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Hydroflask 32oz Widemouth Review

By Dave Roberts   

on July 5, 2017    5/5 (2)

Hydroflask 32oz Widemouth Review

Dave Roberts, finally, brings us his review of the Widemouth 32oz and Standard 24oz Hydroflask that keep your drinks cold for 24 hours or hot for 6.

Nobody can accuse us at Mud and Routes of doing quick reviews. Whether that’s because we like to review things in detail, or are terminal procrastinators; we’ll let you judge! Though I was a bit surprised that it’s been over a year since we published our Hydroflask First Impression post!

What is the Hydroflask?

The various Hydroflasks are insulated flasks that are designed to keep your drinks hot or cold. This may just sound like a thermos without the cup, and we’re hard pressed to tell you exactly why they’re not as it’s all the same technology in the end. Yet for some reason, despite all the evidence, we found these to fill in a niche in our kit we didn’t know existed. Never have we taken a thermos flask on a summer walk to keep our drink cool or carry ice, yet think these Hydroflasks are an excellent idea! Definitely a victory for marketing, and we’ve been hooked!

Hydroflask

I used to take a frozen 2 litre bottle with me when I started off walking, which did mean I had ice cold water all day. Unfortunately, I’d have to wait for it to start to melt as well as suffer from a wet pack as condensation formed on the bottle. So that plan was soon abandoned.

The 32 oz Widemouth Hydroflask gets over this problem and are good for anyone who want a cool drink in the warmer months, and is willing to carry the extra weight and bulk. We also used it for keeping milk fresh during the day in an office, which has actually been one of our main uses of the two flasks we tested. The review will concentrate on the 32oz Widemouth Hydroflask, though we also used the 620ml version with the regular neck. We also found the flask to be useful in a few alternative ways!

There’s no doubt that it keeps water cold for the entire day. Obviously the colder the water you start with, the better. Ideally with a handful of ice thrown in for good measure. Forget the liquids, and fill the flask with ice and you’ve got a luxury resource on a wild camp that’ll make sitting around camp even more pleasurable with an ice cold gin and tonic. We found that the widemouth flask kept the ice perfectly cold for 6 hours, and even after we’d virtually emptied the flask, the final cubes were only joined with a splash of water after 8 hours. We had kept the hydroflask and ice in the freezer for the previous night to ensure that the flask contents were as cold as possible.

Ice from a Hydroflask on a Wild Camp

We repeated this experiment at home after, as a full flask of ice will last longer than one that’s being emptied. Filling the flask at 3pm on a Friday, we checked the flask occasionally during the weekend. Would it keep the ice viable for over 24 hours? Definitely, with the ice still being usable after 30 hours, though with a significant amount of water. Bottom line, if you want a cold drink to walk back to after a couple of days in the wild, fill with ice and you’ll return to ice cold water.

The Hydroflask isn’t the cheapest option for carrying fluids, but we’ve found the quality over a year’s prolonged use to be faultless and still seems like new. With the lifetime guarantee, we’re expecting the Hydroflask to be good for a few more years yet. We’ve stored it in the freezer when not in use, as we do with all our water bottles and bladders (though strangely enough, not our thermos flasks, which tend to fester in a cupboard for most of the year).

HydroflaskAs the Hydroflask is insulated, you pay for the benefits with additional bulk and weight. This means that you’ll only have a proportion of your water ice cold. There’s also an ‘almost 2 litres / 64oz’ growler version for twice the price if you want more volume, which might just be enough for a day out on the hill. Another way to ensure a full day’s ice cold drinking water is to use the flask to carry ice and use that to cool down your drinks.

We’re not overly keen on the oz measurements used on the flasks – totally baffling this side of the Atlantic.

Summary

The Hydroflask is now regarded as an essential bit of our kit. We’ve used it to take ice on a wild camp, and you could also use it to keep meat fresh over a couple of days by freezing it into the flask with ice. Absolute luxury on a wild camp, and a more realistic proposition for a mild camp, especially if you don’t want to bother with cool-boxes and portable fridges. A tad expensive compared to a regular water bottle, but there are just plastic water bottles selling for around £20 which make the 32oz Hydroflask seem like a steal.

What the Manufacturer Says:

  • Easy to Transport
  • Versatile, middle-of-the-road size
  • Universal Benefits
  • TempShieldTM Protected
  • Keeps cold up to 24 hours
  • Keeps hot up to 6 hours
  • 18/8 Pro Grade Stainless Steel
  • BPA-Free and Phalate-Free
  • Durable, sweat-free powder coat finish (or our Classic Stainless option)
  • Lifetime Warranty
  • Compatible with Standard Loop Cap and Sport Cap

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Dave Roberts

Dave Roberts founded Walk Eryri in 2004, with the aim of providing routes that are off the beaten track. Walk Eryri is now part of Mud and Routes which continues to provide more off beat routes and walks in Snowdonia and beyond. Dave has been exploring the hills of Eryri for over thirty years, and is a qualified Mountain Leader. Dave also established Walk up Snowdon, Walk up Scafell Pike and Walk up Ben Nevis just to mention a few.

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