I purchased a Backpacker Bottle in May 2008, and have been using it everyday since then. It has been a great water bottle since day one, and is exceptionally well put together. At the present time, it appears that this bottle will last me many, many years.
After removing the bottle from the shipping box that it came in I removed the small allen wrench inside to be used to adjust the rope cord if nedeed, as well as a product catalog and a sticker. Next, I poured in half a table spoon of baking soda and a couple ounces of water and shook the bottle vigorously with the cap on. This removes any "new metal" taste left over from the manufacturing process. Remember to repeat this procedure at least monthly with any water bottle you drink from on a daily basis. It will help keep the inside of the bottle fresh. Also, washing with a micro size drop of soap is good to do occasionally as well, but the baking soda is most important.
One thing I love about the backpacker bottle is that it fits in my large size cup holder in my vehicle perfectly. ...Something a standard Nalgene bottle can not do even though they hold the same amount of water. Also, I should note that prior to discovering the Backpacker Bottle I was using a Sigg 1 liter size bottle for just over a month when it started to develop a funky (cholrine like) smell inside. There was no apparent change in the taste, just a smell inside if you stuck your nose atop the narrow opening. I continued using it for another five months until discovering the Backpacker Bottle. Regardless of how frequently I did a baking soda or soap procedure on the Sigg, it still would develop the cholrine like smell in a short period of time. My theory is that the smell inside the Sigg bottle was the water and epoxy coating reacting with each other.
Since I have been using my Backpacker Bottle, I have had no strange smells or rust inside the bottle, and do not forsee any in the future. I highly reccommend this bottle or any of the other stainless steel shapes/sizes that Guyot Designs is manufacturing.
Guyot Designs is a small company at the moment and delivered personal service to me when I had questions. Cara Guyot answered my emails and made sure to get me a bottle
as soon as they came in (everyone was out of stock, including them). Their web site goes on about their Carbon Negative approach to manufacturing and
that's actually pretty impressive. But the truth is, I don't really care about that because (to my knowledge) they are not producing millions of bottles each year like Costco's Kirkland
Signature one time use plastic water bottles. (...What a joke, Costco should be forced to stop selling them. Or maybe use compostable plastic.)
I really just wanted a high quality stainless steel water bottle and that's what I got.
Last Update: 8-19-2008 9:08 AM