Nalgene vs. Army Canteen

[elricfate]

Just as a note: there are actually type types of "bottle cups" designed to fit on the bottom of a 32oz Nalgene: GSI's "Bottle Cup" and Olicamp's "Space Saver Cup".

-Trevor

Congrats. You have repeated, in four posts, what I said in one.

Oooh! Do I get a prize? Maybe a promotion? I always thought I'd look good with a Mustard Stain on my ACUs.

-Trevor

This isn't a combat jump, son, this is ZS.

[TMedina]

Heh.

-Trevor

[s.leinicke]

My favorite way of getting rid of any smells or residue is to put some salt and water in it and rinse it out. It's always worked well for me in the past. I don't put anything but water in my containers. I like having stuff in the tent with me instead of in bear bags.

[garethw]

My favourite at the moment is the 58 pattern NATO bottle. Fits the Crusader cup and carries about 200ml more than the USGI version. The mouth is wider, but not as wide as a Nalgene, so you don't spill your drink all down your shirt.



The initial plasticy taste has gone now.. Generally a tough piece of kit that won't puncture or split.
I've a couple of ally SIGG type bottles too, but the screw tops are a bit of a pain, I've crossed the thread on a few occasions and had them leak... I also have a bladder, but as has been said it gets algae growing in it and is a real swine to clean out. So must admit the NATO is the one I use most of the time.

cheers
Gareth

[Chef]

I really want one of those Pattern 58 bottle-and-cup sets, but they're so frickin' expensive here in the states. Like boutique, wear-it-to-a-BBQ, jewelry-for-survivalists expensive.

[ForgeCorvus]

How much?

Coz I could buy a Crusader cup for as little as £3 and a '58 bottle for a quid, both these prices are based on the lowest price (and therefore grade/condition) available from one surplus shop.
Or Top grade (un-issued) for a total of £24

Thats $6.35 and £38 respectively..... Postage to your country can't be that much surely ??

[bacpacjac]

Has anybody tried one of the aluminum GI canteens? It's not SS so I'm wondering how they hold up for boiling water and smells.

[ForgeCorvus]

BPA gives you Cancer
Aluminium gives you Altzimer's
Stainless Steel reacts with purification tablets
Chlorine destroys your GI tract
Iodine gives you thyroid disease
Water makes your teeth fall out

Or so 'they' say

All these are Risks, but then so is smoking, drinking, driving, being within 1600 yards of a gun, using a mobile or leaving your house ( for that matter, staying in your house). Manage your risks as you see fit [/troll impression]



@Gareth (or anyone whos interested). With SIGG bottles (or any other screw-thread top) rotate the top backwards until you feel it click, then both thread ends will be lined up and you're so much less likely to cross-thread

@BPJ, I used to have a knock-off ali canteen when I was a teen, it got left dirty (I didn't know any better ) and stank when I found it. Denture cleaning tablets fixed that problem (the leaking seam was another matter, and the reason I stopped using it..... By giving it to my younger brother ) so smells shouldn't be a problem...... I've never boiled in a water-bottle as I nearly always have a pot or a fire-safe mug

[kbilly84]

In just speed-read this thread, so apologies if this was mentioned and I missed it...

Those that have used/played with/otherwise molested the Nalgene canteens: Are they hard plastic like a typical Nalgene, or are they the softer type of the USGI canteens?

Reason I ask. I've had a Nalgene bottle of one sort or another for the last dozen-plus years. I still have the first one I bought, and despite being abused is still in excellent shape. However, I recently (3 weeks ago tops) bought a small 500mL bottle to use as an ice pack/ water bottle for my lunchbox. Fill it halfway, freeze it with the lid off, then fill with water before putting it in my lunchbox. That worked well until a couple days ago. Apparently, as it froze, it broke out the bottom. I find it odd, since I've done far worse to my original bottle. Froze/heated/dropped/kicked/thrown/etc, and the worse thing that's happened to it was the lid-loop broke. I'm wondering if that's a QC issue (maybe that BPA stuff is really what made the bottles tough), or if that smaller bottle is just thinner, or what the hell is going on.

[111t]

I really want one of those Pattern 58 bottle-and-cup sets, but they're so frickin' expensive here in the states. Like boutique, wear-it-to-a-BBQ, jewelry-for-survivalists expensive.

I picked up a crusader kit a few months back and it's really nice as a complete cook system. The trouble with it as a canteen is that if you have to somewhat disassemble it to get a sip of water. If you require water to cook then it's a great way to store your cookset and dinner water though. But then you need something additional to hydrate from. If you decide to ditch the stove and plastic cup it would work well but not that much better than the standard usgi cup-canteen-cover kit. The plastic lid that comes with the system should be replaced with a heavy cover or other metal type lid before use with a fire. If you eventually pick one of these up I recommend the bare stainless option over the Teflon.

(why does this phone know 'Teflon' but not 'lexan?')

The crusader bottle itself is extremely robust. On further reflection though I ended up choosing the usgi cup/oasis configuration to go in my bushcraft kit as a canteen/boiling vessel option. The heavy cover lid is available for the usgi as well. The crusader will likely end up with one of the car kits.

The new bottle cup set that Dave Canterbury is going to be releasing soon looks like an excellent solution. For those using stainless water bottled as a cooking vessel he had a very interesting post the other day about a student's suggestion to use a jumbo fish mouth spreader to as a bail for a stainless water bottle. If you use a stainless bottle you should consider it. I saw one for $3 today at the store and grabbed it on general principal. It works on my narrow mouth SIGG shaped ss bottles as well.

His review of his own product... And the bail demo...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYukUty4 ... ata_player