Hey there friends! The day has finally come for our first-ever gear review! Being gear heads, we spend a lot of time reading reviews and selecting the perfect gear for our needs, which is why we’re so excited to finally contribute some of our own insight!

First up, Hydro Flask: Trail Series!

Our friends over at REI provided us with two 32 oz Hydro Flask Lightweight Wide Mouth Trail Series bottles, one in Slate and the other in Obsidian. Though this blog post was written in partnership with REI, the gear and the opinions on said gear are entirely our own. Links included in this post are affiliate links.

Initially, we wanted to write this blog post paired with an overnight hike so we could also share a hike with you, but weather, a global pandemic, and now lingering snow levels have shut us down on more times than I care to count. On the bright side, we have managed to get a ton of day hikes, and general life experience under our belts with the new Hydro Flask Trail Series and have developed strong opinions on them. Now, let’s dive in!

The Gear

Hydro Flask Lightweight Wide-Mouth Vacuum Water Bottle

Hydro Flask Lightweight Wide-Mouth Vacuum Water Bottle

Key Features

What makes the Lightweight Trail Series™ bottles different from the standard Hydro Flask bottles? An innovative stainless steel design makes these bottles 25% lighter than their 32oz counterparts, while still delivering that ice-cold refreshment Hydro Flask is famous for!

Here is a quick highlight of all of the features:

• Tapered walls are thinner up top to save weight and thicker on the bottom for durability

• 25% lighter than the original 32 fl. oz. Hydro Flask wide-mouth bottle

• Leakproof cap with a perforated strap to cut weight

• Keeps cold liquids cold for 24 hrs.

• Keeps hot liquids hot for 12 hrs.

• Compatible with other Hydro Flask assessors such as  Wide-Mouth Straw lid, Wide-Mouth Flex Sip lid and Wide-Mouth Flex caps

• Lifetime warranty from Hydro Flask

Now that we’ve covered the technical aspects of the bottles, let’s talk about our personal findings.

Our Experience

After receiving our Trail Series Bottles we were impressed by how big of a difference that 25% of weight reduction (5.5 oz less, but who's counting?!) made. We’re long time patrons of Hydro Flask and own our fair share of their drinking vessels. Before the trail series we never took them on hikes because of how heavy they are. We instead gravitated more towards hydration packs like this one in an effort to get more water and not carry the excess weight of a Hydro Flask. But wouldn’t it be nice to have some cold water during a hard hike?! 

The first time we hiked with the Trail Series Hydro Flasks we set out for an undetermined distance and made a point to take ice cold water to test their ability to hold onto the cold. As people who NEVER have cold water on a hike it was so nice to have a refreshing drink of water on the steep climbs and rock scrambles. We’ve now gone on to do numerous hikes with the bottle and we’ve found it to be a wonderful addition in our trail gear because it fits easily into the exterior side pocket of all of our day packs, making it easy to get a sip of ice cold water without having to stop and take our packs off.

We love the stainless-steel construction because we can add our favorite Nuun Hydration tablets to our water without the bottle holding onto flavors like a lot of plastic water bottles do. The wide mouth also makes it easy to clean with any bottle brush.

When off the trail, we’ve really come to love using these as our everyday water bottles. We’re huge advocates for carrying reusable water bottles everywhere we go to reduce the need for single use plastic and this is the perfect water bottle for that. Carrying these bottles in our work backpacks doesn’t create an imbalance of weight in our bags like some of the other Hydro Flasks.

We’ve also found that the water bottle serves as the perfect weight for our tripod on windy days, as illustrated in the above image on the left!

Anytime we stop at a gas station we always fill our bottles up with ice so we can have some cold water. Even when drinking and refilling the bottle with fresh water, the ice always manages to stick around for well over 24 hrs. Ice, when living on the road is such an incredible luxury that is not to be taken lightly! Owen, who might be the pickiest person on the planet, recently paused while taking a sip out of his Trail Series bottle to say “Yep, this is the best water bottle I’ve ever had!” and I completely agree with him.

The only downsides we’ve found after our three months of ownership is the unique finish on the exterior of the bottles (compared to the standard versions) tends to scratch and dent easily. At the end of the day those are purely cosmetic flaws and do not affect the performance in any way. These bottles also are a bit pricey at the tune of $50 for the 32 oz and $45 for the 24 oz. but when you compare it to other Hydro Flask water bottles of the same size they’re just about $5-$10 more than their full weight counterparts. You can look at it this way: If you carry a water bottle every single day, investing in a water bottle that you love is a worth while investment! (In our very humble opinion)

Summary

Here is a quick summary and distillation of the Pros and Cons:

Cons:

• Finish scratches easily

• Dents easily

• Expensive, but not much more than it’s other Hydro Flask counterparts of a similar size

Pros:

• Holds onto cold and heat for 12+ hours

• Perfect water bottle for hiking or day-to-day life

• Light Weight

• Fits in most backpack’s water bottle pockets

That wraps up our first ever gear review! Woop Woop! To sum it all up, we love Hydro Flask, and are so excited about this new addition to their already impressive line of water bottles, insulated mugs, drinking glasses, and hydration packs! If you’re not familiar with their line up, the button below will take you to the whole collection to check out! We hope that Hydro Flask will expand on this line because of how much we’ve enjoyed them. If you have any more questions about the bottles don’t hesitate to ask in the comments because we’re happy to help with any and all of your hydration needs! 

Thank you again to REI for working with us on our first ever gear review! We hope to bring many more to you in the future!

Love, MAK