Stainless Steel Water Bottles

Why Stainless Steel?

Stainless Steel Water Bottles

Stainless steel water bottles are probably the most cost efficient drinking container that you could ever buy. Not only are they made out of a material that is resistant to stains and corrosion, but they will last a very long time as they are made from steel.

Stainless steel water bottles may collect a bit of condensation when you have a cold beverage in them, but they will never rust. There are even double-walled vacuum sealed stainless water bottles now that don’t even condensate. They will keep drinks either hot or cold for longer periods of time. There are several companies that make stainless steel water bottles, and we cover all the ones we can find on our website. Some of the most well known stainless steel water bottle manufacturers are Kleen Kanteen, Hydro Flask, and Nalgene.

Stainless steel water bottles do not require a special lining like the aluminum water bottles manufactured by Sigg and some other companies. Aluminum is not resistant to stains and corrosion, and therefore an aluminum water bottle requires a lining of some sort to be reused. For years, Sigg promised it’s customers that their products were free of the harmful chemical BPA, but after an independent study it was found that their proprietary resin coating actually contained harmful amounts of BPA. This is one of the biggest advantages of purchasing a stainless steel water bottle over a Sigg water bottle, as there is no need for any sort of resin coating needed to protect against stainless steel.

Stainless steel is used in many applications from flatware to surgical tools, so stainless steel has many useful applications in the world today. While there are many classified grades of stainless steel, there seem to be two main types being used to make stainless steel water bottles available on the market. These are two grades are 304 stainless steel and 201 stainless steel.

304 stainless steel, which is probably most well known as food grade stainless steel, is used in commercial kitchens and many other kitchen tools such as bowls and kitchen knives. 304 grade stainless steel is also known as 18/8 stainless steel. 304 stainless steel is the most common grade of stainless steel and is used in many other applications as well.

While 304 stainless is a food grade stainless steel that can withstand stains and corrosion from many types of liquids, 201 stainless steel is really only rated for drinking water from what I have found. Through research on a possible business venture, I found that several companies sell 201 stainless steel water bottles for almost half the price of 304 stainless steel water bottles of the same volume. They don’t seem to specify what grade of stainless they use anymore, but originally their site did.

At the time, I was unaware that 201 stainless was usable for consumables, but after hours of searching around on the web, I came across an engineer’s forum that talked about 201 stainless being used for large drinking water tanks for cities and towns. So if you are looking for JUST a water bottle, I guess 201 stainless is good to go, and might be a cheaper option for you, but if you want to use your stainless steel water bottle for all of your beverages, then I would definitely recommend the 304 stainless steel bottle.