Stanley Cross Bottle

My wife is obsessed with water bottles; she has them all over the place and she seems to think I should also be obsessed with them. For Father's Day, she purchased the Stanley Cross Bottle for me and I thought it was an interesting enough item to talk about given how popular Stanley bottles and hydration in general are. We often go on walks and hikes and I've mentioned a few times I need to look to find a bottle that hangs at my waist or a sling for my water bottle instead of carrying the bottle in my hand the entire hike so when she saw the Cross Bottle she decided to get it for me.

The bottle comes in a variety of colors, but she got the Mint color for me as online it looks blue, but in person is a rather pale mint color which does match the name. The top part of the bottle is darker and more saturated, whereas the body of the bottle is a lighter mint color. The strap does not exactly match the color of the bottle but is a pretty close match to the top of the bottle. The bottom of the lid matches the top color of the bottle and the top of the lid is transparent plastic which looks slightly more blue than the rest of the bottle.

The Bottle

The bottle itself is slightly thick and wide to hold in the hand, having medium-sized male hands I think this bottle could be slightly difficult to drink from single-handed if you had smaller hands. The dotted pattern along the sides does add grip, and of course, you can always hold it with both hands. The bottle weighs 1.4lb (.64kg) empty and 2.93lb (1.33kg) when full of water. This is honestly pretty heavy but the bottle materials are thick and durable and it is double insulated to keep liquids cold for long periods. The bottle opening is 1.5" (3.8cm) wide and makes for easy filling, inserting pieces of ice, cleaning, etc. The ice from my ice machine easily fits into the opening; no special shapes of ice for bottles are needed here. While sitting on a solid surface the bottle is quite stable and it has a rubber pad on the bottom which makes placing the bottle on hard surfaces quieter than some other bottles.

The Lid

The lid has a straw which you can remove if you do not want to use it, but if you leave it in the bottle it pushes into an indention in the lid and will stay in place and will allow you to drink from the bottle with the straw. If you prefer to drink from the spout or pour into your mouth, the lid works very well for that and delivers a consistent pour into your mouth. I've also tried pouring into my mouth with the straw still in place and that seemed to be no problem; I was somewhat expecting to get some water shot up my nose from the straw itself.

The lid is really comprised of a bottom and top piece which are all quite well put together; overall the lid itself removes entirely from the bottle to allow easy cleaning, filling with water, adding ice, etc. I imagine you could fill the bottle with the lid still in the bottle but it is easier if you remove it. The bottom piece easily screws into the bottle and is designed to cleanly pour water and/or secure the straw for drinking. The clear top of the lid screws onto the bottom section to seal the bottle and is securely attached to the bottom part of the lid by a strap which is flexible but also hinged so there is no concern of wear and tear on the strap between the top and bottom parts of the lid. With the lid tightened down reasonably tight there is no leaking from the bottle.

The Straw

The straw itself is a very sturdy clear plastic that has a bulge at the end of one which fits into the lid of the bottle and the opposite end of the straw is shaped so that it does not seal against the bottom of the bottle and make drinking difficult. The straw is easily removed and washed and due to the design of the lid, its use is completely optional. The straw can not, however, be turned upside down and captured inside the bottle as it does not fit in that orientation. It fits securely in the lid and there is no worry about it falling out while in use. The straw is intended to remain in the bottle and pushed into the lid during normal use, pulling it out to drink is possible but it is not necessary. The straw sticks out about .8in (2cm) from the lid making it easy to drink from while on the go. The straw can empty the bottle with only a small gulp of water remaining, so its placement and design fit the bottle perfectly.

The Strap

The strap is very soft and the buckles are well-designed and overall the strap feels quite premium. It measures 59 inches (150cm) at maximum length, measured at the tips of the buckles, and 40 inches (102cm) at minimum length. The buckles that attach to the bottle have significant overlap as they open, ensuring there is no way they will ever accidentally release. And of course, they fit quite securely on the bottle for carrying and are easily removed. The buckles also freely rotate on the strap making orienting the strap very easy and allowing the strap to lay out nicely when sitting on a surface with the strap still attached.

The Tests!

Stanley does not specify any amount of time that it will keep liquids cold, nor do they specify if the bottle can also be used for hot liquids, however, I imagine within a reasonable temperature hot liquids would be just fine in this bottle.

I did a small, unscientific test on the bottle to see how well it would stand up in the heat. I put two small (1.5x1.0 inch, or 3.8x2.5cm) pieces of ice into the bottle and filled it with water from my Brita container in the refrigerator. The water in my fridge is around 40F (4.5C). I put the bottle outside on my patio table in full sunlight and the air temperature was 90F (32C) and left it for two hours. After two hours I brought the bottle in and immediately checked both the temperature of the bottle itself and the temperature of the water inside and found both to be very reasonable. The bottle itself was 110F (43C) which may sound quite warm but it was nowhere near too hot to hold and keep in mind the bottle was in full sunlight the entire time. The water inside the bottle was at 50F (10C). In real use, I would put a lot more ice in the bottle and it would rarely be sitting out in full sun so I expect on any length of hike the ice will never have a chance to melt.

As soon as I had a chance I went hiking with the bottle in the woods, mostly in the shade and the temperature was 85F (29.5C). I filled the bottle with about 10 pieces of ice and cold water from the refrigerator and started out. I hiked for 90 minutes in a mix of shade and sud and it was a 30-minute drive in each direction. I drank all the water I needed on the hike and still had some remaining when I got home and when emptying the bottle found that it still had the majority of the ice I had put in it. Next time I think I'll put one or two ice cubes in the bottle because 10 was too much!

Carrying the bottle

Carrying the bottle with the strap is quite comfortable and there is no rattle while walking around with it on the strap. At its minimum length, the bottle lands a few inches from my armpit and is pretty comfortable to walk with. If you prefer, you can rotate the strap so that the bottle is slightly towards your chest, or behind your back if that is more comfortable. Having the strap short and the bottle tight to my chest is how I prefer to carry it, however, at its shortest setting it is a little awkward to drink from so I extend it about six inches from its shortest length for my 5' 11" (1.8M) height. With the strap at its maximum extension, the lid of the bottle lands just below my waist and swings around a bit more, however, everyone has different preferences, heights, and shapes and the strap offers plenty of adjustment to fit anyone.

There is one thing to note here; if you want to carry the bottle without the strap there is nothing to hold onto except the bottle itself. The lid hinge is too small to hold, the buckle mounting points are too small to get a finger through and the smooth rounded body wouldn't be fun to carry for an extended period. I suspect that any canteen sling or pouch would work fine with the bottle if you do not want to use the included strap or already have a canteen and just want to upgrade the canteen itself to get one that keeps its water cold longer.

Minor Nitpicks

I have a few minor concerns with this bottle. The first is that the clear plastic upper portion of the lid is pretty slick and a little hard to open if your hands are wet or sweaty; I think I would have preferred the material on the top of the lid to be the same as the rest of the top of the bottle which is a firm but slightly grippy hard plastic material.

I have also unscrewed the whole lid instead of the top portion of the lid a few times using the bottle, but only when I was initially using it. I seem to have figured out how to open it correctly since then and it hasn't happened again.

I also seem to cross-thread the top of the lid when screwing it back down if I'm not looking, so I've found myself looking at the lid as I screw it down to make sure it's not cross-threaded. I'm concerned it would damage the lid, but it also will leak if it's not screwed down securely.

I also wonder if the bottle was dropped could it damage the lid, but if that ever happened I imagine a replacement could be purchased from Stanley and may be covered by the warranty; the warranty part is unclear to me from reading their warranty page.

Summary

Would I have purchased this bottle myself? Honestly, probably not. It's heavy, I'm not a fan of the lid and it's pretty expensive. That said I am probably not the primary market for this bottle. My wife and her friends pre-ordered the bottles in multiple colors and are all excited about trying them out on walks and hikes. So in summary; this is a solid bottle that'll keep your liquids cold while comfortably hanging from your neck for walks, hikes, or any adventures and will look stylish doing so.