Anyone using aluminum for water bottles?

[Brad W]

Curious if anyone is/has used lightweight aluminum(uncoated/unlined) bottles for water carry. I’d like to stop using plastic but it seem UL options are limited.

[David Thomas]

Screw-top aluminum beer and energy drink bottles are about as light as you can imagine.  They don’t last forever, but do for many nights.

I prefer the thicker disposable plastic water bottles so I can see inside.

Eithrr are available for free at the recycling center.

[BlackHatGuy]

I’ve decided to use titanium. Not cheap, I know, but should last forever, and a wide-mouth bottle can double as a cookpot.

[S Long]

Beer bottles, energy drink bottles, etc. all have plastic linings in them. For purely health reasons they are little, if any, better than a regular plastic bottle. I have a SIGG bottle I got while I was in Switzerland that I often use. It’s a bit heavy for backpacking, but I have some sentimental attachment to it. Not sure if it has a lining or not.

[Jerry Adams]

is a bare aluminum bottle more healthful?

if you just have water, the aluminum will stay put?  I believe it’s acid that will start leaching off aluminum.  That’s why they put linings.  Probably not too unhealthful though.  Maybe some drinking water is a little acidic?

plastic should be safe as long as you put cold water in it.

[Ben H.]

I have carried them for the reason you state (to get away from drinking out of plastic).  They are heavier, have a smaller opening, and you can’t see what is inside them.  I don’t like them as much in a backpacking environment.  Also… I don’t actually believe any of mine are unlined so I am probably drinking out of thinner more fragile plastic.

[Brad W]

Trying to avoid plastic all together if possible. I would love to go to titanium but I hike where there are not water sources usually and need to carry 3-4L most hikes. That would be really expensive.

Seems most single walled light aluminum/stainless bottles are lined-Kleen Kanteen is one exception and they are the heaviest. About 9oz for a 32oz bottle.

[Paul McLaughlin]

Aluminum beverage bottles are lined because the aluminum reacts with anything acidic – and maybe other stuff, I don’t know – in such a way that it affects the taste badly. Try some orange juice out of plain aluminum and you will understand. For strictly plain water, no problem, but you gotta be strict. So, finding an unlined aluminum bottle may be a challenge. Stainless would be a better bet. The Kleen Kanteen bottles are fairly heavy, but if you can find a cheapo stainless bottle it will be lighter, that’s how they can make it cheaper. Maybe a bit less robust, though. And determining if it is unlined may be difficult.

An aluminum fuel bottle (SIgg, MSR) might not have a lining. Way back when, I know Sigg made fuel bottles unlined and beverage bottles lined, but I don’t know if they still make the unlined bottles

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

OK, you can go titanium, however; if you want to avoid plastics in your entire life it will be pretty much impossible.  Buy a canned good? lined with plastic, soda & water bottles? lined with plastic.  Unless you buy food in glass jars you will be faced with that dilemma.  Now, a choice is to pick your poisons (sort of speak).  Of course there are BPA free options out there and such, but the thing to keep in mind are the additive.  Simple things like pigments have all kinds of junk in them.  Manufactures add additives to the base polymers to make it easier to process or add fillers to reduce cost.  One thing that looks sort of promising is silicone based vessels.  But then again, they are adding pigments and other things.  If it were a major concern to you, I would consider the plain old white HDPE Nalgene products.  HDPE is pretty simple chemistry.  My 2 cents.

[Brad W]

Jon-I hear you. I have drank a lot of water out of plastic bottles and am looking to reduce this as much as possible. Even the BPA free plastics have other chemicals that are just as bad. The HDPE seems to be a decent compromise on the trail. The 32oz is 3.75oz.

[Richie S]

Another vote for the Sigg bottles if you want to get away from plastic. They were the classic water bottles for many years before they become popular for a while a few years ago. You’ll never need to buy another one.

[Brad W]

Richie-I looked at these and they look nice but they have an epoxy lining and it had BPA at one time.

[Link .]

have you looked at Laken Aluminum Water Bottles I have never used one but it might interest you?

[James Marco]

Yes, almost all aluminum bottles are lined with something, even to reduce reactions. Water can and does break down to H+ and OH- ions. Even pure H20 is not the best to drink. As I remember, it can actually reduce the GLASS lining on a bottle over several weeks. Thankfully, most water has minerals in it which buffers these reactions. These slow reactions occur as you can tell by mixing a tablespoon of salt in a liter of water. After a few hours you can SMELL the chlorine coming off the surface. Or, you can smell ocean water.

Even titanium is not immune to it, though much less reactive than other metals. BTW, aluminum is actually lighter than ti for the same thickness. Even Ti bottles are likely to be coated.

[Justin Barrett]

Not really ultralight, but it’s what I use when climbing. The threads/cap match the nalgene wide mouth and there is no plastic lining in the bottle

[BlackHatGuy]

“Even Ti bottles are likely to be coated.”

The ones I have from Keith Titanium aren’t coated or lined.

[Jerry Adams]

what about an anodized coating, or oxide, on either Ti or Al

would that prevent acid from reacting with the metal?

would there be a risk of other dangerous chemicals?

[Edward John M]

You people really do worry a lot over very little. Sure it’s poisonous to a degree but so is breathing. The safest thing to do is stop drinking all that noxious Hydrogen Hydroxide

[James Marco]

Ha, hey…never worry about it at all. I’ve been reusing soda bottles for many years, way back these were two piece, 2 quart…

[David Thomas]

Back in the 1970s when the aluminum SIGG bottles were unlined, the REI catalog warmed against putting acidic drinks (sodas, OJ, pineapple juice, tomato juice, etc) and, I think, alcohol in them.

[bradmacmt]

Back in the 1970s when the aluminum SIGG bottles were unlined, the REI catalog warmed against putting acidic drinks (sodas, OJ, pineapple juice, tomato juice, etc) and, I think, alcohol in them.

In the 1970’s SIGG made bottles with both coated and uncoated interiors. The red anodized aluminum bottles had a coating on the interior making them safe for acidic liquids, and the red anodizing was the way SIGG differentiated them as safe for acidic liquids. The silver (bare aluminum / non-anodized) had no coating. I still have my red and silver SIGG’s from the 70’s. Surprisingly, the coating in the red bottle is still intact.

[Richie S]

I think the Koran Kanteen bottles are stainless, can’t speak for linings…. I guess Klean becomes Koran in spellcheck….

[Franco Darioli]

Koran Kanteen Reflect :

• No paint, ink, coatings, or plastic.
• https://www.kleankanteen.com.au/collections/water-bottles/products/the-reflect-27oz?variant=38226167249

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

Do you actually need a bottle at all sometimes? If you did a hike somewhere with plenty of water, couldn’t you just use your cookpot to drink when you get thirsty? How about a make your own gear project where you make a bag for carrying water out of some of that heavier cuben fiber dyneema whatever it’s called now fabric? (I guess that’s technically plastic.) Maybe you could make it out of something else, animal skins? Fish skin? Pigs bladders (like Little House on the Prairie)? Waxed canvas? Homebrew screwtop aluminum bottles? I looked on a homebrew site and a conversation there said that Monster energy drink screwtop aluminum bottles are unlined. I don’t know if that’s true.

[Lowell Mills]

“Trying to avoid plastic all together if possible. I would love to go to titanium but I hike where there are not water sources usually and need to carry 3-4L most hikes. That would be really expensive.”

Brad, as a one-time cost that would probably last your lifetime, wouldn’t the titanium be worth it?

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