Product Reviews for Polar Bottle's plastic, stainless steel, and insulated water bottles:

[Second Wind]

Levi Dodd

June 2011



As an introduction, I will periodically be posting these reviews of various products and brands.

At the end (a few months), I will publish all of the reviews in a PDF and make that available to anyone who wishes.

Note that I am reviewing products that I have done a good bit of research on First before including them in my list of products to review so I am anticipating most all of the products will receive favorable feedback (these are not 'blind' tests).

Also, all reviews will be posted on my blog and on my facebook page as well (The blog will include all the pictures)



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[Second Wind]

 Polar Bottle

Polar Bottle company



Today I’m going to be reviewing 3 water bottles from Polar Bottles. Ironically, my last reviewed company was RecoFit, and identical to RecoFit, Polar Bottle was founded in Boulder, CO by an avid cyclist.



Polar Bottle has been making their insulated water bottles since 1994 and has largely stayed true to their original design. There’s a lot to be said for a company who chooses to focus on one thing and be the best they can at it. Polar doesn’t sell t-shirts, supplements, wristbands, or anything else – just high-quality water bottles.

 

[Second Wind]

 The first bottle on the

The first bottle on the review is their

Plastic Water Bottle



First off, this bottle is out of what Polar calls their “lifestyle” line. What differentiates this bottle from their sport bottles is 2 main things: 1. The bottle is not insulated, and 2. It features Polar Bottles brand new “Half Twist” cap technology (more on that in a minute).

This bottle is extremely light weight (less than 3 ½ oz) and yet will still hold a full 24oz of fluid. The colors are dark enough where the color of your liquid can be not be seen but you are still able to make out your fluid level.

Despite its light weight nature, the bottle is quite durable. I dropped the bottle from various heights (up to 10 feet on concrete) both full and empty and never had a break or a puncture.

Now for what really sets this bottle apart is it Half Twist cap. Polar Bottle’s Half Twist cap (see below)



The Half Twist cap allows the user to turn the cap a half turn to open it. So if you were looking at the picture above, the cap as pictured is sealed. Now, twist the cap a half turn, where the “Half Twist” logo is upside down, and it’s fully open (allowing you to drink from the lid and seal the lid without ever having to remove it). It’s handy, it’s fast, and it’s nice (and quick) to not have to untwist the lid all the way off in order to take a drink (like say, a Nalgene).

The openings (one on each side) to drink out of are wide and provide a perfect amount of liquid to flow; not too much to drown you, but a steady solid stream. Once you close the lid (with a half turn back) it is completely sealed with no leaks. I tried shaking, dropping, storing it upside down – no leaks.

Last and not least, it is easy to clean. The white rubber gasket/valve piece you can see in the above picture pops out, the opening where it goes is wide (no need for annoying baby bottle brushes to get in to tiny crevices to clean), and the entire thing is dishwasher safe…a Requirement for me! I washed these bottles many times on top and bottom rack, normal and high-temp wash, and have had no problems.

 

[Second Wind]

 The second bottle for

The second bottle for review is Polar’s new

Stainless Steel Bottle



Polar’s stainless steel bottle is made out of 18/8 stainless steel (18% chromium and 8% nickel), which is what most of the stainless steel gadgets in your kitchen are made out of. This helps it match in color and makes it very durable and scratch resistant (same reason that particular blend of steel is used in other kitchen fixtures). These stainless steel bottles feature the exact same Half Twist lids as the previously reviewed plastic bottles. Same as before, quick, easy, and No leaks.

The bottle is single walled non insulated, though Polar tells me that a double walled insulated version is on the horizon, bottle that is quite thick. Though not particularly heavy (8 ½ oz), it is certainly thicker and heavier than the “stainless steel” bottles that are popping up all over wal-mart and elsewhere these days.

A big reason why people make stainless steel bottles (a big reason – not the only reason) is the aesthetics, and as far as that goes, the bottle looks great (so great in fact I never get to see it or use it – my wife has permanently adopted it and takes it everywhere).

Here are a few things I really liked about this bottle: it looks great, the half twist cap (really can’t make it leak), it is very durable, having already survived countless drops on hardwood and concrete floors while not showing any dents or wear, it’s 100% dishwasher safe (I’ve washed it many many times on the top and bottom racks and it’s held up perfectly with no problems), and that it doesn’t stink! I’ve had several stainless steel bottles before and they’ve all had a distinct odor to them that has kept me from wanting to use them, but somehow Polar (much better materials would be my assumption) has keep the smell out of these.

 

[Second Wind]

 Lastly, we have

Lastly, we have Polar’s tried and true

Insulated Polar Bottles



These are my favorite. Remember when I said Polar had stuck true to their original concept and design? This is it. It’s very simple, very inexpensive, and does everything you need it to do. Well.

They come in 20 oz and 24 oz sizes, weighing in at 4.6 oz and 5 oz respectively. These things are double walled, insulated/vacuum, plus a foil layer on the outside to reflect the sun – in short, they’ve gone to great lengths to keep what’s inside cold – for which it does an excellent job.

The top has a large, wide mouth which makes it easy to fill with ice, even from my fridge’s ice dispenser. Once again, a huge benefit of these bottles is that they are completely dishwasher safe with no problems and, again, the valve can be completely disassembled for added cleanliness.

A feature that I really like about these is that they are also freezer safe: allowing you to

a. keep the empty bottle in the freezer and then fill it with cold water to keep the water even colder for short runs,

b. fill the bottle about half way, freeze it, then fill the rest of the bottle with water and allow the ice to super cool your water + melt slowly and refill your bottle, or

c. I even tried filling the bottle full and freezing the entire thing over night with no problems – no cracking, breaking, busted valves, nothing. This allowed me to take the bottle with me on a long outing (heat index of 99 degrees here right now) and allow it to very slowly melt and have cool water the entire day

For anecdotal findings, I found that if I did not freeze the bottle and instead just pulled it out of the dishwasher, filled it a 1/3 of the way with ice, then filled it with tap water, the water remain cold for me for about 2 ½ hours in 90+ degree heat. So 2 ½ hours is your worst case scenario base line and you can build up (more ice, freeze the bottle, freeze the bottles contents, etc.) from there.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Pretty please add these to

Pretty please add these to the Products Review section too, Levi. The reviews will only sit on this page in this forum for a period of time, then will be moved down through the pages as more posts are created. They will become mixed in with other types of posts. The reviews in the Product Reviews section will always be available in one identified location where people will know where to go to find them. Just a suggestion. Appreciate it.