The Outdoor Adventure Giving you tips, tricks & recommendations to help make adventuring in the Outdoors fun, safe & exciting for you and your kids.
A little while back, I was sent an unbottle from a company called Vapur. Actually, it’s more of an anti-bottle. It’s a vessel for holding water, anyway, and in addition to being BPA free and light, it is also packable when not in use. It’s the Vapur Element.
I’d been keeping a casual eye on the battle between hydration bladders, nalgene users and plastic bottle users and was aware that there was a growing trend to these half bag, half bottle options. I had been meaning to pick one up to try it, and fortunately for me, Vapur sent me one to try out.
It may go against what it stereotypically means to be a guy, but I read the instructions before trying it out. (pausing for the gasps of amazement to die down). The first thing that struck me was that it’s BPA free. I know this is becoming the standard, but it’s still something I look for in a drinking vessel. It’s got to be something that I can keep long term and that won’t break down and make me sick.
After that the cool dishwasher safe feature caught my attention. One thing that prevents me putting electrolyte drink powders in my water bladder is the difficulty of cleaning. I can’t get the smell out and I can’t scrub the inside out! I’m looking forward to putting drink mix in their and then trying out the dishwasher friendly results!Although it looked tough, I was kind of concerned about how it would hold up under a hot dishwasher’s breath, so I devised a hard wearing test. I poured near boiling water in it several times on an 3 day outdoors trip and it didn’t get weak or damage any seams. Hey, it even served as a good hot water bottle!
Apparently you can freeze it as well and use it as an ice pack… I smell a test coming on!
This made in the USA product also has a really neat nozzle or head. It shuts solidly thanks to an inside seal and firm squeezing didn’t cause any leaks. It has a carabiner type ring on the top that can be hooked on to your pack or even directly on your belt and it doesn’t disturb me at all while I walk. That same loop can be used to whole the rolled up antibottle tightly to save extra space in your pack.
Oh and another benefit was that by blowing it full of air I had a really nice, soft pillow for sleeping on at night.
Although I haven’t completely abandoned my water bladder, I am impressed with how compact and lightweight these vapur elements are. I definitely will carry one with me this summer to help me decide what will work best for me and I would definitely recommend it to anyone that is looking for an alternative to that heavy nalgene bottle!
Do you use a Vapur or similar product? What do you think? Would you recommend it to others?
