Which bottle is best for you?

With all the different types of water bottles — plastic, metal, glass, insulated or not — it can be confusing to pick the best one for your needs. In addition to our top pick, we’ve identified four runnerup options to give you plenty of choices to pick from, including a collapsible version.

Each bottle material has its own strengths, and knowing the advantages of each will help you find a bottle you’ll be happiest with. Every other type does not, and these other ones all form condensation on the outside when you put cold water inside. Check out the breakdown below for more differences:

Vacuum insulated bottles are the best way to keep your water super cold for an entire day, or to keep beverages hot for an impressive five hours. These insulated bottles have two inner chambers, one for the water and then one surrounding that with a vacuum channel. This proves to be a very effective method for insulation, but these weigh more because of it.

Glass water bottles eliminate plastic or metal tastes and chemicals / BPAs. Being able to see how much liquid is left without having to pick up or open the bottle is a nice perk. All were covered in a silicone sleeve for drop protection (no bottles cracked or shattered in our drop tests) but glass and silicone will not insulate your water. Condensation formed on all glass and silicone surfaces even though the silicone sleeves helped improve grip.

Stainless steel bottles are an effective, low-cost option. They’renon-reactive, BPA free, and lightweight compared to glass or their insulated stainless steel counterparts. You can’t put hot water in these as directed by the manufacturers (and you’ll burn your hands). But if you just need something for short amounts of time and don’t care about insulation, it’s tough to beat the value. Some folks prefer glass to avoid the metal smell or taste, but we found no issue with tastes on these bottles at all. We also tested one aluminum bottle, which is a bit lighter but otherwise similar.

Plastic water bottles are geared towards sports and workouts. Even if you’re not using it for those purposes you can still benefit from their sporty design features. Three of the bottles we tested had a flip-top lid that lets you drink using one hand, which we loved. They’re also lightweight compared to glass and insulated bottles. Every bottle we tested was made of Tritan, a material claiming to be free of BPAs, estrogenic and androgenic activity. We still found these bottles to have the strongest smell though.

Collapsible water bottles are perfect if you’re traveling or hiking and space is very limited. They are incredibly thin and the lightest weight option by a large margin — collapsible bottles we tested weighed eight times less than insulated bottles, and four times less than our tested plastic bottles. These do have a smell but mostly go away after a few washes.