Tough water bottles for primary school

[Sezime]

2 terms in and 2 water bottles destroyed. Both from Smiggle 🤦🏻‍♀️

The first was dropped and leaked terribly and the second he's chewed the silicone straw as he keeps hanging it from his teeth, and all the pictures have come off from being dropped and no doubt rolled around the playground.

Anyone found any durable bottles. I contemplated a SHO straw bottle but I wonder if they dent when dropped and how well the pictures stay on

Camelbak have a lifetime guarantee and you can buy replacement parts

I have the eddy +.

I would buy something like a sigg or if you avoid aluminium a klean kanteen. The purpose of a reuseable bottle is to re-use it. Metal bottles do get bashed. It requires a lot of resources to make a reuseable bottle so they need to be used for as long as possible. They shouldn't be replaced for cosmetic reasons. Single skin bottles are more lightweight for school and have more capacity. If you do go for double walled, yeti, chillys and hydro flasks are all very good but they can all be bashed and dented.

Chillys, they will get dented / bashed but they still function.

Another vote for Chillys - they are really hard-wearing. But make sure you put your child's name on it! There are so many discarded water bottles left lying around in my school...

I swear by these cheap, easy to clean and hardwearing. Never had one break or leak on us yet in 7 years of primary school.

Our school insists on clear water bottles which is why Chillys etc isn’t suitable for us.

The plastic Smash bottles which often come with a lunch bag are really good. The plastic is softer, so doesn’t crack if dropped and it is a twist open top which never seems to leak.

My recommendation would be a water bottle that comes with a wrist strap. This prevents bottle dropping and makes them much easier to carry!

Another vote for Camelbak.

Agree with this. Survived my careless children for years and years.

https://www.kleankanteen.co.uk/collections/kid-kanteen

We have the 355ml kids ones, they've lasted 3 years and counting.

Not sure if anything from smiggle is built to last!

Most primary schools will want clear bottles. I like the ion8 ones, you can get them in tkmaxx or from Amazon. Very hard wearing.

Yeti Rambler Junior are really good. Drinks stay cold and they look like new after years of use. Only downside is that if DC doesn’t put the spout back down after drinking they can leak so for that reason my nursery age child uses the Camelbak Eddy. Never known one break, you can get replacement spouts if DC is a biter and they don’t leak. Go for the insulated metal ones though, not as good as the Yeti but they still do a reasonable job of keeping water cold. If it ends up bath water temp in summer then I find my kids drink less, which is the opposite of what you want!

Oh and we’ve also had a smiggle bottle smash. DD’s ballet teacher described it as spontaneous combustion. I think they’re just shit quality.

Speaking as a teacher, any bottle that is a little bit flexible and has a sports cap is ideal.
My personal favourites are these. They don't break and they don't spill.

I'd buy cheap and accept you're going to buy a few during the primary years. They seem to be able to destroy even the hardiest bottle at that age!

This is very disappointing. I know clear bottles are required for exams. But primary school pupils should not have to have drink water that has been sitting round all day in a plastic bottle, given what is now known about plastics.

I agree, I’d not be too happy with that rule. We have Green Steel ones at the moment, only got at Xmas but doing well.

One green bottle, you can buy replacement lids if necessary.

It's the only way they can enforce their water-only rules, as otherwise parents fill them up with squash for their little darlings, despite the obvious health benefits of getting used to water for their children.
I used to have children come in with coke etc in bottles.
They still often bring squash, just clear squash, but it at least cuts down on it.
We live in crazy times.

I'd also push back against requiring a clear bottle for not wanting to drink from plastic and environment reason of durability.

What is wrong with squash?

Why the obsession with water in primary.

One teacher said they could smell the clear fruit squash and would throw it away?

@Weallnamechangesometimes maybe push back against the pain in the arse parents who let their children bring horrible sticky stuff in their water bottles

@thedendrochronologist because it’s a pain to clear up

Squash is often sticky when spilt and is harder to then clear off tables, books and resources.

A bottle with a sports cap is far preferable to an open top. Especially when younger, the amount of spills that happen with the bottles with an open top is much greater than those with sports caps. No one wants to sit on the carpet where it's wet from yet another spilt bottle.