Lightest fire-proof water bottle

[Ryan K]

I’ve basically gone no-cook, but I would like to bring something I can boil water in in an emergency, and I would prefer to just replace one of my plastic water bottles with something fire-proof, even if there’s a small weight penalty over plastic bottle+Ti cup.  So what options are there that are lighter than Kleen Kanteen?  Wide-mouthed is ideal, so I can potentially eat out of it.

The other option is learn how to boil water with hot rocks – then I think I could just use a wide-mouthed #5 plastic bottle.

[Dale Wambaugh]

A noble quest, but no simple answers and not many cheap ones for the lightest. I applaud your desire to simplify your kit by one less item, but I’ve never been able to make it add up weight wise, not to mention practical use and cost. I did the drill on this, looking for something on the survival side of things and landed on the 40oz stainless H2Go bottle stuffed full of essentials. In practice you could stuff your pockets with the essentials and have a fireproof pot to cook or sterilize water, as well as hauling water (the lid is removable). There’s nothing much UL about that and it won’t be easy to handle.

Options:

Vargo makes a Ti 650ml water bottle that looks much like a Klean Kanteen that is 3.9oz  and $85 retail.
Vargo also offers the Bot Ti wide mouth bottle that holds 1 liter, weighs 4.7oz and retails for a wallet numbing $100 (weights are advertised, not verified). Both suffer from being tall and narrow (read unstable in a fire) and require some method of handling them. Try picking up a full one liter Nalgene with a typical pot grabber– weak at best and even more interesting when surrounded by flames or hot coals.

I got a bunch of samples from my gear locker for comparison:

Top row, left to right:
Nalgene Oasis Canteen, 1 liter, 4.6oz
Talking Rain bottle, 1 liter, 1.8oz
“Rocket bottom” soda bottle, 1 liter, 1.2oz
Smart Water bottle, 700ml, 1.0oz
Nalgene UVPE bottle, 1 liter, 3.8oz
H2Go stainless bottle, 1.18 liter (40oz), 6.4oz
Klean Kanteen, 800ml, 8.4oz
Klean Kanteen 1.18 liter (40oz) stainless bottle, 10oz.

Bottom row:
Platypus bladder, 1 liter, 0.8oz
Stoic titanium pot, 700ml, 3.8oz
Snow Peak bowl with Four Dogs lid, Trangia pot grabber, 640ml, 3.8oz
IMUSA 10cm pot with lid, 650ml,  2.8oz

The Platypus and the IMUSA pot win this one and are far more adaptable than the Vargo options. I would use the rocket bottom soda bottle and Stoic pot for a light but practical option. If you want to save space they will nest loosely. You can go light, but at some point you have to use this stuff. After climbing switchbacks all day, you want to eat and not scald yourself or spill your meal.

For a “nearly no-cook” kit I came up with the combination of a MSR Titan mug, Ti Esbit stove, aluminum flashing windscreen, folding spoon, mini lighter, and a screw top aluminum can for fuel. 5oz total and it packs small. That is good for hot drinks, soup, oatmeal, etc.

I forgot the Oilcamp hard anodized aluminum space saver mug. It holds 750ml and weighs 3.6oz and has long handles that would be good for fire cooking. You can get them on eBay for $14 or so. Note that the mug plus the Platypus is a hair less than the $100 Vargo Bot. The rocket bottom soda bottle plus the Oilcamp weigh 0.1oz more and costs $86 less!

Left to right: Olicamp hard anodized Space Saver mug, Stoic Ti pot, Oilcamp clear anodized (don’t buy the clear anodized model).

 

[Ryan K]

Wow, thanks for the detailed response Dale!  I’ve been stealth reading all the great posts from that Einstein guy for months – just finally joined BPL yesterday.

I forgot about the Vargo Ti bottle – if I had $100 to throw at it, I would probably get the 1L one to try it out – it has good dimensions for both drinking while walking and cooking in. I’d only boil about 1 cup in it at a time – should be easy to life from the fire.

But just throwing an IMUSA or Oilcamp + mini bic in my pack for emergencies is probably the lightest and cheapest option.  I don’t bring any food that needs heat.

I use a big 3L platypus and various bottles when I pack with my family, but solo, I like to take a 0.5L water bottle and a ~0.5L wide-mouth plastic jar. For some reason, I don’t like drinking from small platypus bags.

Or…. maybe I just make my Oilcamp mug into a sippy cup!  http://sipsnap.com/

[John S.]

Or store your fire making items in a fritos bean dip can (aluminum) and use that to boil water in an emergency. It is too small to eat out of really at about 10 ounces volume.

[Clue M]

Take the top off a beer can, put your plastic bottle in the beer can and tape them together.

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

I would like to bring something I can boil water in in an emergency

In what emergency would you need to boil water?  For safe drinking water, I don’t think that there is anything lighter than chemical treatments.  My 2 cents

[Dale Wambaugh]

Good point Jon. I tape a few Micropur tablets to my water bladder and included them in my filter kit for just in case. The sealed foil packets are easy to manage. 4 tablets equal a sip of water for weight and will treat a gallon.

[Ryan K]

Take the top off a beer can, put your plastic bottle in the beer can and tape them together.

I assume the heated metal would just melt the plastic.

[Ryan K]

I guess I mean for emergency morale boost rather than emergency survival.  I already bring some back-up micropur foils in case my sawyer fails, so it’s not for sterilizing water.  The idea is that if I had to hunker down because of bad weather or a hurt leg, being able to make hot tea would be a big morale boost.  As my normal home diet has evolved to be more raw, I really see no point in bring a stove or any food I need to cook on a hike, but I still drink a ton of tea and miss it a bit.

[Dale Wambaugh]

For a morale booster hot drink, all you need is a small Ti or aluminum mug. You could warm that with a twig fire, my Esbit example, or the smallest of alcohol stoves, like a tealight. You can put the mug on a couple rocks and put fuel under.

It’s really nice to have a hot cuppa on a cold day hike too.

[Clue M]

I assumed that in an emergency you would be conscious enough to remove the plastic bottle and hear water in the can.

I see that assumption was invalid.

 

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