Another favourites time… This time, I want to know your favourite bottle. Do you opt for an easily squeezable one, a metal option, or just whatever you got free from the last sportive you did?
Form for all your answers and bottle-related thoughts is open over here.
Bivo, my brain has forgotten everything before.
Camelbak Podium, in all forms but especially the steel insulated variety as they actually do keep the drink cold or warm.
I pretty much have only one criteria: If I can’t clean it, I don’t want it.
Podium.
Affordable, durable, never leaks, gets sufficiently clean with dishwasher alone. No fiddly hoses or tubes. No big deal if you lose one in an airport or to a buddy.
Elite
light, easy to clean, easy to squeeze, reliable, did I say light?
I like the Tacx Bottles, super easy to get a lot of water really quick, they have been my go to race bottles this season. I have similar feelings about the elite bottles I’ve gotten for free from the feed, but they don’t get back to the normal bottle shape quickly, if at all. That being said, nearly all of my bottles are from squirt/specialized bc that seems to be the most common for free or shop bottles.
Camelback Podium Dirt Series - take the rubber dust cap off for road, put it on for gravel and mtb. When it’s hot out, the insulated „chill“ version keeps thing cool at least for a little while.
I found the cap of the current generation Podium bottle to be very fiddly and complex to take apart compared to the previous generation. Definitely so compared to my favoured Elite Fly, whose cap comes apart into two pieces.
Tacx, simply because they pair so well with the tacx cages. I have never lost a bottle, no matter the bump or pothole, since i switched to this combo. I use both the 500ml and 750ml variants.
+1 for bivo bottles. I have a box of misc bottles, but if a bivo is clean I’ll grab it over all the others. In addition to not being plastic, the nozzle is easy to open and I the flow of water is great.
Camelback Podium Chill. It’s not too heavy and keeps drinks cold in extreme Texas heat. Doesn’t leak. Easily cleaned 
The free ones. I’m cheap.
There might be a Bivo in my future though.
Over the years, I have tried many bottles, my favorite brand right now is Keego, hands down. My criteria are
Keego
This is my current favorite, and my wife loves them, too. They are heads and shoulders above the others in terms of hygiene. The bottle just consists of three pieces, which can be completely disassembled in under one second. No other bottle comes close.
+ The bounce-back is perfect, during the time when I release the squeeze, the bottle has almost restored its shape. That makes putting it back into the bottle cage a breeze.
+ Water flow is perfect with the default nozzle. Keego also sells a large-flow nozzle for those who want more out of a single squeeze.
+ This bottle is by far the easiest to clean. It consists of three parts and can be disassembled within a second, literally (assuming you have already unscrewed the top). The silicone nozzle can be put into a sterilizer and can be replaced. Game changer.
+ The nozzle is cheap to replace and comes in many vibrant colors.
+ So far, the bottles have lasted > 1 year without any degradation.
- The bottles are expensive.
- There is no valve, and liquid may leak if held upside-down. Thus, you have to be careful if you carry the bottle in a backpack or bag.
- Some people find the bottles a bit hard to squeeze.
- No insulation.
- No 1 l option.
- Not dishwasher safe. But then again, you might not need to.
Camelbak Podium Chill
My previous favorite. Still a good bottle, especially if you want an insulated bottle.
+ You can “lock” the bottle. Even “unlocked” it works great.
+ Bounce-back and squeezability are very good. Squeezability is better than the Keego, bounce-back worse. But still very good.
+ Dishwasher-safe (in practice).
- Hard to keep clean. The rim inside the bottle and especially the valve will get moldy. Even a sterilizer (for baby bottles) cannot prevent that. Hence, you get a, hmmm, acquired taste over time.
- The nozzle can be disassembled, but not completely. And e. g. taking off the silicone/rubber mouthpiece carries a risk of it ripping and breaking. Disassembly takes time and is generally annoying.
- The insulation doesn’t work super well. Even if I put lots of ice in my second bottle, it is usually already quite warm when I get to it.
- Price is not great, especially if you include prices for replacement caps.
Over time the valve and all gets
Elite bottles (various models)
Just no. I strongly dislike them. They have been recommended to me by someone, but we simply don’t get along. They squeeze too easily, just taking them out of the bottle cage with the nozzle in the open position typically leads to liquid gushing out. Hence, when I used them, I had sticky stuff all over my bike, trainer mat, just yuck!
+ Inexpensive.
- Way too squeezable, sticky sugar water gets everywhere (bike, hands, trainer mat). Even just gripping the bottle will lead to loss of liquid.
- Bounce-back is way too slow. The bottles don’t sit securely when I put them back.
- The surface is very smooth and the bottles may fly out more easily on rough surfaces than others.
- While the nozzle is better than the Camelbak’s, it cannot (to my knowledge) be disassembled. Edit: The nozzles can be disassembled, but I never figured out how 
Specialized bottles
I’d use these more often if it weren’t for the slow bounce-back.
+ Squeezability is very good.
+ It releases the right amount of liquid.
- Bounce-back is very poor: it is super slow and the bottle won’t seat securely in the bottle cage for a long while.
- The cap isn’t (easily) disassembled. Similar hygiene problem to the Elite and Camelbak.
It takes about one second to remove the nozzle from Elite bottles. With the design of the Elite nozzle, I believe you are meant to put the nozzle in the close position when you are done drinking. That’s what I do and there is rarely any leak, unless I accidentally spill it while taking a sip.
I have tried that, that didn’t help at all. As soon as I opened the nozzle with my teeth, I got sprayed just from the force necessary to grip the bottle. The bottle is too soft, especially the big 1 liter bottles.
How? I tried taking the nozzle apart and was not able to do it. The sliding piece did not want to come off.
I must have weak cyclist hands. I don’t think I have ever accidentally squeezed liquid out of my Elite bottles even riding off-road.
If my hand and the nozzle are dry, I can easily pull the nozzle right off the cap. But if they are wet and therefore I get less grip, it takes a bit more effort.
I don’t think so, the Keego bottles are much harder to squeeze. (One of the reasons why Suvi doesn’t like them.) 
I haven’t had this problem with any other bottle, cycling or not. Perhaps “I’m squeezing/holding it wrong.”, but I’d rather get a different bottle than to learn basic tasks like holding and squeezing bottles.
Plus, I know some people I respect who prefer Elite’s bottles. So I’m glad that there is a bottle for everyone out there. But Elite bottles ain’t it for me.
I am only using the Elite bottles because the design of the nozzle/cap allow them to be easily taken apart for very thorough cleaning. I also only get bottles with light color nozzles/caps/bottles. Once you have seen moldy nozzles and caps from bottles not designed to have them taken apart, that cannot be unseen.
