Thanks for tuning in
today we're going to be looking at the
HydraPak Flux 1L flexible water
bottle.
Whether you're hiking the pacific
coast trail or just running errands around
your local town
hydration is really important. For
that reason reusable water bottles have
become a lot more common
they're more environmentally friendly
and there's less waste involved
this also led to quite a revival of
different water bottle styles.
The hard traditional steel bottle
has become a lot more popular but
they're a lot bulkier and heavier
as a result of their design has led
to
more flexible water bottles on the
market. These allow you to pack them
really compact
hike with them and travel with them and
still get higher water capacity.
What we're looking at today is
HydroPak's Flux 1L and this is
their
latest variation of the flexible water
bottles.
Packaging wise really simple just a
paper tag on here with a
information about the bottle. Let me go
ahead and take that off and go over
these specs.
Retail price on this is twenty dollars and
it has a one liter or 32 fluid ounce
capacity. It's available
in two colors mammoth which is this gray
color
or what they call malibu which is blue
like the actual card here.
It has a interesting nozzle design it's
a spill proof valve with a membrane on
the inside
and it's compatible with 42 millimeter
water filters.
It also has a dual dual layer laminate
construction which gives it more of a
rigid structure
than your traditional pouch style
flexible water bottle.
It also has a very compact roll-up
design which lets you pack it away very
easily.
Now let's take a second to look at the
weight of the bottle. This is
currently empty
and that comes in at 78 grams so quite
light
compared to an equivalent size steel
bottle.
[Music]
Now let's look at the fit and finish of
the HydraPak Flux 1L
water bottle. What's unique
about this water bottle it has more of a
hard water bottle structure to it you
can see even as it's empty it'll stand
up straight.
This is thanks to the dual layer
construction which gives some rigidity
even when it's completely empty.
Now the best part about this bottle is
the cap itself so you can see the cap
has a traditional twist lock style so
once you hit these little stops that
actually
blocks that gap between here and no
water will flow. Once you go 90 degrees
it fully opens it's a little
non-intuitive as you can keep rotating
there's no stops
but that doesn't open up anymore. The
nice thing is they're actually combined
with this traditional twist lock
with a membrane so you can see in here
it has a little plastic
membrane and it won't allow water
through until there's pressure.
That's a really nice feature that
prevents it from spilling when it's
flipped over.
You also note that the nozzle size on
this is fairly small especially compared
to let's say
cycling water bottle which is usually
maybe 50% bigger.
The top of the cap has this plastic
thread and you also have
a nice little ring here this lets you
hold it or attach it to a carabiner on
your backpack.
You can also put this in a stream to
fill it or anything else so nice little
feature and this rotates around
so pretty nice to have. Also to note
there is no cap cover which would be
nice to have
especially when you're hiking if you
don't want to get dirt or dust into the
cap.
They don't have a protective cap on here
maybe that'd be a feature that'll come
out in the future but
you do have to be careful not to get the
nozzle dirty.
Now going on to the bottle itself you
can see very thick,
again even empty you can see it have
structure to it.
It has the little slit down the side
which is more visible when you're in
full light
that actually lets you see through the
bottle and it has the measurements
written on here.
It also has some writing on here with a
little bit of branding
but otherwise nice grippy texture. The
logos on here as well
are really easy to hold especially with
the angled lines on here
and there's rigidity here so you can see
the ring around here holds it pretty
well
and even lets it stand up straight
when it's empty.
So it's a nice combination between a
standard
rigid bottle and a flexible bottle. The
other nice feature is you can roll this
up.
So if i go perpendicular to the handle
I can simply roll this out
and then use this ring
to catch the excess of the bottle.
Now you have a really compact water
bottle you can throw in your backpack
for hiking or traveling.
Now let's take a look at the bottle
outside fully filled you can see because
it's flexible design
it's still a little bit squishy when you
hold it. It gives it a nice texture so
easy to hold.
Now if we look at some of the flow
properties of this
you can see the flow is about medium
because of the smaller diameter of the
nozzle it's not a high flow
as much as say a cycling or more
performance oriented bottle would be.
Now one downside to this bottle is as it
becomes emptier it becomes a little more
floppy
and that can be a little harder to hold.
You can see about half full now
it's very squishy and then if I were to
empty it even more
[water splashing]
you can see it loses more of the
rigidity and it becomes more of a pouch.
[Music]
Now let's go over the pros and cons for
the Flux 1L. What we like about
the bottle is the lightweight design
it gives you one liter of capacity
without the bulk of a traditional rigid
bottle.
The nozzle is also is lockable and spill
proof which is a nice combination of
features you don't typically see
together
and the ability to roll it up gives a
really compact size that's great for
packing it
whether you're going hiking or traveling.
Some of the cons for the bottle is the
fact that they're limited color options
it's only the gray and the blue color
currently.
Also the nozzle lacks a protective cover
which is really nice to have
to keep grime and dirt out of the nozzle
itself
and finally it can be difficult to hold
when it's nearly empty
as it becomes more of an empty pouch.
Taking everything into account we'd give
the Flux 1L an 8.3 out of 10.
It's a really well-designed flexible
bottle that can be used for hiking or
traveling.
Thanks for watching for review don't
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This is the sweet cyclist reminding you
to enjoy the ride!
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