Camelbak's New Better Bottle
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 9:11PM 
When a box shows up on my door step, my wife used to pay little attention. Now that has changed. Once I began to bring home things from bike shows or test products that she was able to use, then I was in trouble. So now when the brown truck drops off a packaged goodie, she tends to watch me open it. Just in case, you know. And, after the great result she has had with the last Camelbak product we reviewed, the Groove bottle with the in-line filter, she really pays attention if the box has Camelbak stamped on it.
So when I opened the box and pulled the new Better Bottle out, and it happened to be a very nice magenta (almost pink) color...well, all I heard was, "Is that for me?" Well, I guess it is now. Now she still is loving the Groove as it has allowed her to use tap water and still meet her picky standards of water taste. But, you cannot fill the Groove with any drink mixes or sport drinks, tea, etc. That would mess up the filter.
The Better Bottle has no filter, but you can fill it with any typical drink, hot or cold, and it is insulated to boot. How well is it insulated? Well, to test it in a very practical matter, I took a typical plastic drink bottle from another manufacturer and the Better Bottle and filled them with equal amounts of water and an equal amount of ice cubes. Then I put on the lids, left them on the counter at home and went riding.
3 hours later I opened both bottles and inserted a temp probe into the liquid within. The Better Bottle was 15 degrees colder and was still quite cool to drink from while the non-insulated other bottle was near room temp. That works for me. The Better Bottle is washable and pretty tolerant to what you can put inside. It also seems pretty tough, although I did not do a drop test. The typical Camelbak bite valve works surprisingly well for something like this and it flips down and closes for travel, etc. and is easily washed inside and out.
I applaud the new crop of drinking bottles that keep us from buying water in throwaway containers and this one adds the potential for sport drinks, iced teas, or even hot drinks, although one would need to be very careful sipping from the bite valve on a truly hot drink. Maybe very warm cocoa would be nice. I am pretty sure the Camelbak Better Bottle works really well for just that sort of thing. Just ask my wife.
The Better Bottle carries a suggested retail price of $20.00 at a bike shop, sporting goods, or Camelbak retailer near you or on-line.
better bottle, camelbak, insulated in product test