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Over the last few years, vacuum sealed, double walled, metal powder coated water bottles have become all the rage. If you have been around as long as us, you have used everything from Coleman insulated beverage coolers, to Stanley Classic Thermos. These old style, bulky ways of keeping your drink hot/cold for long periods of time have been pushed to the side for the newer slimmer way to keep our beverages just the right temperature.
So if you are here reading this, you likely are interested in vacuum insulated bottles too. Maybe you have even started shopping for them, and been sticker shocked by the price of them as well. You may have searched for “Fifty Fifty Water Bottle Reviews” and ended up here. So why should you read on? We took a close look at 6 of their most popular water bottles to tell you if it’s worth your money or not.
If you are familiar with vacuum insulated bottles we are sure you have seen Hydro Flask bottles somewhere, or maybe even heard a friend talk about just how remarkable they are at keeping hot drinks hot all day, or cold drinks cold for many days. Fifty Fifty bottles have a striking resemblance to Hydro Flask bottles.
Why do drinks go cold
A little introduction to why vacuum water bottles work so well. Warning this is bit of a science lesson, but somewhat interesting. Vacuum sealed bottles prevent the 3 main causes why are hot beverages go cold, and our cold beverages go hot. Conduction, convection and radiation are the types of heat transfer that causes liquid to cool/warm.
Conduction is when our bottles are touching something. This could be the table, our hands, in-between your legs, etc. Head is transferred to those other object it touching.
Convection is the transfer of heat without it coming in contact with something. This could be the heat lost from a hot cup of coffee left exposed to the air without a lid. This is why most vacuum bottles have insulated lids as well. See your learning something new already.
Lastly, radiation gives off heat as the excited molecules move around inside your cup. The heat loss starts the cooling process.
The airspace, vacuum and insulation lid all work together to stop your beverage from cooling or warming as quickly as it would in an open environment. It’s really quite incredible just how well these vacuum bottles work for how simple they are.
So once you have used a vacuum style water bottle there really isn’t any going back. I am still amazed when I pick up the Fifty Fifty 40oz bottle that I had been sipping on from the day before and find that it still has ice in it a day later. Hot drinks aren’t an exception, they stay hot for hours, and warm for even longer. No condensation pools on the counter around the bottle, they are just great.
Fifty/Fifty Water Bottles
Fifty/Fifty offers a variety of bottles and markets them differently. For example the maroon bottle above is marketed as a wine growler. It’s basically the same as the 750ml bottle with a different cap. It does however come in a few other finishes that may be more desirable to the wine community.
The 18oz (530mL) bottle weighs in at 331 g or 11.7 oz.
The 25oz (750mL) bottle weighs in at 389 g or 13.72 oz.
The 25oz (750mL) wine growler bottle weighs in at 387 g or 13.6 oz.
The 32oz (940mL) bottle weighs 434g or 15.3oz.
The 40oz (1.1L) bottle weighs 1665g or 58.7oz. It has the wide mouth and larger lid making it a bit heaver.
The 64oz (1.9L) bottle weighs 807g or 28.4oz.
There are over 20 different brands selling vacuum style water bottles, so why Fifty/Fifty? You have seen the main bottles and weights above, so what is the difference between Fifty/Fifty bottles say Hydro Flask or Contigo bottles? For us, it came down to value. The Hydro Flask 40oz bottle retails for $42.95 with the standard lid, and $47.95 with the straw lid. The Fifty/Fifty 40oz bottle can be found on Amazon.com for $26.32 with the standard lid, or purchase the additional straw lid for $14.99. It was this case for every bottle of Fifty/Fifty. There are some very subtle differences between the bottles but as for construction, and ability to do what they say they do they are identical. When comparing them side by side with the competitors they all kept drinks cold for a very long time (there was only negligible differences that might have been caused from the amount of ice in the bottle).
Both styles of bottles from the few we checked were made in China. They also both required to be hand washed and not put in the dish washer. The sipper lids were almost identical. However, on some of the other Hydro Flask bottles the lids did seem to be a little more durable if you plan on being extremely rough with your bottle you might want to check them out. Both bottles are constructed with 18/8 stainless steel.
Accessories
Fifty/Fifty also offers a variety of different caps and lids for their bottles. We read some of the reviews on Amazon about issues with the lid and the sealing ring. We never had any issues with the bottles we used, and we use them a lot. It’s good to know if you do have an issue that there are options to replace.
The straw lid has an internal straw, and a rubberized straw out the top.
The Conclusion
If you are someone that likes to save a few bucks and get an awesome product that really does what it advertises than Fifty/Fifty bottle is right for you. There are no real frills, or fancy bottle shapes like some of the plastic bottles are doing now, and we like that. Simply keep my drinks hot/cold. The 18oz is great size for a morning brew, and the 32oz and 40oz are great for a day on the trails. Don’t forget when the party needs hydration there is always the 64oz growler, the handle on it is almost fun to hold.