There are more reusable water bottles around than ever, from huge insulated bottles with built-in straws to slim bottles designed to slip into a handbag. And while having plenty of choice is a good thing, it can also make choosing one so overwhelming.
There are so many things to consider. Do you actually need a straw? How much water do you want to carry? Does it need to fit in your car cup holder? And what happens if you realise you actually prefer to chug your water rather than sip it?
Sometimes you can only really know what you want in a bottle by testing a few as well. There are loads of trending water bottles and highly rated ones, but just because a bottle has a 5-star rating online it doesn’t mean it’s going to be right for you.
After trying quite a few different bottles, I’ve found that the best way to choose one isn’t necessarily to look for the bottle with the longest list of features. It’s to think about how you’re actually going to use it.
Here are the things I’d consider before buying a reusable water bottle.
1. What are you actually going to use it for?
This sounds obvious, but it’s probably the most useful question to ask before you start looking at bottles.
A bottle you take to the gym doesn’t necessarily need to have the same features as one you carry to the office. And if you’re buying one primarily for commuting, you’ll probably have different priorities again.
Think about where your bottle will spend most of its time:
- In your handbag or backpack
- On your desk
- In the car
- At the gym
- On your commute
- Out walking
- At home
- Travelling
For example, if your bottle is going to spend most of the day in a bag, I’d pay much more attention to whether the mouthpiece is covered and how leakproof the lid is. If the straw is exposed it might get covered in bag fluff and other bits of grime. If you drive regularly, cup-holder compatibility becomes much more important.
2. How much water do you actually want to carry?
The trend nowadays seems to be carrying around ginormous 40oz water bottles. A large capacity bottle can be useful if you’re out all day or don’t have easy access to water (or if you don’t have to actually carry the bottle very far). But if you’re carrying the bottle around all day it becomes less convenient.
A 1-litre bottle full of water is going to feel considerably heavier than a 500–750ml bottle, before you’ve even accounted for the weight of the bottle itself. And it takes up so much space. If you only carry a small handbag, a 1L bottle might take up all of the space.
Think about your usual routine rather than choosing the biggest size available. If you’re carrying it around London all day, there is a point where having another 500ml of water simply isn’t worth the extra weight and bulk.
3. Do you actually need an insulated bottle?
Insulated stainless-steel bottles are great if you like your water properly cold, particularly if you’re taking a bottle out for the day.
But they can also be heavier and bulkier than something like a Nalgene.
If your bottle mostly sits on your desk and you refill it throughout the day, you might not care whether your water stays cold for 24 hours. If you’re taking it on a long commute, walking around London in summer or heading to the gym, insulation might be much more useful.
It’s worth thinking about whether you’re paying for a feature you’ll actually notice.
4. If you like to chug your water, think carefully about the lid
This is one feature I think is easy to overlook.
Some people love drinking through a straw. I think if you love to load your bottle up with ice, having a straw makes it much easier to drink the water.
Others would much rather pick up a bottle and take a proper big drink of water. I think this is especially the case if you enjoy cold or room temperature water without ice.
If you’re a chugger, I’d look for a bottle with a dedicated chug opening or a narrow mouth.
The YETI Chug Cap is a good example. I particularly like it if I want to drink a decent amount of water quickly, rather than taking lots of small sips. Honestly, you can’t beat the Yeti Chug Cap.
The SHO Newt is another interesting option because it comes with both a separate straw lid and a screw on lid. That means you can genuinely change how you drink rather than having to choose one lid type. The opening is narrow enough it feels like drinking from a regular bottle.
A narrow-mouth Hydro Flask is another option I’d consider if you simply want a straightforward opening that you can drink from easily.
Owala and Ello have chug and straw options built into the same lid, but I wouldn’t personally choose them if you know you’re only going to be chugging your water. With these designs, the straw is still part of the drinking mechanism and water still flows from it while you’re chugging, so I don’t find the experience as natural when you want to take a proper big drink.
I guess you could take the straw out but then it’s another piece to hold just to drink your water and seems unnecessarily fiddly.
If chugging is important to you, I’d choose a bottle with a proper chug lid or narrow mouth instead.
5. If you like to drink through a straw, think about the type of straw
If you are firmly in the straw bottle camp, there are a few other things worth considering.
Some bottles have a covered mouthpiece, while others leave the straw exposed.
Owala, Ello, Simple Modern Mesa Loop and HydroJug Ease2o are examples of bottles where the drinking end of the straw is protected when the bottle is closed. Yeti also has a new straw lid with a covered mouthpiece.
I also like a curved mouthpiece because it makes the drinking position feel more natural. Bottles such as then Owala, Simple Modern and HydroJug Ease2o are examples where the mouthpiece is designed to make drinking from the straw feel more natural. You can read my review of the Simple Modern Mesa Loop here.
Other bottles, including the Stanley IceFlow, SHO Newt and Hydro Flask have an exposed straw even when it’s folded down. You can read my full review of the Stanley IceFlow here.
That isn’t necessarily a problem. If you’re taking your bottle from the car into the office, for example, you might not care.
But if you’re regularly carrying your bottle around on public transport or throwing it into a bag, I’d personally recommend a covered mouthpiece. The part you’re putting your mouth on is otherwise exposed to whatever else is in your bag or wherever you put the bottle down.
6. How much cleaning are you prepared to do?
This is something I’d think about before choosing a lid, because some bottles are much more fiddly to clean than others.
A simple screw-top lid can be a good choice if you want something you can quickly wash without having to think about lots of separate components. There are fewer gaskets, valves, straws and little nooks and crannies to deal with.
A straw or more complicated flip-top lid can be much more convenient to drink from, but that convenience can come with extra cleaning. You may need to remove the straw, take out silicone gaskets or seals and use a small brush to get inside the straw and into the harder-to-reach parts of the lid.
So think about what “convenient” actually means to you.
If you don’t mind taking a lid apart, cleaning several pieces and letting everything dry before putting it back together, a more complicated lid might be absolutely fine. If you know you’ll resent having to do that every time you clean your bottle, a simpler screw lid could actually be the more convenient option.
I’d also look beyond whether a bottle is advertised as dishwasher safe. That doesn’t necessarily mean there aren’t small parts that need to be removed or cleaned separately. Some manufacturers give separate cleaning instructions for different caps and recommend removing gaskets or cleaning inside straws with a brush.
A dishwasher might make cleaning your bottle easier if it is dishwasher safe, but if not, it can get rather tedious cleaning a bottle with lots of components by hand.
For me, this is one of those areas where more features don’t necessarily mean more convenience. A straw might make drinking easier, but a simple screw lid might make cleaning much easier. It’s about deciding which matters more to you.
7. Can you change the lid?
This is another feature I’d look at before buying.
Some bottles effectively lock you into one drinking style as they only have one lid type (such as the Simple Modern Mesa Loop, certain Stanley models, Owala), while others allow you to change the lid later. That can make a bottle considerably more versatile.
The YETI Rambler range is a good example because you can choose different lid options, including the Chug Cap and Straw Cap.
The SHO Newt takes this a step further by including both the straw and screw on lids with the bottle, rather than making you buy an alternative lid separately. You can read my full review of the SHO Newt bottle here.
Hydro Flask also offers different lids for its Wide Mouth bottles, so you can choose a lid style that suits you.
If you’re not sure whether you’re a straw person or a chug person, being able to change the lid later is worth considering.
8. Will it fit in your car cup holder?
If you drive, check this before you buy.
Large water bottles normally have a wider base, and even if a bottle seems compact it doesn’t necessarily mean it will fit into a standard car cup holder.
Some bottles are specifically designed to fit a car cup holder. The Owala FreeSip Sway, for example, is shaped to fit cup holders, while the 500ml SHO Newt is pretty small and should fit too. Many Stanley models also fit as they have a tapered base.
Some HydroJug bottles are designed with cup-holder compatibility in mind too, although this varies by size and model.
There are plenty of bottles that are less likely to fit, particularly larger, straight-sided designs. A 32oz or larger Hydro Flask Wide Mouth, for example, is considerably wider than the kind of bottle I’d choose if fitting it into a car cup holder was important to me.
And don’t assume that every bottle from the same brand will have the same fit. A YETI tumbler and a wide YETI Rambler bottle have very different shapes, for example.
If this matters to you, check the base diameter, not just the bottle’s capacity.
9. What about the shape if you’re carrying it in a bag?
Cup holders aren’t the only place a bottle needs to fit. Think about the bag you actually use too.
A wide 40oz bottle might be perfectly manageable if you carry a large tote or backpack, but it could be frustrating if you normally use a smaller handbag.
Look for:
- A narrower base
- A comfortable carry handle
- A shape that fits your bag’s bottle pocket
- A lid that doesn’t catch on everything
- A bottle that isn’t excessively heavy when full
This is another reason I wouldn’t automatically choose the biggest capacity.
10. How leakproof does it need to be?
If your bottle lives on your desk, a tiny leak might be irritating but not (normally) catastrophic.
If it lives in your handbag next to your laptop, it is a much bigger problem as it could cause significant damage.
Think about how you’re going to transport it and whether you are likely to put it on its side.
If you’re carrying it into a bag, I’d pay particular attention to the manufacturer’s leakproof claims and real-world reviews rather than assuming every reusable bottle is designed to be carried loose in a bag.
11. How heavy is it when it’s full?
Don’t just look at the bottle’s empty weight.
Water weighs roughly 1kg per litre, so a large bottle can become heavy and cumbersome once you’ve filled it.
A big insulated stainless-steel bottle might feel manageable when you pick it up empty, but considerably less appealing when you’re carrying it around all day alongside your laptop, phone, lunch and everything else.
This is another reason capacity should be considered alongside your actual routine.
12. Do you actually like using it?
This sounds slightly frivolous compared with things like leakproof lids and insulation, but I think it matters.
You’re much more likely to use something that you actually enjoy carrying around.
That could mean you like the colour, the shape, the drinking experience, how easy it is to keep clean, or simply the fact that it fits neatly into your bag. Or maybe all of these things!
If you buy the “perfect” bottle on paper but hate drinking from the lid, it’s not really the perfect bottle for you.
So, what should you look for?
There isn’t one reusable water bottle that is going to suit everyone. The useful thing is to work out which features actually matter to you before you start comparing brands.
If you like to chug
Look for a dedicated chug lid. I’d consider the YETI Chug Cap, SHO Newt or a narrow-mouth Hydro Flask.
If you prefer a straw
Think about whether you want a covered or uncovered mouthpiece, and whether you prefer a curved straw that gives you a more natural drinking position.
If you want both
Look for a bottle with interchangeable lids, or one that comes with multiple lids. The SHO Newt is particularly useful here because both straw and screw on lids are included.
If you don’t want to spend ages cleaning
Look for a simpler lid with fewer parts, gaskets and hard-to-reach areas. A basic screw lid might be much more convenient for you than a complicated straw mechanism.
If you drive
Check the base diameter and cup-holder compatibility before buying. Don’t assume that a particular capacity or brand will automatically fit.
If you commute on public transport
I’d prioritise a secure lid and, if you use a straw, a covered mouthpiece, particularly if the bottle is going to spend the day in your bag.
And if you’re still unsure?
Start with the basics: where will you use it, how much water do you want to carry, and how do you actually like to drink?
Once you know those three things, choosing between all the different bottles becomes much easier.
The best reusable water bottle isn’t necessarily the one with the most features. It’s the one whose features fit your routine.
if you enjoyed this post and want more information to make a decision on what bottle to buy, I recommend reading my comparison post between bottles such as the Yeti, Hydro Flask, Owala, Ello and Simple Modern here.
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