Sigg bottles for winter

[sleeping bear]

I'm thinking about getting a couple of those fancy-shmancy Sigg bottles to replace my aging Nalgenes. Has anyone used these in winter? Are my lips going to be instantly frostbitten when they touch the alluminum bottle? Will my water freeze faster than in a lexan bottle?

 

[Pete_Hickey]

If it contains water, it won't freeze to your lips, however don't use an empty one for a pee bottle.

 

[dRitter]

I haven't had problems with the "face frozen to the flagpole" effect but I use my thermos for carrying soup or hot tea. I found the sig thermoses for the most part a little bigger than I want, but found that LL Bean sells their own version at their outlet stores for less $$.

Sent you a pm regarding hiking options out your way.

Damon

 

[DougPaul]

I don't use Sigg bottles for drinks because they are too similar to fuel bottles, particularly in the dark. The interior of the bottles is coated (you don't want uncoated aluminum bottles because acidic drinks will react with the aluminium), but the description from REI says: "Interior coating will not leach into fluids; bottles can be refrigerated but should not be frozen", so they are not acceptable in winter.

Sigg used to sell them as fuel (unanodized)/drink (anodized) bottles ~30yrs ago and then they disappeared from the American market (at least I didn't see them) and are now back.

Sigg is no longer marketing them has fuel bottles, but the old ones had the risk that if you pumped them up too hard, a weld could crack spewing fuel out right next to a burning stove. And they still feel too much like fuel bottles in the dark...

My suggestion is that you stick to plastic drinking bottles. I use 24oz soda bottles* in summer and Nalgene HDPE or polyethlene wide-mouth bottles in winter.

* My experience is that soda bottles are much more robust than bottled water bottles (at least for the brands that I tried). The bottled water bottles are of a lighter construction and would begin to leak after several days.

Doug

 

[trailbiscuit]

Not necessarily related to winter use...but...
How many times have you dropped your Nalgene bottles? About 8 million. Yeah, me too.
Dropped a Sigg bottle once and the plastic top shattered. Dropped it again, and I dented the dickens out of it.
I'd stick with Nalgene.

 

[Pete_Hickey]

...Dropped a Sigg bottle once and the plastic top shattered. ...

Hmmmm. Mine has a metal top. 40 years ago, I don't think they HAD plastic tops. Heck, I don't think plastic was even invented then?

Got me thinking. Anyone have a 40 year old Nalgene?

 

[DougPaul]

Got me thinking. Anyone have a 40 year old Nalgene?

Unlikely. Checked some old EMS catalogs--they first appeared in a 76/77 edition but were not in the 76 or earlier editions. (The earlier catalogs had wide-mouth Austrian Poly bottles with green caps with a nobby rim.) It is possible that some used Nalgene lab bottles earlier. (The plastic in the lab bottles is different from the food-grade plastic in the drinking bottles marketed to the hiking community.)

I do have 2 ~30yr old Nalgene caps (probably purchased in late '70s). The plastic used for the bottles became brittle after 20-25yrs and cracks. The caps, however, are still in fine shape. (I know of other cases of this happening, too.)

Don't know if there has been any change in the plastic--I'll let you know in 15-20yrs how well they have been holding up.

BTW, my Austrian Poly bottles are still going strong at ~32yrs.

BTW2, my Sigg bottles from the early '70s have plastic caps.

Doug

 

[Maddy]

I have two of the new Sigg bottles and they are presently residing in the freezer. I don't fill them to the top and thus far have not had a problem. I was never told to not put them in the freezer.
I figured out I should leave some room for expansion when I ruptured by bigger Sigg bottle last summer.
I love them as bike bottles and for summer hiking but I don't think I would use them in the winter.

 

[paul ron]

For winter I like good old liter soda bottles. They come gree with every bottle of soda or water or Gatoraid. If they ice up you can squish em and free up the ice coating. If you drop em they don't dent or break. If they get completely frozen and burst, I toss em in the trash and get new ones. If you don't take off the labels, you can still get a nickle depisit back on it. Beat that?