THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THE INSULATED BOTTLE BRANDS 

Hydration is an important aspect of living a healthy lifestyle and using a water bottle is an essential solution to staying properly hydrated throughout the day. There are several different types, materials, lids, and features of water bottles available these days and we want to give you a brief guide on what there is. At LAMOSE, we focus on reducing the environmental impact by reducing the amount of waste from drinkware. The first step is to eliminate single use drink container waste, but that doesn’t necessarily reduce waste altogether. People often unnecessarily purchase multiple reusable drink containers and throw out the old ones, which doesn’t contribute to our goal. As a business we think it is a much better solution to provide individuals with a quality product that will last a lifetime. 

Material

There are several different materials water bottles can be made out of. Each of them have different properties that may even serve a different purpose for shape, structural integrity, aesthetic, or even function. Let’s go over some of the key pro’s and con’s of common materials used for water bottles today (plastic, glass, silicone, stainless steel):

Plastic

Plastic is typically the traditional material used for most drinkware and food containers. It’s a cheap material with strong, durable and rigid characteristics. There are many different colors and some are opaque while others are transparent or clear. Plastic is also a relatively lightweight option for easy travel, but do consider that when full of liquid, any bottle will feel heavy. Most plastic bottles are dishwasher safe and can also be placed in the freezer if you like your water as icy as possible. Some of the drawbacks to plastic water bottles is that although they are durable, they are likely prone to scratches and dings, and the color may fade over time. Since it is not insulated, ice cold drinks will sweat which can make it slippery to hold, get your bag/belongings wet, and leave wet circles on surfaces. It also won’t keep the temperature for too long either - especially iced water on a hot summer day. One other thing to be aware of is BPA. BPA is basically a chemical used in making many plastics to help strengthen it. There are many health concerns around BPA, especially in food/kitchen/drinkware containers, so make sure when looking for a water bottle, that it is BPA free.

https://www.nalgene.com/product/2178-2025/

• Brand: Nalgene Wide Mouth
• Capacity: 32 oz/946 ml 
  
• 21 colors available
• BPA free
• Insulation: None
• Weight: 6.25 oz
• Warranty: Lifetime Guarantee on all manufacturer’s defects

Glass

A slightly less common material used for water bottles is glass. It’s got great properties that make it ideal for food and drinkware use. It too, is a durable material that is dishwasher safe like plastic. It’s clear, usually fully transparent (unless frosted or covered by a printed design) which makes it easy to see how much liquid is inside. Glass on the other hand, can break whereas the other materials used to make water bottles won’t. It can also become much more slippery to hold than other materials, so do be careful when handling glass. It too, is not insulated which won’t allow you to keep the temperature of your drink regulated. 

https://www.gocontigo.com/20-oz-purity-glass-water-bottle.html

• Brand: Contigo Purity Glass Bottle 
  
• Capacity: 20 oz/591 ml 
  
• 3 colors available 
  
• BPA free
• Insulation: None
• Weight: 18.5 oz 
  
• Warranty: Lifetime guarantee on any manufacturer's defects  
  

Silicone

This is an interesting material to be used for drinkware. It’s a very lightweight, flexible, and rubber-like material that won’t break and is very resistant to extreme temperatures. Some silicone water bottles can even be packed down to a smaller size when not filled with liquid. Due to its rubber like texture, it’s quite grippy and you won’t ever have to worry about dents or scratches. Some things to keep in mind about silicone water bottles is that because of their flexibility, sometimes they do not stand upright, or else they may be more likely to tip over. These are also not insulated, but will be more resistant to condensation over plastic or glass. 

https://www.quebottle.com/products/que-bottle

• Brand: Que Bottle 
  
• Capacity: 20 oz/591 ml or 12 oz/354 ml
• 18 colors available
• BPA free
• Insulation: None
• Weight: 6 oz/5 oz
• Warranty: 90 days on all manufacturer’s defects, must be purchased through quebottle.com 
  

Stainless Steel

There are many key benefits to using a stainless steel water bottle. One of the best features is that stainless steel bottles can come vacuum insulated. This means your drink will stay hot or cold for hours and hours so you can enjoy your drink at the optimal temperature all throughout the day. Additionally, insulated steel water bottles will not sweat or transfer the inside heat to the outside. You won’t burn your hands with hot liquids inside and won’t freeze them with iced drinks. Stainless steel is extremely durable, strong and rigid which will likely last you your entire life. These bottles most often either come with a coating to get different colors (such as powder coating) or the bare steel which can provide an elegant look. The colored coatings are often quite durable and resistant to scratches as well, but can still be prone to scratches if dropped on concrete or sharp rocks. Most stainless steel bottles are dishwasher safe, but do check with each specific manufacturer as some insulation properties may be affected by it. It’s important to note that stainless steel is not safe to be placed in the microwave and may also lose insulation properties if placed in the freezer (liquid expands when frozen). 

www.lamose.ca

• Brand: LAMOSE Robson Bottle 
  
• Capacity: 14 oz, 21 oz, or 28 oz 
  
• Up to 12 colors available (colors vary depending on capacity) 
  
• BPA free 
  
• Insulation: Up to 12 hours hot or 24 hours cold 
  
• Weight: 9.5 oz (14 oz), 12.9 oz (21 oz), 14.3 oz (28 oz) 
  
• Warranty: Lifetime on all manufacturer’s defects
  

Personalization

A great way to make your water bottle unique is to customize or personalize it. There’s more and more people beginning to purchase reusable water bottles to help reduce plastic waste and sometimes it can be easy to mix up bottles with one another. This can sometimes raise health concerns by spreading germs and something we should all be conscious of. Different types of water bottles can be personalized differently, and each of them have their limitations. There are essentially only two main ways to personalize: screen/vinyl print & laser engraving and each method is able to offer different benefits.

Screen and/or vinyl print is basically your customization overlayed over top of the surface of the water bottle. You can think of this as a semi-permanent vinyl sticker (some people may even choose to just use vinyl stickers on their plastic or glass bottles). The great part about this is that you can take advantage of using colors in your design whereas laser engraving cannot. Over time, screen printed designs are likely to fade, chip, or peel - especially if you put your bottle in the dishwasher. Laser engraving is almost the opposite of screen printed designs. Instead of overlaying on the surface of your bottle, a high precision laser removes the top coating of a stainless steel bottle to create the design. It reveals the bare stainless steel for a permanent customized look that won’t fade or peel. It’s a quality, lasting way to personalize your water bottle giving it a classy look.

To summarize everything, screen printing:

• Works on plastic, glass, or stainless steel by overlaying on surface 
  
• Can use colors 
  
• Semi-permanent, may fade, chip, or peel
  
  

Nalgene’s co-branding program (Custom imprinting designs) 

Photo:https://www.nalgene.com/co-branding/

Laser engraving: 

• Works on stainless steel by removing top coating 
  
• Uses high precision laser
  
• Premium, classy look 
  
• Permanent, won’t fade, chip, or peel 
  

Photo:http://www.lamose.ca

LAMOSE specializes in custom laser engraved drinkware. The Robson line of water bottles are LAMOSE’s most popular bottles to this day. We have made thousands upon thousands of personalized water bottles for both individuals and corporate businesses. With no order minimums, we make it easy for you to get exactly what you want customized. At LAMOSE, we choose to laser engrave custom drinkware in order to provide the highest quality results that will last an entire lifetime.

There are currently no personalization options for silicone water bottles, leaving just plastic, glass and stainless steel. Out of the above brands listed, Contigo does not offer any custom options, but Nalgene does offer imprint options as part of their co-branding program much similar to Klean Kanteen’s co-branding program for tumblers (mentioned in our Tumbler Guide.