A good water bottle for use during exercise?

[tarepanda]

First we just refill our plastic water bottles. Then we heard bad things about it, so we got some polycarbonate bottles. And then we read about how these LExan bottles are leeching nasty stuff as well. Someone recommended SIGG bottle, but I am not sure if that's my solution...

1. the bottle seems rather easy to dent.
2. I live in warm climate, so I like to freeze my bottle before outdoor activities. If I just fill it with cold water, I suspect that with the relatively poor insulation of the SIGG bottle the water will be warm 15 min into my excercising.

Any suggestion? My Lexan bottle is pretty worn out by now so it's high time I get something new.

Thanks.

[Music Girl]

I went through about four of them before I found one I liked. It's made by rubbermaid and is polycarb plastic. Holds 20 oz, so it's not too large. It has a push top lid that is attached to the top and doesn't dangle down, so you can open and close it one handed.

[Lydia]

What kind of exercising do you do? We use Nalgene water bottles for tennis, hiking. http://www.nalgene-outdoor.com/store/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=11
They're very high quality, can be frozen, don't dent, etc.

[jdr6385]

I was told cold water was bad for you to drink while doing exercise, since it takes your body longer to heat to get it into your system for hydration?

[hoodedclawjen]

i have a sigg bottle and i LOVE it. yep, it'll probably dent if you really throw it about (just like plastic will crack, i expect) but its still good when its dented- as long as the inside coating isn't cracked you can still use it. i've accidently dropped mine from a height of about 4 feet oooh... more than 10 times so far (not through excercising, just through being careless!) and no dents yet. :)

i get around the freezing issue by putting several ice-rods (like ice cubes, but rods- from some weird ikea ice trays) into my bottle when i add water to it. it stays cold pretty well to me. you can also buy trays to make diddy size ice-cubes, so you could liberally fill your water bottle with teeny icecubes, and just top off with water, to fill the gaps up- that way, stuff would be cold, but not fully frozen. also, you can buy insulated nylon, and neoprene covers to help keep the contents cool, if you want to (they'd probably protect from dents somewhat as well, i'd assume) and bottle covers/carriers (to avoid your accidently dropping it, hehehe).

i love my sigg bottle- its really lightweight, really cool looking, it has swappable lids, it saves me from creating waste plastic, and its not leaching chemicals into my water... yey!

[Skylark]

Don't believe the dire warnings about reusing cheap plastic bottles. According to an environmental chemist I know, the research (which I haven't read and probably wouldn't understand given my lack of background there) indicates small amounts of toxins may leech into water that has been sitting in them for upwards of six months. If you're filling the bottle up and drinking the water that day, you should be fine.

[Irizary]

What kind of exercising do you do? We use Nalgene water bottles for tennis, hiking. http://www.nalgene-outdoor.com/store/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=11
They're very high quality, can be frozen, don't dent, etc.

I would not purchase from Nalgene, because they also distribute devices to restrain laboratory animals http://rmad.org/nalgene.html There are other companies that make similar bottles that don't make money from suffering.

[tarepanda]

I was told cold water was bad for you to drink while doing exercise, since it takes your body longer to heat to get it into your system for hydration?

Ture. I totally agree with you that cold water, anytime, is just not as good as water that is closer to body temperature. However if you are outdoors under 90+ weather - warm water just doesn't feel refreshing. (I do watersports so the bottles are just left on the boat, thus it gets warm and gets dent fairly quickly.

If I freeze the bottle, then the water is relatively cool an hour or two later, rather than becoming very warm.

And hoodedclawjen for sharing your experience w the SIGG bottle. The ice cube idea is good!!

Now I just have to see if I spend $5 on a Lexan bottle per skylark's assurance or spur $20 for a SIGG?

[dahlia]

Don't believe the dire warnings about reusing cheap plastic bottles. According to an environmental chemist I know, the research (which I haven't read and probably wouldn't understand given my lack of background there) indicates small amounts of toxins may leech into water that has been sitting in them for upwards of six months. If you're filling the bottle up and drinking the water that day, you should be fine.

I used to feel the same way until I started reading that the bottles start to release more chemicals as they are reused because they are then exposed to different chemicals (if you fill from tap water) that can break down the plastic faster. Also, if the bottle is exposed to different temperatures many times, it starts to break down more. So each time you refrigerate it and then drink from it, the plastic is being exposed to cold and then warm conditions. If you then leave it in your car in the summer, bacteria can grow in the growing pores of the plastic.

Maybe these studies are exaggerating things, but I have stopped reusing the bottles more than 2-3 times just to be on the safe side.