It’s been shown that bottled water isn’t good for us, that it isn’t good for the environment, and that much of it is just tap water anyway. As a result, people have been buying reusable water bottles so fast that many stores have had trouble keeping them in stock. For a long time, plastic bottles from Nalgene and others were the big sellers, but concerns over chemicals like BPA leaching into the water from these bottles have sent many people scrambling for metal bottles to replace their plastic ones.
Sigg has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of this move toward metal bottles. The Swiss company makes aluminum and steel bottles that are known for being durable and lightweight, but they have one flaw: they can be hard to drink from on the go.
The standard Sigg cap is a screw-in plug with with a molded plastic opening for attaching a carabiner or other connecting device. The small mouth of the Sigg bottles is great to drink from, but the cap takes too many turns to remove, and is always in danger of being lost (unlike Nalgene Bottles that have a tether built into the cap).
Luckily, Sigg makes one of the best water bottle caps available: the Sigg Sport Top.
This cap is almost an inversion of the the standard bike bottle cap. Instead of pulling on the spout with your teeth to open a valve, you push on the top of the cap with your mouth, which opens a valve only while your mouth is on the cap. This eliminates spills and leaks, and makes it very easy to take a drink on the go, whether you are exercising or just walking around (I’ve found the Sport Top to be an excellent solution to drinking water on a bus or subway train without splashing myself as the vehicle lurches around).
Because the cap has an easy-to-open cover over the drinking spout, and the spout only opens when you press on it, the cap won’t leak a drop in most situations. If you are worried about it leaking, a quarter-turn of the drinking spout locks it in the closed position, so pressing on it does nothing. I find it secure enough when left “unlocked,” but the extra protection from leaks could be useful for some (I have found that the Sport Top will leak once in a while if the top is left “unlocked” and the bottle is held upside down for a while, then quickly turned right-side up).
One problem I’ve had with the Sport Top is one of strange vacuum back-pressure that can make it hard to drink every once in a while. It seems to be worst when I’ve completely filled the bottle with very cold water. When I go to take a drink, I find that I have to work to suck the water out (normally, it just flows out without any work from me). The solution to this problem is easy, though: just press down on the top with the bottle upright. You’ll hear a quick intake of air and the pressure will be equalized, making it easy to drink once again. I think this is caused by air being cooled by the water inside the airtight bottle, but it’s a small price to pay for convenience.
I drink a lot of water — usually a little less than a gallon on a normal day — and this little cap makes a huge difference, with fewer spills, quicker access, and easier splash-free drinking on the go. If you have a Sigg bottle, you should try this cap.
aims to solve those problems. It’s a super-thin metal drive that’s the shape and size of a key, and therefore not only easily fits on your keychain, but it fits in on your keychain. Unless you only have one or two keys, you won’t even notice you have it with you — and that’s the point.
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