on the side are an added bonus for backcountry cooking and keeping tabs on your hydration. Because these bottles have dominated the market for so long, many backpacking accessories are designed to fit the Nalgene perfectly — think water filters, insulators, and backpack water bottle pockets. It also comes in an endless variety of sizes, colors, and shapes, so you can choose one to match your style.

The wide mouth may not be for everyone, but Nalgene also makes their bottles in narrow-mouth styles. Also, not everyone might want to drink from plastic. If that's you, look elsewhere. However, for those who spend time in the outdoors, it's hard to imagine a more classic piece of gear than the Nalgene. Simply put, it works well.

Read review: Nalgene Wide-Mouth

Best Value for an Insulated Bottle

Simple Modern Summit

Weight: 12.4 oz | Body Material: Stainless Steel

Each year, there seem to be more and more choices for insulated stainless steel bottles. Most of them cost a pretty penny, making insulated bottles the most expensive drinking vessels out there. When we came across the Simple Modern Summit, we were thrilled to finally see an affordable option out there. This bottle retails for almost half the price of the name-brand staples. We were excited about the interchangeable lids (a classic screw top or a flip cap for hot beverages) and how useful they were at keeping the flavors separate and the bottle clean.

The lower price tag, however, seems to come with a few drawbacks. Though it comes in a plethora of fun color options, we noticed that our test model became scratched and chipped fairly quickly. We also found it challenging to keep track of the two lids and often didn't have the right one when we wanted it. The flip cap is not confidence-inspiring for tossing the bottle into a backpack, and it held onto flavors more than the simple screw top. That said, these flaws are fairly minor, and at this low price, we have yet to find a better insulated, stainless steel bottle.

Read Review Simple Modern Summit

Best Collapsible Bottle

Platypus DuoLock SoftBottle

Weight: 1.6 oz | Body Material: Nylon/Polyethylene

Platypus holds it down in the collapsible category, and the DuoLock remains our favorite bottle of this type. The DuoLock is still one of the lightest bottles we've tested, and its collapsed size is wonderfully small, making it our top choice when weight matters and space is limited. The nifty, two-part lid design makes for a secure lid and a narrow spout that eliminates spillage, especially with such a floppy bottle.

The Hydrapak Stow came in a close second to the DuoLock. We loved the Stow's carrying handle and bottle shape. It is much shorter and squatter than the Platypus DuoLock, which felt more compact in our packs when full. Both bottles have narrow mouths and bag-like bodies, making them difficult to clean. The DuoLock remained our top choice because it is less expensive than its competitor, weighs less, and is better to drink from.

Read review: Platypus DuoLock SoftBottle

Best Filter Bottle

Brita Stainless Steel Filter Bottle

Weight: 13.9 oz | Body Material: Stainless Steel

Even if this bottle didn't have a filter, it would have still received our praise. The Brita Stainless Steel Filter Bottle is super sleek, leak-proof, and durable. We love the color options and the shape and design of the lid. The silicone straw is a nice texture and doesn't impart flavors too much. That said, this bottle is best used with water only because of its filter. The flip cap is the most effective and functional of any bottle with this feature. This bottle is lightweight and portable, with a great design, and is reasonably priced to boot. We are big fans and didn't even realize a filter bottle was something we needed in our lives until testing this bottle.

The two main problems with this bottle are its size and lack of versatility. The bottle has a fairly small capacity — it only holds 20 ounces of liquid, which goes fast if you're a big water-drinker like us. Second is its lack of versatility. Because it's a filter bottle, we were hesitant to put any flavoring into it for fear of contaminating the filter. We did put electrolyte mix in for our taste test, but we wouldn't recommend doing this. One should note that the charcoal filter in this bottle doesn't remove bacteria, viruses, or heavy metals. Instead, it reduces chlorine and particulate matter. This is a great bottle to take to work, the gym, or use at home for tasty, filtered water.

Read review: Brita Stainless Steel Filter Bottle

Compare Products

Compare select up to 5 products to compare

	Score	Product	Price	Our Take
	79	YETI Rambler 26	$40	This bottle is pretty much everything a bottle can be, quickly becoming our daily driver
	77	Hydro Flask Lightweight Wide Mouth Trail Series	$45	This simple yet durable bottle is a great vacuum insulated option for tea and other hot drinks
	76	Hydro Flask Standard Mouth	$35	This insulated bottle ticks all the boxes for one of our favorite bottles ever
	76	Nalgene Wide-Mouth	$12	It's hard to compare to this iconic bottle in terms of weight, price, and simplicity of design
	75	GSI Outdoor Microlite 720 Twist	$30	We appreciated the lightweight, sleek design of this insulated bottle
	75	Brita Stainless Steel Filter Bottle	$30	This is a no-nonsense filter bottle that is well designed and affordable
	74	Klean Kanteen Classic	$20	We are still stoked on this long-time favorite with its easy-to-use design
	69	Klean Kanteen TKWide	$33	Whether you need to transport hot beverages or cold ones, this is a great bottle for use around town
	68	Simple Modern Summit	$20	This lightweight and affordable bottle made the cut as one of our go-to's for everyday use
	67	Corkcicle Canteen Classic	$35	A narrow-mouthed insulated bottle that is ergonomically shaped and great for cold beverages
	64	CamelBak MultiBev	$50	For folks who love the classic two-part Thermos design, this is a great updated option
	63	Camelbak Eddy+	$14	This .75L bottle is versatile and portable, facilitating hydration from urban environments to the trailhead
	62	LifeStraw Go	$40	This unique bottle has a straw that is attached to a filter to deliver potable water with no hassle
	57	Lifefactory Glass Flip Cap	$25	This bottle has an ergonomic shape and an easy-to-clean design
	55	Platypus DuoLock SoftBottle	$14	The lid design and carabiner attachment point make this our new favorite among the collapsible models
	55	Hydrapak Stow	$18	A new development in collapsible bottle design—a soft silicone body and compact shape
	54	Takeya Actives Insulated	$33	For work days, this is a great companion as it is easy to drink from and easy to carry
	47	Thermos Guardian Stainless Hydration	$25	Though not our top recommendation for flip caps, this vacuum insulated bottle is affordable and easy to clean
	46	Platypus SoftBottle	$9	One of the most compact and lightweight bottles available that keeps liquids secure in your backpack

Why You Should Trust Us

Everyone drinks water, but not everyone takes it as seriously as our lead bottle tester, Jane Jackson. Jane has spent months of her life assessing the performance of the most popular bottles on the market. First and foremost, Jane is a climber, a hobby that forms the foundation of her life and has led her to cliffs, big walls in Yosemite, and valleys around the world. Most of the testing of these bottles took place at the crag, in boulder fields, on long hikes, or on rest days at cafes and coffee shops across the globe. This wide array of situations has provided great opportunities to test the portability, durability, ease of use, and overall performance of the water bottles seen in this review. With nearly all her time spent traveling, Jane rarely takes a drink from a traditional drinking glass in a kitchen, which makes her an expert at drinking on the go.

To make sure we got plenty of varied input, we also passed these bottles around to our friends and family. Water bottles are as much about personal preference as they are about holding water. We filled them with flavorful liquids and then rinsed them to see if any flavor lingered. We left them on their sides wrapped in paper towels overnight to look for any signs of leakage. We even intentionally dropped them all off our desks to test durability. We combined this feedback and field testing with some objective tests to provide you with extensive information so your next water bottle purchase can be an informed one.

Related: How We Tested Water Bottles

Analysis and Test Results

We used four different rating metrics to assess each bottle in this review. Although the type of bottle (i.e., materials used) greatly dictated the bottle's overall performance in each metric, the overall review compares bottles of different types side-by-side. That said, use your discretion when reading this review. Obviously, a stainless-steel bottle will be more durable than a glass one, while a collapsible bottle will get a higher score in the weight metric than a bulky insulated model. The metrics we used to assess each bottle's performance are as follows: ease of use (which includes ease of cleaning), durability, weight, and taste.

Today, some of the most popular bottles seem to be stainless steel bottles, including vacuum insulated and uninsulated. Next, there are the classic plastic bottles, almost all of which are made from BPA-free plastics these days. We also tested collapsible and glass bottles. Each bottle has its intended use(s) — and we discuss which situations work best for which bottles in the individual gear reviews.

Related: Buying Advice for Water Bottles

Value

No matter what you're shopping for, you're likely to consider cost alongside performance. We stick solely to performance when we score products, but like anyone, we appreciate a good deal. The range in price for water bottles is becoming shockingly wide these days. Stainless steel and glass bottles, across the board, are typically going to cost you the most. That said, over the past few years, we have seen a growing selection of affordable bottles made from these materials.

The Nalgene is a clear value choice due to its high score and low price. It will suffice for pretty much any use, although it might be out of place in a professional setting. Following short behind is our runner-up for a budget option, the Simple Modern Summit. This bottle is by far the most affordable vacuum-insulated option. The Brita Stainless Steel Filter bottle is a great option for a professional setting and comes at a fairly reasonable price considering its overall design and feature set. Another option in terms of price is the Platypus DuoLock, which is hard to beat value-wise but lacks versatility as well.

Ease of Use

After reviewing bottles for years, we have become total freaks about features. To the untrained eye, a carry handle may be a random addition, but to us, this is a make-or-break feature requiring scrutiny and deep analysis. Subtle details like flip-cap design and mouth diameters can end up being a significant factor when using a bottle day after day. So, we took care in assessing the ease of drinking from and filling each bottle. Also noted in this metric is the likelihood of spilling when drinking. Additionally, we considered how easy (or difficult) it is to clean each bottle. Wide mouth bottles are often easier to clean than those with narrower openings. Finally, we evaluated the lid design and the carrying handle — factors that also contribute to ease of cleaning in addition to the overall ease of use of a bottle.

Overall, simpler seems to be better when it comes to ease of use. We found some of these bottles to have too many features, and it was difficult to learn how to use them effectively. The Nalgene Wide Mouth and Yeti Rambler 26 are a few favorites due to their simplicity. The Simple Modern Summit is also up there in this category, with its simple body design and thoughtful, interchangeable lids.

The Klean Kanteen Classic also got high marks here because of its redesigned sport cap, which is easy to drink from one-handed. Both the Hydro Flask Standard and the YETI Rambler vied for the top spot, but the Rambler won due to its wide mouth, plus the convenient spout on the Chug Cap. The combination of these two styles made for easy filling and no-spill drinking.

The LifeStraw Go got downgraded here because it is difficult to suck water through the filter. The straw design on this bottle is quick to use but did not allow for satisfactory gulps. It's for sipping, not gulping, which we found annoying when we needed water the most (like during workouts). The CamelBak eddy+ features a new and improved straw design that our testers noticed flows much better than its predecessor. This is another nice choice for grab-n-gulps, although its straw design is almost impossible to thoroughly clean. The Brita is a new addition to the straw-style bottle, and we found it to work seamlessly.

The collapsible bottles lost points since they are awkward to drink from and easy to knock over. The DuoLock has a few features that push it a step above the others, like its flip cap and included carabiner. The Lifefactory Glass lost points because, if we weren't careful, the shape of the spout sent water up our noses when tipping it back for a quick drink. The carrying handle on the GSI Microlite isn't comfortable, and its thin rim feels unpleasant on our lips. The Takeya Actives Insulated bottle has a unique lid consisting of a wide mouth for filling and cleaning and a small spout for drinking. We liked this combination for drinking on the move.

Durability

Durability is a major concern for water bottles, especially when you're relying on one vessel as your continual water source. Going from stream to stream in the backcountry, you need to know that your bottle won't break and leave you parched. Based on years of outdoor experience, the GearLab team knows that collapsible models tend to be less durable over time than their rigid counterparts due to frequent stress on flex points. Meanwhile, the bodies of rigid contenders are usually very durable but often have failure points on the lids. To come up with a score in this category, we considered the type of material used for the bottle and cap. The stainless steel and rigid plastic models scored at the top of the materials test, with glass falling in the middle and collapsible bottles scoring the lowest.

For our first durability test, we dropped each bottle from 3.5 ft onto a cement driveway. Each bottle passed this test, though some endured more damage than others. The Hydrapak Stow and the Platypus DuoLock both scored high in this metric because their soft bodies came out from our drop tests entirely unscathed. The Klean Kanteen Classic, Nalgene Wide-Mouth, and Yeti Rambler all earned high scores in the durability metric, surviving with barely a scratch.

The biggest surprise in our drop tests was that the Lifefactory glass bottle came away intact. The silicone sleeve and plastic cap sufficiently absorbed the impact force and prevented the glass from shattering. Remember, glass bottles always have a chance of breaking, so if durability is a big factor for you, consider a stainless steel bottle instead.

Stainless steel bottles can handle a beating, but they tend to show it with scratches to their paint (though some companies now employ a powder coating method, which is less prone to paint chips and scratches). The Corkcicle Canteen is one bottle that seemed particularly prone to its paint scratching off through regular, daily use. The sturdy Yeti Rambler seemed to handle knocks a little better than the others in our test fleet.

Our second test within the durability metric was a leak test. We felt that the performance of a lid and its tendency (or not) to leak feeds into the overall durability and longevity of a bottle. To test this, we filled each bottle with colored liquid and shook it vigorously. Bottles that did not pass this stage of the leak test either spayed colored water all over us or sent small droplets leaking out of crannies in the lid. All bottles passed this test without incident except for one — the Thermos Guardian, which has a flip cap design.

Weight

Although less consequential for casual use, an empty bottle's weight is a major factor when considering which to use on long hikes or multi-day backpacking trips. In this sense, a lighter bottle provides performance benefits that a heavier bottle does not. When scoring in this category, we weighed the bottles using our OutdoorGearLab scale and divided by volume to find out how heavy each bottle is per fluid ounce (oz./fluid oz.). Results are shown in our table of specs at the top of this page.

Both Platypus models we tested weigh in as the lightest, barely tipping the scales at more than a single ounce. This low weight alone is a large part of why they are long-time favorites in the backcountry. The HydraPak Stow is nearly as impressive weight-wise, though it costs much more than the Platypus models. The other plastic models also scored well in this category, as did the Klean Kanteen Classic.

The glass and insulated stainless-steel models fell to the bottom of the pile in this metric, indicating they're more useful for casual day use rather than multi-day use in the outdoors. However, the backcountry skiers among us like to bring an insulated bottle along on long day tours or overnights. For a hot drink on this type of excursion, the Klean Kanteen TKWide works wonderfully due to its low weight and small size.

Taste

It's important to stay hydrated, and you're probably more likely to do so if the water you're drinking tastes good. Some water bottles impart flavors on the liquids they contain, a characteristic that we did not appreciate. And if you store liquids like flavored drink mixes or coffee for a day, some bottles will retain that taste and pass it on to the next thing you fill it with, even after a thorough washing.

To assess our taste metric, we combined the results from several separate tests performed on each model. First, we filled each bottle and took a drink to check for any immediate effects on taste. Second, we left them filled with water for 24 hours before taste-testing them again. We then filled each one with a flavored sports drink mix and left them to sit for 24 hours. After this, we emptied the bottles, hand washed them with soap and warm water, and refilled each with tap water before conducting taste tests to see if we could detect any residual flavors from the sports drink.

Glass bottles typically reign supreme in this category. Still, the Lifefactory glass bottle has a spout where flavors can get trapped.

In our experience, glass bottles did not impart flavors to the water and kept water relatively fresh-tasting, even in our 24-hour test. Furthermore, they proved resistant to retaining flavors from other non-water liquids used to fill the bottle. None scored perfectly in this test, as the drink mix was still detectable. However, the effect on taste was very minimal in the glass bottles, and after cleaning them again with baking soda and vinegar, they returned to "like new" tastes.

The stainless-steel models fell in the middle of the pack in these tests, neither soaring nor flailing. Insulated bottles are more likely to hold hot liquids like coffee or tea, which are notorious for leaving behind strong flavors. The Simple Modern and Yeti seemed less inclined to retain coffee flavors, but there aren't major differences here. The Klean Kanteen TKWide has a café cap that held onto flavors, but the bottle itself cleans easily — placing this bottle on par with the insulated bottles previously mentioned. The CamelBak MultiBev was the most disappointing here. We filled it with licorice tea once and haven't been able to get rid of that flavor yet, despite multiple soapy washings.

The Lifestraw Go also scored well in this metric, with its built-in filter. However, due to this feature, we recommend only filling it with water, so retaining flavors from sports drinks shouldn't be an issue. The same goes for the Brita. The Nalgene also surprised us with a stronger performance in this metric than the other plastic bottles.

Most other plastic bottles did not fare as well here, with the collapsible bottles retaining strong flavors of sports drink and even soap. The Hydrapak also left a rubbery taste in the water the first few times we used it. The straw of the CamelBak eddy+ imparted a strong rubbery taste to the water and retained the sports drink's flavor rather significantly. Surprisingly, the silicone straw on the Brita didn't give us a rubbery taste at all, especially when compared to the eddy+.

Conclusion

We've gone through the gamut with our water bottle testing over the years. In such a simple category, we found a surprisingly large performance gap. There is no "one bottle for all activities," unfortunately. Instead, we can help steer you towards the ideal model for each use or activity. Models for long hikes, bike rides, or climbing trips will differ from the bottles used at work or taken to the gym. We hope this review helps you find the one(s) that best suits your hydration needs wherever you go.