Pee bottle?? best practices

[Michael Cheifetz]

So I have been using a Nalgene wide mouth 32Oz or a Widemouth 32Oz nalgene soft canteen as a pee bottle.
The issue is balancing:
1)obviously weight – even if i use it for normal drinking (dont tell anyone) still a hardbottle is quite heavy
2)volume – so i dont need to get up and empty it…cause whats the point in that. 32Oz seem like a winner for me
3)how easy it is to do the dirty deed inside my mummy bag – a smaller bottle is better here. a soft bottle makes it trikier
4)….well a wide enough mouth.
5)leek/shatter/puncture resistant enough

Any better options/tricks out there?

Mike

[Bob Gross]

"Any better options/tricks out there?"

The cook pot.

–B.G.–

[Ken Thompson]

I prefer a lidded, spill proof, rigid container. Just don't miss. I don't really do the deed whilst in my bag.

[German Tourist]

Same here: cook pot!

[drowning in spam]

Gatorade bottle.

[Michael Cheifetz]

well – obviously in a tent its not that much of an issue.

But if im in a bivi or..funnily enough in a hut w people then just sliding out of the bag and peeing in a pot aint so pretty.

Nalgene works ok…but I wish they had one of those bottles with a semi sideways opening like genuine pee bottles

[Tom Lyons]

If it's not raining, just get up and go outside.

If it's raining, then you can get out of your bag and pee in the bottle(or whatever) in the tent.

If there are people in a hut with you, then put on a raincoat and go outside.

I would not risk peeing in any receptacle while inside the sleeping bag, in case it somehow got the bag wet with some kind of mistake. Just not worth the risk.

[Michael Cheifetz]

thats funny that most of you are so adamant to NOT pee in a bottle….

I never thought about it until:
i was hiking in China. Sleeping in a derelict hunter's cabin (i mean it was the type that was pretty much open to the wind just roof to stop snow)
temps at night were circa 0F and we were 7ppl+2 donkeys (YES) inside. It was soooo tight that I slept UNDER a sleep platform with my head having just 4 inches or so of space above (someone else was sleeping on the sleep platform)
I had to go 3 times that night and i was NOT happy at all.

Never gone back

[David Thomas]

> "Don't tell anyone"

Just BP with cavers. Due to volume limits in tight passages, all caving beverage containers are birectional. You use them to haul liquids in and you use them to haul liquids out. Then triple rinse.

A lot of energy drink aluminum cans / aluminum bottles have 1-1/8" ID openings. Depending on the subject of the last dream, that can be a snug fit or a no-go. Rockstar comes in 24 ounce cans (although that a very thin aluminum – hardly more than soda can size).

Venom and many others are 16.9 ounce and ThinQ is 12 ounces and those are quite substanial. Okay, maybe not as UL as possible, but I wouldn't fret about their strength when multi-tasking as pee bottles, water bottles and cook pots.

From my own research, an adult male bladder holds, at most, 16 ounces. YMMV.

All those aluminum bottles I listed come with a screw top. While they offer big savings if triple-purposed, I'd bring an extra screwtop. It would just be too easy to drop off a mountain, etc.

I regret not setting aside more Avian bottles before they went to narrow-mouth lids. That's one reason I snag these earlier-version, wide-mouth, thicker-walled aluminum bottles from the recycling center. I can imagine them being "optimized" over time and then we'll be fighting over the old ones like we already do with Heinekien cans.

I'll do the deed in the sleeping bag, but when kneeling or on all fours. Better to go with gravity than perpendicular to it.

[Michael Cheifetz]

@david – the engineer comes to the rescue!

My main qualm was never the weight – but rather the TILT (if you know what i mean…)

just tried it at home now (its like 80F so i boiled) and indeed turning all the way helps…:)

[Daryl and Daryl]

My wife uses a square, boxed bottom zip lock bag and dumps it after each use.

[Stephen M]

I really thought folk on here would be using a Cuben pee bag ;-)

[Nick G]

"I really thought folk on here would be using a Cuben pee bag ;-)"

I carry a MYOG titanium flush toilet with me backpacking. Just feed the .1 oz/sq yard cuben fiber tubing into a six inch deep hole outside your tenting area, do your business in the night, and hang it from the top of your tarp. The gravity flush usually only takes a few minutes, and rarely clogs! Plus, it doubles as a potty trowel so you can easily dig the hole and fill it in the morning.

I double-use the titanium toilet section as a cereal bowl in the morning, boil water in it at night, and use it as a mirror for doing my makeup before going into town. Urine is sterile, so I backflush it to filter my drinking water, too.

This thing is so fun to go in, I use it at home!

Best part is, it weighs only 14 grams! I'd post pictures and designs, but I plan on making my fortune selling these things so I'm going to keep it secret until then. Keep your eye on the newspapers, this thing is going to go big!

Peeing in a bottle? Ew. If I had to, I'd use my gatorade bottle and then throw it out after the trip.

[Charles P]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DBuk91phkI

[Mark Ries]

I had a custom zipper with draft tubes put in my sleeping bags that I can pee out when its cold which works well under a tarp. I also had judy custom install a zipper in my lightheart solo at the designated height so I can just roll over and reach out the pecker hole in the sleeping bag unzip the urinal zipper in the tent(as I call it) then pee through the holes without getting out of my bag. This works great except in areas of mosquitos or camping next to the heavy set female gym teacher from the movie "Porkys" I believe her name is Buella Ballbreaker. I will try to take some pictures of the system in use and post them after my next non solo trip so I have someone to take the pics from outside the tent.

[Stephen M]

Must get me one of them ;-)

[Katy Anderson]

You want advice on the best pee bottle to use when you are sharing the hut with a bunch of other people? Sharing a shelter also means sharing sights, sounds and smells. Do your mates a favor and GO OUTSIDE.

[Michael Cheifetz]

glad to see that cuben fiber came into this somehow

@katy – try it yourself…i'm sure no one will notice :)

[Rod Lawlor]

Thanks guys, I think I need this tonight. And it's a question I've been pondering a bit lately myself.

Two more questions. What do you do with the newly filled bottle if it's below freezing?

And has anyone (male) tried using a ziplock unzipped just enough?

Cheers, Rod

[Michael Cheifetz]

@rod – I tend to leave it in my bag (that is why i only trust a nalgene so far)

ziploc – sounds scary to me

YMMV

[Chris Irwin]

Pfft, pee bottle? I just get up and go outside. Makes you feel alive when it's coming down hard with rain/snow and you're out in your boxers having a slash …

[Art …]

if you're too lazy to get up and go outside to pee, how did you ever manage to get out in the wilderness in the first place ???

a great opportunity to look at the stars or feel the rain/wind/snow in your face.

[jeff berkman]

…and catch a cold. I think I'll try peeing in a pot in the comfort of my sleeping bag the next time I'm out in the freezing cold. Great idea!

[Art …]

"…and catch a cold. I think I'll try peeing in a pot in the comfort of my sleeping bag the next time I'm out in the freezing cold. Great idea!"

so I can assume you arrived at your location in a climate controlled bubble. and waited impatiently inside while your entourage set up your tent ?

[Dale Wambaugh]

After putting and the effort and cash into lightening my load, I'll risk the cold and just get out of bed. I'm lucky in that I almost never have to go in the middle of the night, regardless of where I am.

There is that feeling of wanting eyes in the back of your head while answering nature's call when solo. It can seem a little vulnerable standing there under the stars in the dark and your attention focused on not getting wet feet rather than listening for the cougar creeping up behind you. Then again, getting a face full may take care of the cat :)

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