When packing for the #UintasHike16, I wanted to shave as much weight off as possible. More weight and stuff means more of a chance I’d need to check a bag. And I hate checking bags because it’s so inefficient. I want to be on and off a plane, lickety split. I explored a few options to not bring a true water filter… LifeStraw Go, Vapur MicroFilter, and eventually settled on the Platypus Hydration Meta Bottle with filter.
The Platypus Meta Bottle comes in two different sizes: 1L and .75L, adding a bit of versatility. They weight 6.9 and 6.1 oz and differ in approximately .3 in in width. The bottle unscrews for easy cleaning or if you need two drinking vessels. (Double fisting, anyone?) The bottle also comes with a filter that nestles inside the cap for drinking on the go. The top half of the bottle is also impact resistant, in case you drop or bang the bottle. The bottom half is squishy and pliable so you can pack it down to half its size. The cap has a sturdy lanyard to clip or hold on to. The bottle is also top shelf dishwasher safe.
Photo by Kovas Palubinskas
My .75L was a trusty desk staple but has long walked off into the depths of my office, never to be seen again, which makes me very sad. Luckily, Platypus also sent over the 1L bottle which proved to be a godsend. I opted for this bottle over the others because I wanted to be able to filter water into my 1L Vapur bottle. Because the filter sits nestled beneath the mouth piece, I had to unscrew the bottom half to fill. This meant that each time I wanted to filter or drink water, I wasn’t getting a full liter. There was all that dead space just hanging out in the top part of the lid. Not terribly convenient, but not terribly inconvenient either.
The Platypus Meta Bottle needs to be squeezed in order to get any water flow through the filter. This was nice because it made it relatively leak proof. I found that once water levels reached around an inch in the bottle, it was really hard to get any filtered goodness out. It was easier to just refill the bottle than to try to position the bottle correctly (if that) to squeeze the last bits out. The width of the bottle didn’t quite fit into the sides of the semi-mesh pockets of my Arc’teryx Kea 45 pack, but that’s more of a pack flaw than a bottle flaw. Instead, I clipped it to the side of my pack with the compression straps to keep it from flopping around.
Photo by Jessica Zaneis.
Having the Platypus Meta Bottle and filter were definitely convenient because eliminating the need of carrying a separate water filter. I only needed to carry two bottles, one with a filter and one without. I didn’t need to mess with a separate filter, putting together the contraption, keeping dirty and clean hoses separate, etc. I’m not sure it’s the most perfect or elegant solution for me, but for what I needed at the time, it worked.
Buy through Amazon or REI for $49.95. The bottle and filter are available separately for $21.95 and $34.95 respectively. A 0.75L bottle is also available for $19.95.
