Klean Kanteen Water Bottle Review

Though the Klean Kanteen didn’t score very high in this category, we want to note that despite everything called out in this section, most of our reviewers were still fans of this bottle. That being said, we want to be entirely transparent about aspects of this bottle that may not be compatible for your lifestyle.

Most of the issues we uncovered have to do with the mouth and cap of the Klean Kanteen. Unlike the Yeti Rambler or HydroCell, this bottle has a narrow mouth. Aesthetically, we’d argue that this improves the overall look of the bottle and some may prefer this for drinking, but the praise stops there. The small opening made it difficult to fill the bottle under some circumstances and nearly impossible to load in ice. Users who plan on filling their bottle using a refrigerator dispenser will find this problem most relevant; it’s not easy to properly position the small opening under the fridge spout. This gets better with some practice, but be prepared to grab a towel to clean up spilled water or cubes the first few times. 

The screw cap on the Klean Kanteen is made of durable plastic and provides a tight seal, however, the design could be better. For the HydrationReview team, the seal made opening this bottle a full hand activity and it wasn’t easy to open the bottle by only touching the cap. To open, reviewers had to wrap their hands around the entire cap and bottle mouth to open. While this method worked, it naturally led to hands touching the top of the bottle where lips meet the metal when drinking. This isn’t ideal and might make you think twice before taking this bottle to the gym where germs spread easily from hand to hand. 

At this point, you may be wondering why our team didn’t use the narrow (one finger) loop on the cap to open the bottle. Well, we tried, but it resulted in awkward pressure on our finger joints. Our initial thought was that we could use the loop for carrying the bottle or for attaching a carabiner to hang the Klean Kanteen on a bag. After testing both use cases, we weren’t impressed. The weight of the bottle plus water is too much for one finger to comfortably carry, and hanging a 32oz bottle from a bag quickly becomes cumbersome. We’re still wondering what the manufacturer was going for with this cap design. 

As far as grip, the 32oz bottle was easy enough to carry in one hand for short distances. For readers with smaller hands, we’d recommend going with a smaller size such as the 20oz model.

Finally, if there are readers who are concerned about the issues stemming from the narrow mouth, we’d like to note that Klean Kanteen does offer a wide mouth version. 

As we alluded to in a prior section, this bottle provides a tight seal, and assuming no major human error, you can expect a spill-free experience. The cap is lined with three layers of threads, topped with a durable gasket that provides a reliable seal even when not fully tightened. The gasket also allows spill-averse users to really crank down the cap if they’re planning on stowing the bottle for a long period of time. Just be ready to apply a lot of force to get the bottle back open. 

The Klean Kanteen was a top performer during the insulation test. After filling the bottle with near freezing water, the temperature only gained 2.7°F during the first two hours. Over the course of eight hours, the water temperature increased only 7.6°F which puts the Klean Kanteen in the top 3 bottles tested to date. 

If you were concerned about the previous comments regarding difficulty in loading ice into the Klean Kanteen, you’re probably fine as long as you fill it with cold water.