Review

Why are 1 litre Smart Water bottles so popular amongst hikers? I’ve been using them ever since I arrived in the US to hike the Pacific Crest Trail for a bunch of reasons, it’s just a shame they’re not sold over here in the UK with the same features. What features are they? It’s not just any water bottle.

Why 1 litre Smart Water bottles?

The 1L Smart Water Bottles are only found in the USA, so it’s difficult to get hold of them, but why would we want to order a simple bottle of water all the way from the US? The US bottles have the correct thread for attaching a Sawyer Squeeze water filter to. Over this side of the pond, the threads are a different size and the water filters don’t fit. So instead we need to purchase a 3rd party water bladder or pouch like the Cnoc Vecto, or make do with the water bags included with the Sawyer filters to attach the filter to. The tall, slimline design of the Smart Water bottles is also very handy for shoving two or three of them in the side pockets of your backpack. A stocky Nalgien bottle is much heavier and wider.

How do they cope on the trail?

Because they’re so light and only made of thin plastic (100% recycled), you do need to take care of them to try and reuse them as much as possible. I had mine for over 200 miles on the PCT this year and they had no holes but were getting pretty squished. I’d love to see if I could get an entire thru-hike out of one set of bottles. I reckon you could!

Value for money

They’re very cheap for the amount of use you can get out of them, so for an alternative to a more expensive dedicated flask for a thru-hike, I’d say they’re very good value indeed.

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