Favorite CHEAP bottle for Steripen use

[Matt Sanger]

No $40 Ti bottles here…

I'm wondering if folks have a favorite reused plastic drink bottle (smartwater, gatorade, aquafina, etc.) for trail use, that has a wide enough mouth for a steripen?

Reasons?

[Ken Thompson]

If you are using an Adventurer model those you listed won't work. I've been using a Nalgene canteen and have been happy. Depends on what you are using.

[John Whynot]

I bought the Opti several weeks ago, and I haven't found any reused bottle it will fit into…

[Brad Rogers]

The journey works with a Gatorade bottle, but the adventurer doesn't. I am not sure about the original steripen.

[Kevin Lutz]

I use a 32 oz. Gatorade bottle with my original 4XAA Steripen. Works great.

[Matt Sanger]

hmmm…I thought that more of the wide-mouth bottles out there would work.

REI says the dimensions are 6.1 x 1.5 x 1 inches, which would mean you would need an opening of about 1.8 inches in diameter (if my math is correct (don't bet on it)).

I'll need to take my tape measure to the supermarket.

[Dan Fleischman]

I have been thinking about picking up an adventurer model so I stopped by youtube to find a review. In this one, pacowarabi shows that the adventurer does work with a gatorade bottle. Tight fit but it works, would imagine the opti version would work too.

[Ted E]

i find my steripen adventurer works in the widemouth gatorade bottles. you can't stir it though, so i would be cautious if the water isn't clear.

my current water bottles of choice is the camelback podium bike bottle and my 2+L platty bottle. the podium is only a .7 L bottle though, but its not very expensive and it wont leak. i wish it was a full liter though…

[John Whynot]

My concern with the Gatorade bottle is you can't stir the water very well.

Right now, I'm thinking I'll use my cooking pot, and then pour the water into my reused Propel bottle…

[Jeff Patrick]

I use a large plastic up, kinda like the ones you can get at mcdonald's but I think its a little bit thicker.

It weighs about an ounce I think, but I also use it to hold my caldera cone and alcohol stove. This is what makes it the most versatile for me. Also, I can use it as a bowl if need be.

It has a large open mouth so its pretty easy to use. If i want to filer the water I can use a bandanna or something.

I forgot to add that I just use this to treat the water, then I transfer it into a platypus if I'm going to be hiking. If I'm camping by a water source I can just leave it in the cup for the night.

[Barbara Karagosian]

I have an Adventurer. I use the ziplock "twist n lock" 4 cup container that came with my Caldera kitchen. This also serves as my cup for coffee and soup, and cos it has a lid, it also serves as a water bottle. And I can steep my re-hydrating dinners in there too. I bring a platy 1L as well, and fill that up from the ziplock after the water has been steripenized, if I need to carry more than 1L.

[Ralph McNall]

Smartwater is my favorite – 45g for the liter. I use it with the mUV. I never found much info on the mUV, but I got it last year, and I've used it a couple of times without problem.

http://www.campsaver.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=muv0001

[Dale Wambaugh]

Reading through this thread gave me the idea to take a typical recycled bottled water container and just cut the top off for use with the Steripen. Cheap enough and light. It could be used for stowing the Steripen, spare batteries, Caldera Cone, cooking utensils, etc.

With a little grocery store research, I'll bet you can find one container slightly large in diameter than another. Cut the top off the larger one and slip the smaller bottle inside for stashing in your side pocket. Dunk the big bottle in your water source, purify and decant into the small-necked bottle for storage and drinking. A one quart milk jug with the top lopped off would do the trick.

FYI, I've been using the HDPE Nalgene bottles which are a couple ounces lighter than the Tritan/polycarbonate ones and a couple dollars cheaper too. They make a 48oz "Silo" model that is taller and the same diameter and cap.

[Charles Grier]

That is what I have used for the past three years. I cut the top from a 2 liter pop bottle about 1" above the 1 liter mark. It makes a good scoop, provides some extra camp water storage, has a really wide mouth for stirring, can be pinched to form a pouring spout and weighs about a half ounce. I carry it as a slip on cap for my rolled Thermarest Prolite-3 which is carried vertically on one side of my pack. This way the "cup" is handy and takes up next to no space. I added 0.5 and 1.0 liter marks on the outside so I know how much water I have scooped.

[Scott Bentz]

I used a 1 liter soda bottle with a wide mouth. Not as wide as the Gatorade bottle but it worked fine. It doesn't stir that well but I just shook it a bit.

Has anyone seen the suggestion, by Steripen, that you do it in an opaque bottle? Everyone I see with one seems to use a clear bottle.

[Cayenne Redmonk]

All the standard CHEAP bottles work perfectly with the Journey version of Steripen, as well as the Standard Steripen. That rubber stopper on the end is DESIGNED to let the steripen Journey and Original treat water inside of soda bottles.

[George Matthews]

So far I have only used my SUL-1100 pot with the Opti.

The smallest pot I have for most of my solo hikes is the Trappers Mug about ( .5 L) This would work for the 1/2 L zap.

[Tad Englund]

I use a Gatorade bottle with a modified top- (This comes up about every 9 months)

This picture is turned, my hand is on the bottom of a full bottle

Cap from different angles

[Anonymous]

That's a pretty cool idea, Tad. What is the material? It looks like some kind of foam.

[Matt Sanger]

Thanks for clearing that up cameron…I was all set on getting an Adventurer Opti, but this tips things toward the Journey a bit. The video with people inverting their bottles and swirling makes sense to to me, although I'm not sure how that might work with a platy bottle, but it seems like one could make it work.

The specs say the journey is 7.3 inches, and the Adventurer is 6.1 inches long, is the because it has a longer element?

I also see conflicting numbers on weight reported, some places say the Journey LCD is 4.5oz. with batteries, other places say 3.6oz.

[Dale Wambaugh]

I was checking out Smart Water bottles to use with my Chicobag Daypack 20 and cut the top off one of the 1 liter bottles. The 700ml bottle slips inside nicely. The 1 liter bottle with the top removed is 1.1oz and holds about 900ml leaving 1/4" or so. It is stable when lifting and pouring.

Bear in mind that this dance is to work with the tall narrow pockets on the Chicobag. You could to the same with wider bottles like Aquafina, etc. Smart Water bottles are straight and smooth, so they slide in and out of stretch mesh pack pockets very well.

A light bulb went on and I dug into my tub of cooking and hydration gear and came up with an old 1 liter Platy bottle— one with the opening straight up. I cut the neck off and filled it with a liter, which came within an inch of the cut I made. I made small notches in the outer flange/seam to mark the level. The opening is a diamond about 2-1/2" across the points, leaving plenty of room for stirring. The Platy is stable when full of water and not at all difficult to pick up and pour from. It weighs all of 0.5oz and rolls up flatter than a standard Platy as it doesn't have the big lump of the neck and cap.

[Stuart Allie]

Dale,

Good thinking! I have an old platy that is damaged around the cap area. Now it can have a new life as my steripen "bottle". Thanks for the nifty idea.

[Tad Englund]

Tom, it is just some thin foam I had lying around

[Jason G]

haha, after i saw the start of this thread ive been walking around safeway/trader joes while grocery shopping checking out every possible bottle with a wide mouth to use with my steripen. I couldn't find any real winners but I did see a few OJ and juice bottles with a huge top. they are pretty big containers(probably 1.75L or so) and doesn't seem as durable as a smartwater/gatorade. It would be absolutely perfect if it was 1L though.. the search continues..

[Matt Sanger]

OK – so I went with the Journey model, b/c of the round rubber collar that seemed like it would fit a variety of cheap/light bottles, but as above, after checking all the possibilities at the local grocery, none were clear winners. Narrow mouth bottles were really narrow and left the bulb partly inside the neck, while wider mouth bottles were just barely wider than the rubber collar.

So, rather than cut up a special cap, I cut a ring of rubber from a mtb innertube and slid it on…really nice fit

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