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Canteen Vs. Hydration Bladder

The purpose of this post is to discuss the use of canteens and hydration bladders, to point out some advantages and disadvantages, and to make you think about how you plan to carry and use water.
What do I mean by canteens? For this post, I will consider an canteen any sort of solid water bottle. Anything from an actual military canteen to a sports hydration bottle, one of those solid Camelbak sports bottles that you sip from the top of with a straw going down inside, a plastic water-bottle that you are reusing (with a twist-off lid or one of those drinking caps), or anything similar. The key thing is that a canteen will sit in a pocket or pouch and be taken out, raised to your mouth, and drunk from. 
What do I mean by a hydration bladder? Commonly known by the brand name Camelbak, this is a soft collapsible bladder with a long drinking tube. The advantage is that the drinking tube can be attached to your gear, like your shoulder strap, and you can sip water out of the bladder without removing it from where it is stored, and you can keep both hands on your weapon. The key advantage of the water bladder is that it carries a lot of water (2 or 3 liters) and can be drunk from while you are moving, without having to take it out of a pouch or pocket. 
So let’s look at the Camelbak style bladder. It has the following advantages:
– Convenience of drinking, while you are moving and virtually hands free. 
– Large water capacity, at 2 or 3 liters. 
– Ease of carriage, on your back either attached to your plate carrier (PC), in its own carriage harness, or in your ruck or patrol pack. 
Disadvantages:
– Hard to refill from a non-standard faucet style source of water.
– May be inconvenient to take off to refill, such as if it is fixed to the back of you PC.
– Can make a ruck or patrol pack carriage uncomfortable if it is worn on the back of your PC.
In my opinion, the Camelbak style of hydration bladder is the ultimate if you are taking part in short term operations, patrols or hikes. If you can fill it with 3 liters of clean water at your base location and then go out for several hours, it will serve you perfectly. It would also be a very useful emergency supply of water if, attached to your PC or inside your patrol pack, you left it there as a reserve. If you then had to break contact and bug out, you would have it there as a supply of water to last you several hours of your E&E.
Not a comfortable fire position!
So what about the less cool canteen? Advantages:
– Solid bottle that is less likely to get broken, leak.
– Easily refilled from non-standard water sources, such as creeks.
– More versatile.
– Easier to fill with hot water purified by boiling.
– Easier to use with water purification tablets or straws (you can get bottles pre-fitted with a purification straw). 
– More tactically versatile
Disadvantages:
– You need to think about specific pouches, such as canteen pouches on a battle belt, to carry the canteen(s).
– You need to stop and take the canteen out to drink. Drinking needs to be done in buddy pairs while pulling security as part of a tactical short halt. 
– Depending on the size and number of canteens you carry, you may not have as much water capacity as with a hydration bladder.
If we are looking at an SHTF situation, or one  where you can expect to be out for long periods of time in the backwoods, then there are clear advantages to canteens. If you are having to boil water in a small pot to purify it, say on a solo stove, then it is easier to decant the hot water into a canteen. Similarly to pop in a purification tablet or use a life-straw.  
A Camelbak would be harder to fill from a creek or pool, and to purify. Tactically, it also makes sense to use canteens longer term, because if you are moving on patrol and have to fill water at a suitable source, you can establish a security halt and send one or two guys down to fill up everyone’s canteens. Camelbaks would be a nightmare in such a situation, particularly if you had to pull them off your gear to hand them over.
One solution is to have a couple of canteens on your belt and to also carry a bladder in your patrol pack or ruck. This gives you a back-up source of water. You can still purify water into your canteens and then fill it into the bladder to resupply your water. This kind of bladder could be one with or without an actual drinking tube, it could just be in there as a bladder of water that will collapse down when not in use. 
This is another reason why you need to give a lot of detailed thought to your gear and how you will carry it. It is one thing you carry out short term operations and fill your Camelbak with bottle or tap water at home, but what about on extended operations? Also, if conducting short term and/or vehicle mounted patrols, it may be a good thing to have a Camelbak on the back of your PC. I have one that sits there but is not always used. It’s also easy in a vehicle to have a stack of drinking water bottles and have a bottle to hand in a cup holder. But what about when you have to get out and overnight it? Don’t underestimate what a pain it is to have a full 3 liter Camelback on your PC under a patrol pack. It pulls the straps out straight back and unbalances you. It is a pain on your shoulders. 
In my opinion, this is a versatile way to do it:
– One canteen at least, maybe two, accessible on a battle belt or the side of a PC/tactical vest. If only one, have another somewhere else as a back up, such as in or on your ruck or patrol pack. 
– A Camelbak either attached to the back of your PC, or in its own harness, to be used as necessary for short patrols or vehicle operations. If it is in its own harness, you can always take it off and pack it in the ruck.
– A hydration bladder (or the Camelback in the carry harness) stored in your pack/ruck as a back up supply to your canteens.
Don’t forget to consider how you will purify water for resupply when you are out there. Also, don’t forget that without water you will die, and the hotter it gets the more critical it is. You need to plan to factor in water resupply as part of your missions. 
Hydrate or die. 
Live Hard, Die Free.
MV

49 responses to “Canteen Vs. Hydration Bladder”

  1. Max,

    Your posts are thought provoking and really make you think – keep them coming!

    The water situation is critical and most of us have not thought it out.
    I agree: 1 Canteen on belt, 1 Canteen on pack, & bladder in harness.

    I was always struck by the small size of German WW1 canteens – they are still to be found in France out in the woods. Looks like one long gulp could empty them.

    Spearhead87
    Winchester, VA

    • I am jealous you live so close to the training facility. I will be attending from Florida this fall though. Embrace the suck of the 13 hour drive. If TSHTF, that will be the least of my worries and the best weekend investment I ever made.

  2. Interesting post as we’ve done a lot of experimentation in this area, and hold that any water carrying system is not complete without a good water purifier, either mechanical or chemical or biological whether a bladder or hard container system is used.

    There are good purifiers such as the Sawyer Fast Fill Hydration Adapter for the Squeeze Filter: http://www.greatlakesurvival.com/water-purification-products.html

    Also we like and recommend the Lifesaver Bottle if the desire to have a fillable purifier that can be used on the move is felt. Basically, you can fill this thing up from your water source and leave to do the purification at another time and place. It is also a ‘smart’ purifier in that it stops working when the elements need to be changed. The downside is that it only will do 1500 gallons before it quits: http://www.lifesaversystems.com/lifesaver-products/lifesaver-bottle

    Besides the ubiquitous water purification tablets, bleach, and boiling, we’ve found that stabilzed oxygen in the correct dose, can sterilize water within a very short time (10 drops per 8 ounces in clear water; 20 drops per 8 ounces of cloudy water), say 4 to 5 minutes, and a 4 ounce bottle of the stabilized oxygen doesn’t weigh much at all. Additionally, if one doses a 100 oz (3 liter) bladder of ‘tap water’ with 100 drops of SO, the water will keep for many months in the bladder without developing any unwanted side affects. This is what we use: http://www.amazon.com/Liquid-Stabilized-Premium-Concentrated-Supplement/dp/B004IJHHL4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377618748&sr=8-1&keywords=stabilized+oxygen

    Having experimented for the last 6 years with arctic canteens, plastic canteens, surplus USGI metal canteens, and bladders in weather ranging from sub-zero temps to hot and humid weather in field conditions, we’ve found that the bladders are the best alternative to date for all around general purpose. Here’s just a few:

    – Wound irrigation
    – Mobility (can be worn individually or in concert w/other LBE/LBV
    – Amount of water carried balanced against weight of carrier system
    – Adaptability to purifiers and NBC adaptors
    – Speedy refilling with various purification systems
    – Intuitive use by novices
    – Takes up little ‘real estate’ on battle/web belt
    – If worn appropriately, can be used in warm and extremely cold weather

    In below freezing temps, we simply put the bladder under the outer layer (coat) and on top of the inner layer (base & 2nd layer) with the tube coming up under the arm and kept inside the outer layer, but accessible. This keeps the water in both the bladder and tube from freezing up. At night, the bladder is kept next to the body in the sleeping bag. The tube might get partially frozen, but not so much that it’s useless.

    Wearing a bladder on the back of one’s harness and/or PC is very doable, even with a full ruck, so long as the harness/pc is adjusted properly, the bladder is placed and secured properly, and the ruck has an external frame such as the MOLLE II, the old-school ALICE or the newer USMC FILBE systems. A nice benefit of the ruck weight is the pressure put on the bladder when one turns the drinking tube on. The drawback is that the weight requires one to ensure the bladder is sealed properly, and is of a quality that will not cause rupture and loss of both water and bladder.

    Make no mistake, we’re not telling anyone not to use a canteen system. If that’s what you want, and you’re comfortable with it, great.

    Our point is to share our research for those who might be interested.

    • The camelbak Armorbak is a pretty neat solution. It’s what I use. Makes it very easy to remove the bladder from your armor and toss it in a pack, or attach it to the outside of the pack (which is what I usually do).

      http://shop.camelbak.com/armorbak/d/1116

      As for water bottles/canteens, I typically use nalgene bottles (one is paired with a nesting stainless cup for heating water) and/or camelbak bottles.

      I’ve recently begun experimenting with these collapsible 1 liter water bottles:

      http://vapur.us/shop/element/element

      Apparently there’s a version that comes with a built in water filter:

      http://vapur.us/explorer-series-microfilter

    • Also, one thing nobody else has mentioned: Camelbaks are great, but:

      1. You need a backup plan for when they fail, which eventually they will do.

      2. You must be fairly diligent about keeping them clean; on a related point, they are ONLY for water – never, ever fill them with anything else, especially if it contains sugar because you’ve just created an excellent growth medium in the perfect environment (warm, dark, moist) for bacteria.

  3. One thing that I like to consider when choosing water storage types, are the colder temperatures. For those of us who train in temps well under 20 degrees for 2-3 months out of the year , keeping water in a liquid form is sometimes a problem. It doesn’t take too long before urine is the color of coffee if I don’t keep hydrating.

    As of yet, I’ve found no better solution than keeping a camelbak underneath the parka, under the harness or PC. Experience has shown that if it’s anywhere around zero degrees F with as much as a slight breeze (and the camelbak is anywhere other than under the jacket) . . . the tube is frozen solid in 30 minutes or less (tube insulator or not), and the bladder is already getting slushy.

    Kind of hard to stay hydrated at that point. I haven’t found a good way to keep canteens from freezing at this point that would beat the CB under the jacket trick.

    Winter sucks. :)

    Great post.

    • My solution to this dilemma: carry a thermos flask of hot tea English, PG Tips. Morale booster. If you are out for longer, melt ice over a stove, make hot tea.

      It all comes down to a hot cup of tea….

      Wasting good tea in Boston harbor, that is a capital crime ;-)

    • Do experiment with building yourself a rocket stove from a few tin cans! Smokeless, and a few twigs will boil water very quickly.

  4. We’ve been toying around with the survival “straws” that contain a micro filter in them. The larger model, approximate in size to a stack of 3 Dcell batteries, in the outer pocket of the ruck, used at water sources to drink directly from them which leaves the canteens topped off for lean times.

    The 2nd straw, much smaller, approximate to a magic marker in size, sits in a pouch on the 1st tier gear that remains at the carry when plate carrier and battle belt get shed. This leaves a method for getting clean water during extreme E&E without having to accomodate a canteen, although in a pinch I’d probably try like hell to use a few seconds pulling a sigle one quart off my battle belt or ALICE pack to clip onto my trouser waist belt.

    Anyone have any input on these straw type filters?

  6. For recommendations . . .

    Line 1 gear.
    Survival straws for line one gear a great approach:
    http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/f462/
    about 30 gallons as an emergency pocket gear filter. Removes greater than 99.9% of Cryptosporidium and Giardia and viruses. (most “survival straws” don’t take care of viruses, this one does)
    That’s about 2 weeks of drinking water in your emergency plan.

    Line 2 fighting load gear.
    I like the balanced approach for line 2. Sawyer does an excellent job with their “squeeze model”. You can backflush it over and over again so they claim it has a one million gallon use. Its filter goes down to .1 microns. This filter will get some viruses too. Great for wilderness filtration. I’d use in conjunction with stabilized oxygen or boiling.
    The truth is though, I’ve used this one for quite some time training with my fighting load with some pretty nasty stagnant water have remained well.

    Line 3 team / family type gear.
    For the family at a retreat, I like the Sawyer “Point Zero Two” listed here: http://www.greatlakesurvival.com/water-purification-products.html . Nevermind the shameless plug. I don’t care who you buy this one from, just buy one if you don’t already have one. It will filter everything out except for heavy metals.
    Again, this filter can be backflushed and used indefinitely.

    Bacteria, Gardia, E-coli are the biggest problems in water filtration. Only a small number are waterborne viruses and the symptoms are almost always related to some form of gastroenteritis. Not that we don’t want to protect ourselves if possible.

  7. To add to the water canteen/camelbak debate: I’d also say that whatever is carried, a Life Saver bottle is a must have, though it can take up a fair bit of room.

    SP

  8. HSGI makes a pad for the ALICE pack that has two pouches for bladders kept close to the body. Works well in above freezing temps. Its called AliPad

  10. I’ve been experimenting with 16oz. plastic pilot flasks on my FLC. A flask will fit into a 7.62 double mag carrier and lay very flat compared to a 1qt. At my 3 and 6 they don’t impede my arm movements and are out of the way of critical real estate yet still easy to get to. Just another option if it works for you.

  12. You can use a canteen with NBC/CBRN kit too, I don’t recall there ever being an attachment to use a camelbak with your respirator.

  13. Another quick note on usage of whatever water carrier is used: If you have a ruck/patrol pack with water stored (canteens or bladder), use that water first, keeping the water on your vest/harness/pc in reserve. The reason for this is when/if you have to dump your ruck, you have a full container of water with you, however much that may be, depending on the container chosen. It’s a logical way to ensure water doesn’t have to be one of your immediate concerns in any bad situation that requires you to leave your ruck somewhere.

    This is one of the reasons DTG chooses to have a full 3 liter/100 ounce bladder (which is the equivalent of 2.5 USGI plastic canteens) attached to the harness/vest/pc. Water is first used from the ruck/patrol pack containers (bladders in warm weather). This is also why we agree with what GLSC said about Line 1 gear.

  14. Current active duty Marine, when we go out, we have 2 canteens and a bladder. The canteens are typically attached to our pack with the camelback inside. This gives the ability to drink on the move while having canteens for tactical holds. Reason canteens are not on the plate carrier is due to limited real estate. With mag pouches, dump pouches, ifak and other equipment, you tend to run out of usable space.

    • Thanks. That’s why, if you want canteens that you can easily get to while wearing a PC, you need to wear some kind of battle belt as well. That can be a full affair with suspenders, or just a belt with a couple of extras, such as canteen pouches, attached.
      Gear on the back of a battle belt will interfere with vehicle operations, sitting in the seats, so you have to balance it. Perhaps a battle belt for dismounted operations, to give you the extra canteens and gear real estate.
      Are active duty marines authorized to wear something like an additional battle belt? How strict is the gear policy/SOP?

    • Mainly depends who is in charge… Sometimes you’ll get the motivator who only uses what the corps issues, sometimes you’ll get the one who has replaced every bit of issued gear. Just depends. In country your pretty much free to use whatever you want as long as you have at least the 3l bladder and 2 canteens.

  15. Camelbak for me even having to do refills etc is the better option because as a hunter and retired military elimating as much movement as possible is crucial. Once you learn how to operate with them the canteen isn’t missed at all.

  16. Like all modern Tec. bladders are dependent on a fully functional supply and support grid. In fact 90+% of everything carried by most “irregulars” today is utterly dependent on unlimited, on demand resupply. Most of the Weapons-maggs -helmets-hydration systems-body armor-boots. Are not meant to be serviced or repaired AT ALL, just DXed for a new one, then “binned” ,as you Britts say. This is the out growth of 75 years of unlimited military spending. It’s the reason I use older systems whenever I can. They were meant to be repaired. NOT replaced. If I can find it I use NOS canvas web gear (I have 4 sets of NOS 56 gear now) Why? It lasts forever-It WON’T MELT and stick to ME in a forest fire(grenades and shells tend to set stuff on fire) and I can service it without a 10 billion dollar supply grid.—– AND a Q. Y’all with the 65lb plate carrier and 100lb rucksack. What do y’all plan to do when your boots wear out? ‘Cause gas is going to become a rare commodity post SHTF -as are new shoes.—Ray

    • Not everyone lives in a forest and thinks that they can’t pick up gear left behind by the dead. Many of us have worn a few sets of boots out while carrying 100lb+ gear to include myself a support guy, not an 11Boo tier 1 superduper whatever, just a support solider so logistics are nothing new. If you can have 4 sets of this then by the same token we probably have sevral sets of that. In fact I own 3 camelbaks, 1 blackhawk and 1 redhead a metal boy scout canteen, a 1qt leftover from the serice as well as my 2qt leftover from storm.

    • Ok kid(I was an 11-B and got my DD-214 before you were born) It was an honest Q. Not meant to make you wet yourself in righteous indignation. I wanted to know what you young guys did when them combat sneakers blew out. Taking gear off dead guys is a nice way to get gas gangrene if you get hit(other than Weapons ammo mag,s and food & water)—Ray

    • you would only get gangrene if it was old kill aint the first thing I’ve picked up and if you are that old then you dont need to worry about new boots or 100lb rucks

  17. max, thanks for this post. i have been anguishing over this for a while now. i don’t know why, because the canteen/ bladder-in-pack combo is the same as i used hiking the AP years ago. i’ve replaced the issue canteens with filter bottles tho. currently testing out the berkey sport and a pur. i’m looking at the sawyer as a replacement tho, and the seychelle bottle, both bigger and more gallons. thanks again!

  19. I have both for my gear, with the bladder as the primary source and the canteens for backup/first aid. First of all, two is one and one is none. Similarly, if both your two are the same thing, and it doesn’t work for what you are doing, you are just as screwed. My fire starting isn’t two blastmatches, it’s a blastmatch and waterproof matches. Same way, your water (EASILY as vital as fire) should be two sources.

    As for purification, it’s actually easier for me on the bladder. My primary purification is a katadyn filter that attaches straight to the fill throat on the bladder. It’s attached to my pack, but I can leave it attached while I drop the hose for the filter into my source. Frankly, if I’m using it, I’m filtering any water, even if the source is already “filtered and safe.” I’m in trust but verify mode then. I’m keeping tablets on the side for the canteens or failure of the filter.

  20. Maybe I missed it but did anyone mention slosh factor? A partially full canteen sloshing around and making noise. If you have a flexible canteen like the 2 quart US, squeeze out the air before putting the cap back on.

    • back in the day we all drank from one (hard) canteen till it was empty. it was passed around and went back to the owner after emptied. that went away after the soft 2qt came around and then camelbaks. things seem harsher now with disease and such so you would need to trust your team and it’s always a gamble so weigh the options of noise vs disease and see what you decide for your answer

  21. Use/have used all of the above.
    First used Camelbacks for dirt bike racing and they’re great for most applications. However, in a serious long term conflict, all this stuff will wear out and get holes in it. Plastic doesn’t last forever.
    The one piece of equipment I have that’s older than me is my WW2 U.S. issue stainless steel canteens/cups. Even if the cap breaks/leaks, you can whittle a plug from wood. I highly suggest you keep at least one set in your stash, there will come a time when you can’t find one, and they will be worth their weight in gold coins. And they can also be used to heat water in, unlike any of the other mentioned articles of water carrying gear.
    Use only the stainless steel, the old aluminum ones corrode from acidic drinks, they didn’t call the WW2 lemonade mix “battery acid” for no reason, it’s poison in aluminum cook wear.

  22. I know that in many situations having a fire is out, but, if you have one, and one of your canteens one of the Kleen Canteen style (stainless steel with a plastic cap) it is easy to put it in the edge of a fire or even on the burner of a smaller camp stove and boil your water in the your canteen. Saves weight by being multipurpose. It is the same diameter as a nalgene (the 40oz size) and there are titanium and stainless pot/cups that they can nest in. They are pretty durable to, i’ve dropped my full on sharp rocks (not intentional) and figured it was done but it survived. Also if you’re stuck out overnight and have minimal equipment to stay warm with but can boil some water fill your bottle with it and tuck it under your jacket (or in your sleeping bag if you have one) and it will keep you warm a long time. Only draw back is the little silicone o-ring wears out eventually, however so do the plastic nalgene lids.

    • Kleen Canteen, H2Go, anything made of 18/10 in the Western world from SS is a pick-up when cheap. Nalgene bottles of the later “BPA-Free” type are also on my shopping list. Clean them up, stack deep.

      You can boil water in SS, very well on a “rocket” elbow shaped stove/Dakota fire hole, fuel stove, or a regular small campfire with the plastic/part-SS lid removed. I anticipate clogged/missing-parts/critically-damaged portable water filters, leading to no better water filtration than multiple paper coffee filter for the pedestrian traveler lacking cash, a stocked REI store, or the magical UPS toy-carrying truck. Paper filter is better than settling if you are in a hurry, and it will extend the life of your high-tec pumping filter (like MSR or Katydyn). Boiling must be done, unless you have fancy treatment drops or high-tec filter. I’d prefer distillation, to remove solvents and heavy metals, but those are slow-kill and won’t stop the mission.

      What to put in a secret squirrel hydration bucket? A canteen or 2, with at least one being SS, portable pump water filter in like-new condition (tested, with printed instructions/maint.kit), Camelbac bladder to fit your GI system (wear-out item), 5L Wine Box bladder (clean/dry) for bulk water transport (free/cheap behind local wine bar, inflate to prevent shifting of contents in non-full bucket), plastic sheet and cord to catch rain (among 1001 other uses), silicone coffee filter cone and box of paper filters.

      Use a filter or be a filter. I had a Giardia infection while on a Boy Scout 50-mile hike. That’s the only time I’ve been “high-speed both ways” in my whole life. Don’t drink from clean-looking bubbling creek water in the Cascades without some kind of treatment. I got the patch from that miserable hike.

      A-non in Portlandia

  23. They have their pros and cons like anything else, it’s canteens for me. Battle proven, tuff as nails,put whiskey in them, easier to share if needs be. Try that with a camel back, just something unmanly about drinking good corn liquor from a straw.

  25. Just a though from a Nam Vet; by carrying canteens on our belts we still had water if we had to ditch the alices pack in a hurry.

  26. Does anyone have any feedback on the Vargo BOT ? Seems like a pretty good idea, but a little expensive as well. I have not considered long LONG term service which was brought up above. Plenty of USGI plastic and military surplus aluminum (Swedish) canteens as well as various folding plastic bladders. I haven’t really considered the hydration bladder but the above discussion gives me a lot to think of, a lot of points made. I’m not a member of any military service.

    Thanks for the above post and replies, camping is one thing, but your job(s) have far more boot leather used then mine, and carrying vital liquids to stay alive is just not within my experience. I’m a desert hiker, and carrying a pair of 2 qt. USGI canteens in cover across my shoulders is pretty much it.

  27. Well, late to the party as usual, but a question for Max (or anyone else that wants to chime in).

    I was playing around with the belt kit, trying to work out something that will work, and I would love to know what you are using- either pouch, canteen type, attachment method, etc.- to get the thing attached to a belt so that is doesn’t sag the belt or wiggle all over. Because, as is right now, this is not going to work for me. I’ve tried attaching the pouch both to the MOLLE strips on the belt, as well as run the malice clips completely around the belt for more support, and it just sucks.

    Now granted, it could partially be the pouch- it’s a Maxpedition USGI-style canteen pouch, and frankly I think it’s less than stellar. But I’m using a Nalgene USGI-clone style canteen, and given the size and full weight (2.5 lbs) focused in such small space, I fail to see how one can get around the awful sagging and wiggling.
    Then again, I’m not to up on how things work with a belt kit- I’ve always been more of a fan of water bladders.

  28. I wear a 40 oz bladder system on my battle belt and a Sawyer water filter and bag, all rolled up in a utility pouch on the belt. I then have a 3L bladder in an assault pack that attaches to my PC (pack is a Tactical Tailor Removable Operators Pack). This allows me to go “light” or “heavy” and seems to work for most situations. Draw back is if you sit in a vehicle, but that is not an issue in my AO.

  29. Partially full canteens slosh and make noise when moving. Two quart USGI canteens are collapsible so air may be squeezed out as water is consumed to eliminate the sloshing sound. Just prior to the introduction of CamelBaks, there was introduced into the system a collapsible 1 quart USGI canteen. They are even BPA-free and pretty cheap. Submariner