Review: Kathmandu Wide Mouthed drink bottle

Every now and then a piece of gear comes my way through .... unconventional means.

One time an IR strobe mysteriously appeared in the post, another time the same thing happened with a set of lockpicks. Other times I have found gear discarded and added it to my collection (some would say hoard).

This time it truly was a case of "gear adrift is gear a gift", in that in the flotsam and jestam of my local beach, I spotted a water-filled bottle, and fished it out.

It turned out to be a very serviceable Kathmandu wide-mouth drink bottle.

It was full of fresh water, and had obviously snapped loose, fallen overboard or been washed away, as the lid-to-bottle retention strap had been snapped away, and only a stub remained on the lid.

I am all for reusable drink bottles, and the clear-plastic, wide mouthed Nalgene's that I have been using for years have served me well.


That link is for a slightly different design, as the one that washed up appears to be no longer available but here is the Dead link anyway.

Apart from the obvious aspect of having a reusable and sealable water bottle, that holds a liter of water for hydration purposes, this kind of bottle also has the capacity for storage for any number of small needfuls to set it up as a survival cache or just as a waterproof storage system for those of you with phones or still use paper money still ...

As a reusable drink bottle, it is only 155g (5.5oz) Eastman Tritan co-polyester, which makes it both odour and shatter resistant,  freezer safe as well as withstand temperatures up to 100 degrees for washing in a dishwasher. They aren't recommend for hot beverages as the plastic will become too hot to touch but make for a great hot-water bottle if you wrap a t-shirt around it once it's sealed up tight.
Even after being lost at sea, and losing its retention strap, and being sandblasted rather thoroughly, its held up really well. The volume increments are still visible, which is good for measuring cordial or tracking how much I've drunk and how quickly, but that's not nearly as useful as the addition of moulded finger grip points on both sides of the bottle.

When you've just filled the bottle, or washed it, or worse, filled it AND washed it they get slippery. so having a textured gripping surface really adds value to the bottle.
I dummy-corded a new retention string to my bottle, so I don't loose my lid, and have something to tie MY bottle down with, so I don't loose it overboard.

Certainly a good addition to my bottle collection, and the price was right, that's for sure.

Always be on the lookout for gear adrift, it's gear a gift. I'm still enjoying a number of items I salvaged off the Tough Mudder courses I've run.