One Bottle Hydration System: A Hiking Hydration System that’s Better than a Bottle AND a Bladder

Water Bottle vs Bladder: Pros and Cons

Full disclosure: I’m team water bottle most of the time. The only exception is on fast and frenzied day hikes when it’s hot out, I’m carrying a lot of water, I don’t plan to stop and filter and refill, and I’m moving fast. In those cases, it’s easier to stay hydrated when there’s a hose right next to my face that’s constantly prompting me to drink and doesn’t require me to stop.

For everything else, whether I’m taking my time on a day hike or if I plan to filter and refill from a natural water source at some point, like when backpacking, I’m bringing a water bottle. Why? I’ll break down the pros and cons of each hydration method.

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Water Bottles

Pros:

• Easy to clean
• Customizable cap options
• Easy to carry
• Multi-functional (roll out sore muscles, collect water for dinner, drink electrolyte or mix meal ingredients)
• More durable

Cons:

• Time consuming to stop and use
• Harder to constantly stay hydrated
• Unbalanced pack pockets
• Can be difficult to pull bottles in and out

Hydration Reservoirs

Pros:

• Easy to stay hydrated
• Can be outfitted with an in-line water filter
• Can carry lots of water centered on your back

Cons:

• Difficult to clean
• Takes forever to dry
• Impossible to refill with a full pack
• Difficult to filter into
• Not good for collecting water when backpacking
• Can leak or puncture easily

Trail Experience

But a pros and cons list is arbitrary if you don’t break down why it matters and what it means for you on the trail. In fact, it took me until I hiked part of the PCT with a thru-hiker friend to realize why I didn’t care for bladders (I’d just been using them because they were convenient). Now, I almost never use bladders for two main reasons.

One: I hate cleaning them. They’re a pain to handle and they take forever to dry. Don’t clean them and you’re likely to get mildew growing inside the tube and/or the bladder.

Two: They are a pain to refill on the trail. On an extra long day hike or a backpacking trip where I expect to have to filter and refill my water vessel multiple times, it’s annoying at best and nearly impossible at worst to open up my pack, remove my HydraPak or Camelbak reservoir, refill it, then try to shove it back in without puncturing it now that it’s full. And you definitely can’t filter water directly into a bladder while it’s still in your bag using something like a Sawyer Squeeze or other hollow-fiber membrane filter. At least I can’t without making a huge mess.

On the other hand, well, you don’t need to be told the problem with water bottles. Not only do you likely have to pause or at least slow down to drink, but some packs have too-small pockets or placement that’s too high and you either have to perform trail gymnastics to get bottles in and out or ask a friend to procure your bottle for you. Maybe not a big deal, but it drives me nuts.

What’s more, if you’re only carrying one bottle, it’s easy for your pack to become unbalanced when there’s a full bottle on one side and nothing on the other, which can lead to minor balance or back issues if you’re susceptible to that sort of thing.

Fortunately, the One Bottle Hydration system solves nearly all these problems.

Best of Both Worlds: One Bottle Hydration System

What is the One Bottle Hydration system? It’s essentially a hydration hose for your water bottle with specially fitted caps designed for just about any water bottle you own from a Nalgene or HydroFlask to a Yeti or Smart Water and beyond. You can buy a kit for your preferred bottle and it comes with a silicone or TPU hose (you choose), a special threaded cap complete with a valve to let air in while you drink to prevent creating a vacuum, and even clips to secure the hose to your favorite pack.

We tested one for our Nalgene bottles and a CNOC bottle (which has the same threading as a Smart Water bottle). You can also get an adapter that works with single-use bottles with shorter threaded caps. And it worked! We were able to fill a bottle or two with water, throw them in our pack bottle pockets, and drink to our heart’s content.

We found that the suction required to drink was bit more than on a traditional bladder, but not strenuous enough we were bothered by it. And while One Bottle says the system isn’t fully leakproof with the vent caps on, we didn’t have a problem with leaks even when turning the bottles fully upside down. That might change as dust and dirt accumulates, but frankly, we’ve created our fair share of puddles in the backseat or in the dirt by sitting packs on hydration tubes or mouthpieces, which lead to leaks, so it doesn’t feel like a drawback. Plus, the kits all come with 3D-printed bite valve covers to keep dirt and grime out and prevent those mouthpiece leaks, which is a plus.

We also found it a useful system for when we are carrying an ultralight backpack that isn’t outfitted with a hydration reservoir hanger or hose ports. Sure, with some of those types of packs, you can route them out a main opening or figure out some workarounds, but the One Bottle Hydration system is easier. And refilling it or filtering water into it was a breeze: as easy as doing so in a water bottle because, well, you are filtering it into a water bottle.

Plus, because kits with wide-mouth caps include a mouthpiece cover that seals tight when the tube is removed and not in use, you can still use your bottle for chugging water, as a muscle roller or hot water bottle on cold nights (if you’re using a hard-sided, single-wall bottle, of course).

The system is also as easy to clean as a water bottle (I never wash out the hoses of my hydration reservoirs anyway). But if I want to on occasion, One Bottle Hydration offers an accessory kit that includes a hose brush and magnetic clip, which is my preferred method for quickly and easily attaching a hose to my shoulder strap. Plus a quick-connect adapter so you can add a midline disconnect on your hose for easy refilling and cleaning when the hose is routed through your pack.

The clip it comes with rotates 90º for a customized fit on your shoulder strap or hip pack and there’s even a flow lock on the bite valve to prevent leaks.

Are the components the most perfectly tooled and high quality? Well, no. It’s not the sort of quality you might expect from big brands like HydraPak or similar, but for the price (kits are around $30 give or take) and considering the functionality, we’re not complaining. You can even buy just the special caps and adapters with valves and use your own tube if you have a spare, say if you have a leaky bladder at home from which you could harvest a perfectly good hose. It’s an affordable, inventive solution that helps us stay hydrated quickly and easily without all the fuss and care required with a bladder. It’s definitely become our go-to hydration solution for backpacking and long day hikes alike.

Bottom Line

Will the One Bottle hydration system be for everyone? Of course not. If you’re a die-hard reservoir or water bottle fan, that’s OK, we can still be friends. Hike your own hike, as they say. Everyone’s preferences and needs are different when they hit the trail. But we’ll be rocking this new system to make staying hydrated as easy and efficient as with a hydration reservoir, as simple to filter water into and refill as a bottle, and to preserve the multi functionality of a water bottle. Will you be too? Either way, stay hydrated and wander on.