CamelBak Bottle Splash Guard + Water Filter

I'm a big fan of reusable water bottles, ever since the days of Nalgene sport bottles I've been carrying one with me. They are fun to toss around, easy to clip to bags, and quite durable. I feel great about not using throw away bottles, even though they can be recycled they are a lot more wasteful in terms of shipping and packaging. Taste can be an issue with localized water, or if you fill up with OJ or soda, but many people own a Brita or PUR water filter pitcher to help with that... We'll get more into this later.

These days you can get several different designs and colors in Nalgene type bottles and other companies like CamelBak have also entered the market. New designs are made to fit in cup holders and backpacks, store more or less liquid, and feature bite valves or screw tops. Thankfully, the standard that is emerging for lid design and opening size is the wide mouth... This is a great design because it makes cleaning and filling much easier, especially when adding ice. That said, drinking from a wide mouth bottle can be a sloppy process because the opening is SO wide. Splashguards help to diminish this challenge and the latest lineup of splash guards do more than just keep the splash down, they have a built in filters!

Introducing the TapGuard from Guyot Designs (shown above). Add it to any widemouth bottle and you've got instant carbon-filtered water from any safe source. I bought one of these today from REI for a cool $15 and have been very impressed with the performance. The TapGuard comes with the splashguard unit in blue, orange, or black and contains two replacement carbon filters (shown in the aluminum pouches above) which is enough for 200 liters of water - the equivalent of hundreds of disposable bottles of water! When those two carbon filters eventually run out you can get two more replacements for just $6. That's way more affordable and convenient than a pitcher filter, and it takes up less space in a refrigerator.

Since I take my bottle everywhere with me (and leave my fridge at home) this method of filtering allows me to use water from drinking fountains, friends houses, and garden hoses and still get a great taste and cleaner water. Compared to a regular splash guard I had to suck a bit but it's not much different than the sippy cups of my youth. This is a great product that is both healthy and environmentally focused. Guyot Designs seems like a responsible earth minded company and has several other cool products coming out, so keep an eye on them!

The CamelBack "Better Bottle", which is BPA Free, is my favorite model and definitely what I'd recommend for use with the TapGuard. Bisphenol-A (BPA) is an ingredient used to make polycarbonate; suspected of being hazardous to humans since the 1930s. According to Wikipedia, concerns about the use of bisphenol A in consumer products were regularly reported in the news media in 2008 when several governments issued reports questioning its safety. Some retailers even removed products made from BPA from their shelves.

CamelBak BPA-free bottles feature the same great properties customers have come to expect from polycarbonate "old fashioned" style Nalgenes: vibrant color, clarity, durability, dishwasher-safe, and no residual taste. Additionally none of CamelBak's bottles have ever contained phthalates. Phthalates (pronounced thal-ates) are a component added to some plastics to make them soft and pliable. As of the end of April 2008, the entire CamelBak bottle line will be available in BPA-Free materials in North America.