The CNOC Thrubottle is a one-liter reusable bottle designed to replace the one-liter Smartwater bottles that many backpackers and thruhikers use today. It shares the same thin shape and 1 liter (33 oz) capacity as a Smartwater bottle, and it's compatible with Sawyer water filters and other bottles with a 28mm thread. It also has a tethered cap, pull lanyard, and exterior fluid markings.

• Weight: 2.2 oz
• Capacity: 1000 ml (33 oz)
• Material: HDPE
• BPA Free: Yes
• Screw-cap: Yes (28mm compatible)
• Dimensions: 2.9 x 12 inches
• Heat-Tolerance: Safe up to 212°F, but keep exposure short to limit material fatigue

One-liter Smartwater bottles are popular with backpackers and thruhikers because they're easy to pull out and replace in backpack side pockets; they're squeezable and thread-compatible with Sawyer water filters and other filters with 28mm threading. Smartwater water bottles are technically recyclable, but many end up in landfills when discarded.

Fits with all popular 28mm water filters.

The CNOC Thrubottle is an alternative to Smartwater bottles that shares their benefits but goes beyond them in ways that backpackers and thruhikers can appreciate.

• Graduated liquid markings along the side in both ounces and mL for rehydrating freeze-dried and dehydrated meals.
• Has a tethered cap so you can't lose it.
• Has a pull cord, which makes it easy to pull the bottle out of a pocket
• Safe up to 212°F (100C), but keep exposure short to limit material fatigue.
• Curbside recyclable
• Constructed from durable materials, including long periods of sun exposure

The ThruBottle is squeezable making it compatible with squeeze-style water filters

While the ThruBottle is reusable and could keep a lot of Smartwater bottles out of landfills (even though they're technically recyclable and returnable in many states), are any of these added features and capabilities must-haves? Not really.

• The liquid measurements are useful, but you can slap a $5 sticker with the measurements onto a Smartwater bottle and still stay ahead pricewise since a 1L Smartwater bottle costs $3 and the Thrubottle costs $14.
• The tethered cap is a win if you take your Sawyer filter off the bottle, although that's rare for some people. In any event, 28 mm caps are pretty easy to come by since other water and soft drink companies use them widely.
• The pull cord is just nice to have, but not essential. No one is going to stop to use it to re-attach the Thrubottle to a backpack
• The hot water capability isn't all that useful because the bottle doesn't have a wide mouth, which makes it difficult to put things like tea bags in or get them out

Final Verdict

While all of these features are nice-to-have, none of them will prevent you from losing the CNOC Thrubottle if it falls out of your backpack. I've lost or misplaced dozens of bottles over the years when they get yanked out of the side bottle pockets of my backpacks, or when I misplace them. The nice thing about a Smartbottle or any 28mm Sawyer thread-compatible bottle is that they're sold everywhere. You can't say the same about the Thrubottle. Lose it in Vermont on the Appalachian Trail, and you're unlikely to find one to replace it until you finish your thru-hike in Maine and get back to another REI.

In a nutshell, my biggest critique of the Thrubottle as a product concept is its lack of availability. While it has much better features and is more environmentally friendly than a Smartwater bottle or other 28mm water bottles, it also costs about 5 times as much ($3 vs $14). If you're prone to losing 28mm-compatible bottles, that probably won't change with Thrubottles. The CNOC Thrubottle is well thought out, but the economics (price and availability) don't work. But if you can avoid losing it, it's an excellent alternative to a Smartwater bottle or other commercial 28mm-compatible water bottles.

Disclosure: CNOC provided a bottle for review.

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