The Best Canteens
The stainless steel and aluminum canteen is older than the plastic water bottle by about a century. It is also more durable, easier to repair, and does not leach anything into the water. A military-style canteen with a metal cup slides into a canvas or nylon cover, nests on a pack strap, and serves as both water container and cooking vessel. These are the canteens worth carrying.
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How to Choose
Single-wall stainless steel is the right material for a camp canteen: it can be put directly on a camp stove or over a fire to purify water by boiling. Double-wall insulated stainless keeps water cold longer but cannot be heated. Wide-mouth openings are easier to fill from a stream. The traditional military canteen with a nesting cup is still the most versatile system -- the cup serves as a cooking pot, a drinking vessel, and an emergency fire-starting platform.
U.S. Military Issue 1-Quart Canteen with Cup
The stainless steel version of the canteen that has served American soldiers since the Second World War. One quart capacity, aluminum or stainless construction depending on the vintage, with a nesting stainless cup that slides over the canteen and a snap-closure cover. The cup fits directly on a camp stove burner or can be set on coals. It is the most copied canteen design in the world because it is the best one.
The nesting cup is not an accessory -- it is a cooking pot and boiling vessel. This is a camp kitchen that weighs 12 ounces.
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Klean Kanteen Classic Stainless Steel
Single-wall 18/8 stainless steel in a wide-mouth format that takes ice cubes, is easy to clean, and accepts a loop cap for clipping to a pack. No plastic in contact with the water. The bottle can be put in a pot of water and boiled to sterilize it. Klean Kanteen has been the standard against which leachate-free water bottles are measured since 2004.
Single-wall stainless with no plastic lining is the correct material for water that will sit in a hot pack all day.
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Pathfinder Stainless Steel Canteen and Cup Set
A 32-ounce single-wall stainless canteen with a nesting stainless cup and a nesting lid that doubles as a pot lid. The entire system nests flat and fits in a MOLLE-compatible pouch. The Pathfinder system is designed for field water purification by boiling: fill the cup, bring to boil, transfer to canteen. No chemicals, no filter cartridges, no batteries.
The Pathfinder system is designed around boiling as the primary purification method. This is the right philosophy for extended backcountry travel.
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