pee bottle

[doug rawlings]

this one’s pretty much just for guys….it’s cold, and you gotta go….do you use a pee bottle?….i fine that a 1 litre platypus does the trick most often, and it packs well…your aim has to be dead on, though…just put a skull and crossbones on it before you head out…..

[Manuel Ceja]

After a bit of trial and error I discovered that a Hot/Cold, usually blue, flexible medicine bottle is the best solution for me, for a pee bottle. I don’t believe I’ve seen anyone made reference to using it for this purpose, but these are the benefits I’ve found:

Generous intake port – Not too much aim, or unnecessary precision required.

I don’t think anyone would ever confuse it for a drinking bottle, even at night.

When you “filler up” you can use it as a heating pad, which will conform to what ever body part you place it on – That’s originally what it was made for afterall!

It takes up very little space, by collapsing to a tiny ball.

And, of course, its lightweight; plus you can find them absolutely everywhere.

Works for me.

[William Siemens]

Manuel, what an excellent suggestion…I am a recent convert to the bottle concept, but what a wonderful luxury it is to not have to leave the warm bag in the wee smalls, when it is coldest. It is ‘the only way to go.” Bill

[Anonymous]

Glad it works for you, though most of us can’t fit the small-diameter Platypus bottle opening (hehe).

This works really well for me: Nalgene 32L w-i-d-e m-o-u-t-h bladder.

http://www.rei.com/online/store/ProductDisplay?storeId=8000&catalogId=40000008000&productId=9203324&parent_category_rn=5760748

For the really paranoid, change the blue loop-top cap to fireman red ($2).

[Anonymous]

Um, that’s 32 oz. (1L) above. Darn metric system!

[Ken Helwig]

I just go outside and let her rip. Never have used a “pee” bottle

[larry savage]

In another life when I thought I was a climber, pee bottles were an accepted standard, there are so many issues of breaking your sleep cycle by exposing yourself to inclement weather, by dressing,and opening up a tent to spindrift and going out that even the grouchiest tent mate will allow for them. The ultimate comfort occurs in a portaledge where you just roll over and let it rip.

[Ken Helwig]

there you go larry. ease of pee’s

[Mark McDonnell]

On the way to the traihead I bought a 20 oz bottle of water with a wide cap. Crushed it down and put it in an outside pocket of my pack. Worked great. Sure was nice not to get out in the cold.

Mark

[jules metcalf]

I love efficiency and use a pee bottle to keep warm in the snow. Use a WELL LABLED nalgene bottle and your set.

[lukee1982 essex]

Just put duck tape on the bottle so at night when you need a drink or need to fill it up you don’t grab the wrong one plus that way you always have your duct tape

[Bob Bankhead]

I buy a 12 – 14 ounce wide-mouthed bottle of fruit juice to take with me on the trail. It’s always gone in the first hour, and after that, I have my pee bottle.

No way I’d ever confuse it with my playpus bladder system, even blindfolded, 3/4 asleep, in the dark – which is my usual condition when my Vagus nerve wakes me up.

Handling and operating this unusual system within the confines of a sleeping bag does take some getting used to. You don’t want to have an accident inside your warm, dry down-filled cucoon. You will have to live with the results until the next available bag washing. Drips are bad enough; God forbid a spill! Brings a whole new meaning to “Get a grip”.

My wife gets sooooooooo jealous. Self-preservation kicks in and I force myself to stiffle any pending smirk or laugh as she struggles out of her bag into the cold, wet night. Usually, I pretend I’m still asleep and can not see her scowl or hear her curse.

It’s nice to know we guys have at least ONE real advantage over the double X chromosomes.

[Ken Helwig]

crap people just get up and go pee. too much thinking about this.

[EndoftheTrail]

Not when it’s cold, and DEFINITELY not when it’s a full moon out and werewolves are prowling!

[Anonymous]

Briefly, vagus nerve contributes fibers to sacral nerves to become the pelvic nerve which innervates the bladder.

[Ken Helwig]

I actually like to get up and pee. The stars are sooo bright, and if there IS a full moon it is always a pretty sight. My wife hates it when I stumble over her on the way out of our tent. (Nope she is not a tarp person).

[Colleen Clemens]

ahem. ladies find pee bottles useful, too. i try to avoid weather so cold that i don’t want to leave my tent/tarp/what have you, but on an unexpectedly frigid trip last year i took the desperate measure of peeing in a Ziploc. so when i expect to be coooold at night i will pack an extra quart-size freezer bag, although i like the idea of using a sturdier container as a hot-water bottle for my feet.

[EndoftheTrail]

For me anyway, I really don’t like the idea of ziploc — they can leak or — even worse — burst.

Use a Nalgene Cantene instead — wide mouth, lightweight, and much, much sturdier.

http://www.rei.com/online/store/ProductDisplay?storeId=8000&catalogId=40000008000&productId=9203324&parent_category_rn=5760748&vcat=REI_SEARCH

[John Carter]

Just had a brainstorm–nothing I’ve tried.

How about storing the soft-sided wide-mouth Nalgene inside a 1-gal ziploc? For both sexes, it means you have to physically open the ziplock before opening the bottle, which should wake you up enough to realize this is NOT your drinking bottle! And then when you stick it by your feet for warmth, the ziplock is added insurance for any bottle leakage or earlier spills.

For women, if you leave the bottle inside the ziplock during the process, it would give you an extra margin of error, so any spashing or misfires would land in the wider ziplock opening. It may be harder to handle both openings with only 1 hand, though (can’t try, as I’m a guy!)

[Al Shaver]

Folks are speaking as if urine is toxic to ingest. Granted it may not delight and fascinate your palate like a ’63 Petris, but it also will not harm you. Unless you have a bladder infection, urine is primarily sterile water and salts. I’ve never accidentally sipped from my wine box bladder or wide mouth cantene, but if I did I would just spit it back in the bag, take a swig of water to rinse my mouth and return to slumber.

There is actually a situation in which you want to drink your pee: Backcountry skiiers in Oregon were well hydrated when they were pinned in a snow cave for a couple of days by a sudden storm. Early on in their incarceration they had to pee so they collected their clear to pale urine in a water bottle. Much later when they were substantially dehydrated, they consumed their stored, very dilute urine and staved off severe dehydration. If your stored urine is too concentrated your mouth would reject it and even if you could swallow it, if it’s concentration of salts is greater than your stomach cell walls, your body will pump water into your stomach to dilute the urine to attempt to equalize it to your cell concentration. That’s a worst case scenario. In other words, it’s pretty hard to harm yourself by drinking your pee or anyone else’s.

Cheers, Al

[Mike Clelland]

1 liter GaitorAid bottle.

Wide mouth. Cheap. Light. Easy to find. Winter only.

It start’s the trip as a water bottle, and on that first cold night it gets baptized, and it’s a pee bottle from then on…

[Mike Clelland]

Pee bottle for women!

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[here’s some tricks, all second hand]

If you are mountaineering in a tent with PLASTIC BOOTS, the boot shell makes a great in the tent pee vessel. Pull the liner out, and it sits upright, perfect for squatting. Pour it out the door into the snow when your done. Your boots are gunna be smelly anyway, so this isn’t gunna make anything worse.

If you are in a snow shelter (like an igloo or a snow cave) just pee on the floor. The fluid is warm and it melts a tiny hole. Cover the hole up with a little snow, and you’re done.

also, I know a lot of women who use a pee-funnel. (like the lady-J). They all love it. Then, you can share the pee bottle with the guys.

[Curtis Presson]

Not sure how this post went from who pees in a bottle to drinking pee (a few posts ago), but I have to say I do neither. Not sure why you’d want to pee in a bottle anyway and then carry it around with you on the trail. I can’t think of anything I’d rather get done quicker than taking a whiz after crawling out of my warm bag especially when the temp dips down low… well, I can think of one other thing!

Anyway, trying to master pissing in a bottle while in your bag sounds like a big hassle to me. I figure I can be over & done with and back in my bag faster than that no matter what the weather is like. Besides, it’s a good excuse to take a look at the night time sky especially if the weather is nice. If it’s raining just wait until it lets up or just get up & go.

What the hell… when you gotta go you gotta go!

[John Garberson]

I have a sharp Scouting memory of a troop mate who used a hose…just pushed it under the side of the floorless tent and pee’d. Too bad he pushed it out the upslope side…

I’ve never used a pee bottle and didn’t think much of the concept but here’s something I saw in the Campmor catalog; “Travel John Disposable, Unisex Personal Urinal.” (#80666-G). It uses a gel bag similar, I guess, to the PETT toilet system and WAG bags. May not deserve to be in the ultralight forum, though.

[Mike Storesund]

I agree some of these threads of this topic offered way too much information. However, sometimes it’s a bit too cold and wet to get out of the bag, put on shoes/boots, unzip tent (if it’s that cold I’m not tarping it), crawl out, relieve yourself, crawl back in, take off shoes/boots, complain about reduced body temp, climb back into bag…

Those are the times when a mayonnaise jar or wide mouthed Nalgene Cantene, or hot water bottle, or what ever you choose comes in handy. Just expose what you need to when kneeling or however you do it, and go. Much faster and there is no need to carry it with you, just dump it out in the morning where you would have gone through the night.

It really is a bit refreshing NOT to have to get too cold or wet, and by relieving yourself, you help increase your core body temperature by not having all that fluid to keep warm as well. I have to admit the idea of the hot water bottle and using it to help keep you warm afterward seemed like a good idea to me. Just hope no leaks (no pun intended) are sprung.

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