Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is almost the perfect water bottle, but once again Camelbak has failed at producing a stainless steel bottle that is truly 'sanitary' and that can be properly cleaned. Where the stainless steel meets the plastic collar there is a gap large enough that you can feel it with your fingernail and can feel that it is far enough recessed and tight enough that it is not free draining or easy to clean. Look at my photo and you can see I can even insert a strip of plastic into this gap. The shadow from the lighting also makes this gap / trap pretty visible. I have raised this issue with Camelbak, but they claim it is not a problem and then never responded to my emails again. This bottle is fantastic except that over time it will be very difficult to clean. Many of you who have had Camelbak bottles will know that even your bite valve can become dirty and develop mould growing in it, but it can be easily cleaned or you can buy a replacement bite valve. However, the only way I can think to safely sanitize this bottle is that it will require filling it with a solution of white vinegar or some high proof alcohol and then shaking and inverting the bottle and leaving it overnight with the hopes that it can penetrate this gap at the collar junction and properly clean and sanitize the bottle. The tragedy is that the Chute version of this bottle does not have a plastic collar and the collar threads are part of a 100% continuous stainless steel body so there is no potential bacteria or mould trap. Unfortunately, I am a huge fan of the bite valve bottles so the Chute doesn't meet my needs. If they only could use the Chute bottle with a bite valve cap, Camelbak would have made the perfect water bottle. Instead they have created a bottle that is fundamentally flawed and potentially unhealthy over long term usage without careful cleaning. That being said, this bottle does an amazing job of keeping your liquids cold and I would love it and sing it's praise and give it 5 stars if it weren't for this poorly designed collar to bottle junction.