We tested three metal water bottles. The favourite?

Reusable branded metal water bottles
We tested three metal water bottles. The favourite?

We are big fans of metal water bottles. They last forever, keep your water cold, have a completely neutral taste, and there is no danger of nasty chemicals such as BPA leaching into your drinking water. When I was sent the Thor, Vasa and Smart Tide bottles to test, I decided to put them through their paces – so our family of four adopted the bottles over the summer.

These water bottles have been thrown in bags and rucksacks, taken on picnics, and used on the hottest day of the year. They have even been taken camping! I also tested them using a digital cooking thermometer over a period of ten hours, to establish how well they keep your drink cold.

The overall verdict? It’s close, as these bottles are all great for different things.

The Thor is my personal favourite for its design, whilst the Vasa is fantastically sleek and lightweight – and in that respect it’s the best for carrying your drink around. Both the Thor and Vasa kept water cold very effectively, with the Smart Tide lagging behind a little here – but still doing a decent job.

The Smart Tide, however, is the outright winner when it comes to branding options. Full-colour printing is available around the entire bottle, or you can have engraving or Spot UV. Plus you have a choice of 16 colours in matte and gloss finishes.

The Smart Tide is the perfect canvas for your branding, and you can create some very cool designs. It is also the most affordable of the three options, by some margin.

Best for design and versatility: The Thor

There is no denying the Thor is an attractive bottle, and made a great first impression on me. With echoes of the design of vintage milk bottles, it stands out in a sea of similar water bottles. This is a good design to get you noticed (in fact when my husband took it to work, it attracted some attention – which is perhaps unexpected for a water bottle!)

The bottle I tested had a powder-coated navy blue finish, which I really liked. And on a practical note, this finish was particularly hard-wearing and scratch-resistant. I tested the larger 650ml Thor, although a 510ml version is available (plus a new 480ml mini bottle which has really caught my eye. It’s a shorter, stubbier version of the Thor I tested, and it is very cute).

The size and design of the Thor makes it a little more versatile than other bottles. The larger 650ml capacity and wide neck mean it’s perfect for filling up and storing either hot or cold water to pour from later. It was particularly useful on a camping trip, where we used it for water storage overnight and to drink out of during the day. It keeps water cold very well.

At £9.22 the Thor is the most expensive of the bottles I tested (and both the Thor and Vasa are more expensive than the Smart Tide). It is perfect as a gift for high-value customers, but if your budget is tight or you want to reach large numbers – take a look at the Smart Tide instead.

The Thor spec:

Double-wall stainless steel vacuum construction with a copper-plated inner wall
Capacity: 650ml
Keeps drinks cold for: 48 hours
Keeps drinks hot for: 12 hours
Temp increase over 10 hrs (as tested): 3° Celcuis
Finishes: Power-coated finish. Available in black, white, grey, navy blue, red or lime green
Branding: Prices based on one colour print to one position. Available in up to four-colour print
Print area: 20mm x 70mm
Price: Starts at £9.22 for orders over 1,000
Lead time: 15 working days

Best for sleek, lightweight design and portability: The Vasa

The Vasa bottle is sleek, simple, and lighter than both of the other bottles. If you want a water bottle in the standard shape which reflects the quality of your brand, the Vasa is perfect. The bottle I tested was green, with a satin (semi-sheen) finish. Of the available colours, I like the rose gold best.

The Vasa is perhaps the most understated of the bottles I tested. The Thor stands out for its unique design, and the Smart Tide stands out for how far you can take the branding (as I will go on to describe). The Vasa is simply a metal water bottle done right, and it’s one of our bestselling bottles for a reason.

I found that the Vasa bottle was great for carrying around in your bag. It’s a reasonably compact size, and it weighs less than the other bottles tested. Plus it keeps water cold very well.

Like the Thor, this is not the cheapest option at £8.90. If your budget is limited, it will stretch further with the Smart Tide bottle.

The Vasa spec:

Double-wall stainless steel vacuum construction with a copper plated inner wall
Capacity: 500ml
Keeps drinks cold for: 48 hours
Keeps drinks hot for: 12 hours
Temp increase over 10 hrs (as tested): 3.1° Celcuis
Finishes: Satin (semi-sheen) finish. Available in black, white, silver, titanium, blue or rose gold
Branding: Prices based on one colour print to one position. Available in up to four-colour print
Print area: 20mm x 50mm
Price: Starts at £8.90 for orders over 1,000
Turnaround time: 15 working days

Best for stand-out branding and price: The Smart Tide

The first thing I noticed about the Smart Tide bottle was the Spot UV branding, with red lettering on a satin (semi-sheen) white background – which is a really nice touch. The bottle itself is very similar to the popular Chilly’s bottle which is available in the retail space, so visually it feels quite familiar.

This is a good, solid bottle. When I used it over the summer it performed well, kept my drink cold enough, didn’t leak, and fit nicely in my bag. When you consider the price (starting at £5.20 per unit) you get a lot for your money.

What makes this bottle special, though, is what we can do with it. At Bounce Creative Designs we can print all the way around the Smart Tide bottle, and the resulting designs can make a fantastic impact.

Even if you don’t opt for the full-colour wrap, you have a lot of colours, finishes and print options to choose from. We also offer individually customised bottles (something which became popular after Love Island!)

The Smart Tide is the most affordable metal water bottle of the trio by quite a stretch. If you want maximum impressions for your budget and eye-catching branding, you can’t go wrong with the Smart Tide. And with the large print area, you can have some fun designing this bottle (the Bounce Creative Designs team can really help you out with design).

The Smart Tide spec:

Double-walled vacuum insulated stainless steel bottle with airtight leak-proof lid
Capacity: 500ml
Keeps drinks cold for: 24 hours
Keeps drinks hot for: 18 hours
Temp increase over 10 hrs (as tested): 3.7° Celcuis
Finishes: Available in matte and glossy finishes in a huge range of 16 colours
Branding: Full-colour wrap, lazer engraving, Spot UV in 1-2 colours
Print area: Varies according to the type of print, but 222mm x 100mm for full-colour wrap
Price: Starts at £5.20 for orders over 5,000 (or for comparison, £5.65 for orders over 1,000)
Lead time: 20 working days

The temperature test

To get an objective measure of how well each bottle keeps water cold, I added water at 13.6° Celcius straight from the tap and measured the temperature over ten hours.

At the end of the test, the results were:

Thor: 16.6° Celcuis (increase of 3° C)
Vasa: 16.7° Celcuis (increase of 3.1° C)
Smart Tide: 17.3° Celcuis (increase of 3.7° C)

The Thor was the most effective bottle for keeping your water cold, followed very closely by the Vasa (based on tap water at a normal drinking temperature).

The question is, can you tell the difference without a thermometer? The four of us in my household all tried the water from the Thor against the Smart Tide (I tasted the water blind from two glasses, and no one else knew the thermometer readings). We unanimously agreed that water from the Thor was colder, but that the difference was marginal.

Bottom line? All of these bottles work well, but the Thor and Vasa definitely have the edge when it comes to keeping water cold.

Although I didn’t thermometer-test the bottles with extremely cold chilled water (mainly because it would have been difficult to achieve the exact same starting temperature for all three bottles), I did use all of the bottles with cold water straight from a filter in the fridge many times throughout the summer.

I can confidently say that all three bottles kept the water very cold, for a long time. In fact, when I filled a bottle in the morning, took it out with me all day and kept the remaining water on a bedside table overnight – the water was still cold in the morning.

Get in touch to find out more

To find out more about our range of metal water bottles, get in touch with one of our Promotional Merchandise Consultants who will be happy to talk you through the options. You can reach us on [email protected] or 0208 318 9603.

We can create high-quality 3D visuals of your final metal water bottles free of charge – meaning guaranteed print quality, no wait for your artwork and as many revisions as you need.