Nalgene
Nalgene Ultralite Wide Mouth 1 L HDPE Bottle
- Weight for its size: 8/10 How much it adds to your pack for the water it holds.
- Packed size (empty): 5/10 How much room it takes up when it is empty, for the water it holds.
Lowest price we found
£11.99 at Ultralight Outdoor Gear
Go to Ultralight Outdoor Gear Compare 2 shopsBackpacking and wild camps where you want a rigid bottle 40% lighter than the clear Nalgene
- Type
- Rigid
- Capacity
- 1 L
- Weight
- 106 g
Packed size 1.26 L, 20.3 cm long and 8.9 cm across Compare with a 2-litre bottle
Shorter than a 2-litre bottle and about as wide as one. Drawn to scale.
Where to buy
Ultralight Outdoor Gear £11.99 In stock. Free UK delivery on orders over £15; under that, the shop shows the charge at checkout.
View at shop: Ultralight Outdoor GearOutsiders Store £12 In stock. Delivery £3.95. Delivery £3.95 economy (5–7 working days) or £4.95 express under £90. Free over £90.
View at shop: Outsiders StorePrices checked 8 Nov 2026 on each shop's own page; shops can change them. We earn no commission on these links; shops are listed by price. More
Our ratings (out of 10)
1 to 10, compared with the whole market. Each says what it's based on. How we score
Weight for its size
From maker's figures 8/10How much it adds to your pack for the water it holds. 8: Clearly better than most.
Nalgene lists 106 g (106.25 g) for 1 L: 106 g per litre, in the 100–179 g/L band and 40% under the Tritan bottle. Ultralight Outdoor Gear lists 108 g and SectionHiker the same 106 g, the same band. Counted at its US nominal volume of 0.95 L it would be 112 g per litre, still band 4.
Packed size (empty)
From maker's figures 5/10How much room it takes up when it is empty, for the water it holds. 5: Does the job. Average for wild-camping gear.
A rigid bottle does not shrink. Nalgene gives 89 mm across but no height, only that the Ultralite bottles are slightly shorter than its 21 cm Tritan bottle. Ultralight Outdoor Gear gives 20.3 cm, the only specific figure: 3.1416 x 4.45 x 4.45 x 20.3 = 1,263 cm³, so 1.26 L empty for 1 L held, in the 0.7–1.29 band. The score drops to 2 only at 20.9 cm or more, so it sits close to the 1.3 line. Prepping Warehouse's 21 cm looks copied from the Tritan bottle, so we do not use it.
In short
Good for
- Backpacking and wild camps where you want a rigid bottle 40% lighter than the clear Nalgene
- Cold nights: fill with hot water and put it in your sleeping bag
- Scooping and filling from ponds and streams, and rehydrating food with the volume marks
Strengths
- 106 g for 1 L, 71 g lighter than the clear Tritan Nalgene (177 g)
- Takes boiling water; SectionHiker and PMags use it as a hot-water bottle in cold weather
- Wide 63 mm mouth: easy to fill, scoop and add drink powder, with volume marks printed on the side
- Reviewers report it lasts for years and survives drops onto rock
Weaknesses
- Heavier than a 1 L PET water bottle (about 40 g, SectionHiker) and than a soft flask such as the HydraPak Stow (51 g)
- Rigid: takes about 1.26 L of pack room even when empty
- Opaque white, so you read the level from the marks
- Wide mouth splashes when you drink on the move (TrailGroove prefers the narrow mouth for drinking)
- Tight fit in a car cup holder (TrailGroove)
- Fewer than 3 independent sources speak about its durability
Sources
We haven't tested this ourselves. Every score comes from these specs, tests and reviews.
ShowHide sources (4)
- Nalgene: Wide Mouth Ultralite 1 L bottle (spec page, metric figures)
- SectionHiker: Backpacking with Ultralite Nalgene bottles (the author's own use over several years)
- PMags: Gear review, Nalgene Ultralite Wide-Mouth bottle (cold-weather use)
- TrailGroove: Nalgene Ultralite, best backpacking water bottle ever? (undated; date shown is when we read it)