Takeya Actives Water Bottle Review

Takeya, a company with Japanese and American ties, designs hydration products inspired by the the California lifestyle. Fitness enthusiasts should take note of this brand since they specifically design their products for an active lifestyle. Our team found the “Actives” bottle to be well designed, affordable and reliable. The construction of the bottle is fairly standard for the industry, but we give extra credit for the thoughtfulness behind the cap design. The Takeya Actives spout lid has a patent pending design that is super functional and makes opening and closing a breeze. The design makes it easy for a user to drink a controlled amount of water without suction or having to juggle the cap in their other hand. While the functionality of the cap makes it great across a variety of activities, we found it to be most helpful while driving. You should have no problem unscrewing the lid, taking a sip and tightening the lid all with one hand! 

To be honest with you, we didn’t find the Actives bottle to be the among the most stylish water bottles on the market. If you’re looking for something with a bolder design, we’d recommend checking out the simple modern summit or the s’well. However, if you’re willing to put functionality ahead of form, you should try out this bottle. You might be so impressed with functionality of the cap that looks won’t matter at all. Two other noteworthy aspects of this product are it’s durability and insulation capabilities. Read more about our thoughts in the respective sections below.

Take your Takeya along for all your outdoor activities. Besides the all the great features of the bottle, we appreciated the fun naming conventions of this brand.

During the testing period, the Takeya Actives took a few tumbles onto a variety of surfaces ranging from grassy lawns to paved concrete. The bottle sustained some damage, but it wasn’t very noticeable. The only signs of damage were small scratches where the paint made contact with the ground. We didn’t notice any peeling or chipping of paint which is a plus. Unfortunately, one of the drops (presumably on a hard surface) altered the shape of the bottom of the bottle and from that point on it didn’t rest flush on a flat surface. While this was admittedly annoying, it didn’t impact the functionality. Other minor damage noticed during testing were small scratches on the cap and handle. These were barely noticeable though and shouldn’t play any role in a purchase decision.

Since our purchase of the Actives, Takeya has added a rubber boot as a standard product feature to their bottles. This is a huge benefit for people like us who really put their water bottle to the test. While we haven’t tested this feature out ourselves, we feel it will extend the bottle’s life and make for a better user experience. 

From this angle you can see how the bottom of the bottle got bent out of shape. This was from one notable drop. Thankfully the boots these are now sold with should solve this problem.

The Takeya Actives is not dishwasher safe, so you’ll need to take the time to give it a manual wash. Thankfully, both the bottle and top are not challenging to clean by hand and only require a sponge and scrubber brush. Before you decide this is a deal breaker, check out our article about dishwasher safe stainless steel water bottles. TLDR: they are rare and some level of manual cleaning is almost always required with stainless steel bottles.