What are the Easiest Water Bottles to Clean?

Best Water Bottles for Cleaning

What is the Best Water Bottle for Clean Freaks?

​Let’s face it, reusable water bottles are amazing for many reasons, but they’re also great at hiding bacteria and germs.  So today, let's look at some bottles that have features designed specifically to make it easier to keep them clean.  In this post, I’m only going to cover dual wall vacuum insulated stainless steel bottles because they're some of the more popular bottle in today's market.

LONG STORY SHORT

Here's the summary of the bottles.  Keep reading for more details about each one!

• Klean Kanteen's TKWides (easier threads to clean)
• YETI Rambler (internal threads on bottle)
• RevoMax (no threads)
• Takeya (pull tabs on seals)
• EcoVessel (pull tabs on seals)
• SmartKap (3rd party lid for YETIs that has a pull tab on the seal for the spout cap)

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Video Review of the Best Water Bottles for Cleaning

​​​We also cover this in a YouTube video if you'd prefer to watch the recap!​

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Water Bottle Cleaning Tips

Before we dive into specific bottles, let's start with some general water bottle cleaning tips and guidelines.

1. ​Clean your bottle regularly.  All the features in the world won't help you keep your bottle clean if you don't actually put in the work.  It's also not a bad idea to invest in a Kuppy, which is a silicone accessory that is a drying rack for your bottle.  Cheers to those folks for coming up with such a simple, useful product.
2. It helps to have a bottle brush kit and some Bottle Bright tablets.  Brushes help clean the entire inside of your bottle more thoroughly, and the Bottle Bright tablets you may have seen on Shark Tank really do work well and are great to use for a deep clean every few weeks.
3. Avoid using bleach.  Yes, bleach would absolutely kill any bacteria in your bottle, but bleach can also damage certain bottles and make them more susceptible to corrosion.  Just stick with warm soapy water, your bottle brush kit, and Bottle Bright tablets.
4. Avoid straw lids. While convenient to use, straw lids are notorious for being harder to clean, especially at the pivot point around the spout.
5. Take the mouth diameter into account when deciding what to buy.  A tumbler-style bottle like a Stanley has a much wider opening on top will be much easier to clean compared to a narrow mouth bottle.

Can You Use your Dishwasher to Clean your Bottle?

Many bottle manufacturers state that their bottles and lids are dishwasher safe, which at first makes this seem like a great option.  Besides, why go through all the work of using a bottle brush and cleaning tablets when you can let the dishwasher do everything?

Different people will have different opinions, but here's ours.  For the most part, we do not recommend putting reusable bottles or accessories in dishwashers.

These bottles can be expensive, so we think it's better to take a hands-on approach to make sure your bottle is cleaned sufficiently while minimizing the chances that it could get damaged or chipped from knocking into something else while your dishwasher is running.  Also, you'll probably want to remove and hand-wash the seals anyways periodically because the dishwasher won't be able to get all around them.

And it's not always clear which products are really dishwasher safe.  For example, newer Hydro Flasks are dishwasher safe, but older ones are not.  For the average user, it can be confusing or difficult to really know, so we generally like to play it safe and recommend handwashing.

What are the Easiest Water Bottles to Keep Clean?

​Let’s move on to some bottles that have features designed specifically to make them easier to keep clean, and at the end I'll give my overall recommendation.

Bottles with Internal Threads

Klean Kanteen's TKWide Chug

TK Closure Internal Threads

Klean Kanteen's TKWide Series​

Most bottles have threads on the exterior of the bottle and the interior of the lid.  One problem this can create is on the lid, especially with bottles like Hydro Flasks.  These bottles have extra insulation under the lid, and while that's great to keep your drink cool or hot, it makes it much more difficult to fully clean this area because it's such a tight space.

However, some bottles reverse the threads.  Two examples includes Klean Kanteen's TKWides and YETI Ramblers.

The benefit to internal threads on the bottle and external threads on the lid is that it's much easier to clean the threads on the lid in particular.  It's also easier to take the seals on and off.

Klean Kanteen's TKWide bottles have one extra feature that places them above YETI Ramblers, and that's the different thread pattern. Instead of continuous spiraling metal or plastic threads on the outside of the bottle, they use a modified thread pattern called their TK Closure internal threads that consist of small metal bumps inside the rim.  Klean Kanteen says they improve thermal performance, but they also make it easier to clean because they don't have as many nooks and crannies as traditional threads.

See on TKWide

Bottles with No Threads

RevoMax (Threadless Lid)

RevoMax

You could also skip threads altogether with RevoMax because their bottle has a completely threadless design.  The lid is easy to lock and unlock with one hand, and it still feel really secure even without the threads.  The lid still needs to be cleaned regularly, but it can be disassembled fairly easily.

​One downside is that they currently only have a narrow mouth bottle, so keep that in mind.

See RevoMax

Bottles with Seals with Pull Tabs

Pull Tab on Takeya's Lid

Pull Tab on Takeya's Spout Cap

Takeya and EcoVessel

Seals are often overlooked but are good to include in your deep cleaning every few weeks.  One design feature that I wish more bottle manufacturers would incorporate is to add tabs to the seals in the lid.  It’s such a simple change that makes removing the seals for cleaning so much easier, and it amazes me that more bottles don’t include this feature.

A few that I’m aware of are Takeya and EcoVessel.

Takeya

See Takeya

EcoVessel

See EcoVessel

SmartKap (3rd Party Lid for YETIs)

And for YETIs, this aftermarket lid that's modeled after Takeya's amazing lids has a seal for the spout cap that also has a little pull tab.

See SmartKap

Bottles with Removable Bottoms

Zulu Ace Bottle

Zulu Ace Removable Base

Zulu Ace

Now we've talked about the threads and seals near the lid, but what about the inside of the bottle itself?  Some bottles have removable bottoms, which is helpful so you can clean the inside from both sides.

One bottle I know of with this feature is Zulu Ace.

​​The main downside of the Zulu bottle is that there's a seal that's difficult to remove from the base cap, but if you get a brush kit that includes one of the smaller detailing brushes and use cleaning tablets, you can usually keep this pretty area pretty clean.

See Zulu Ace

Bottles with Filters

​There are a ton of filter bottles and accessories to choose from at this point, and while they don't help clean your bottle, they do help clean the water you'll drink so they are worth mentioning.  A few include Lifestraw, Simple Modern, and Brita.  I'm planning another post later this year where I'll compare different filter options, so I'll have much more info about this subgenre coming soon.

Bottles with UV Light

LARQ UV Sanitizing Bottle

​LARQ is a brand with a more high-tech solution to clean the inside of your bottle using a lid with a built-in UV light. Press the button to activate the UV light, then wait a few seconds for it to sanitize your water and the inside of your bottle.

See LARQ

Easiest Straw Lids to Keep Clean

Hydro Flask Flex Straw

Hydro Flask Flex Straw

​I mentioned before that we don’t recommend using straw lids if you’re concerned about cleaning, but if you’re set on getting one, then Hydro Flask's Flex Straw is a good option.

It has a removable silicone insert that makes it easier to clean more areas under the spout.

See Flex Straw

Hydro Flask Compatible Lid with Dust Cover (No-Touch Spout)

Straw Lids with Dust Cover / Hinge

​Other good options are any after-market lids that have this extra hinge on the spout which lets you pull the spout up without touching the area where your mouth goes.  Or get a straw lid that has a spring to open a cover with the press of a button.  There are a ton of options for these.

See Lid

Conclusion: What is the Easiest Bottle to Keep Clean?

From an objective standpoint, it's hard to beat the LARQ bottle because UV light is proven to kill bacteria and viruses.  Of course that doesn't replace cleaning with a brush and bottle tablets, but it's an extra step to santize your water that the other bottles simply don't have.  But for over $100 for the 25oz bottle, it's understandably outside of most people's price point.

So for most people, Zulu Ace is probably the best choice.  Being able to take off both sides of the bottle makes it so much easier to make sure you're cleaning the bottle thoroughly, so we'll give the nod to this one for anyone who prioritizes cleaning your bottle over everything else.

​But ultimately, you can make any of these bottles work if you have a good brush kit, use cleaning tablets periodically, and develop a habit of cleaning your bottle often.  Now we just need someone to come out with a bottle that has a UV light, seals with pull tabs, easy-to-clean-threads, and a detachable bottom.

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