CamelBak Eddy+ Specs

• Two Stages of Filtration: Hollow Fiber Filter removes bacteria, parasites and microplastics. Ion Exchange Filter reduces lead, taste and odor, chlorine and other chemicals.

• Flip, Bite, Sip: Drink through straw

• Vacuum Insulated: 18/8 Stainless Steel

• Durable: Powder coat finish

• Leak-Proof: Leak-proof when closed, spill-proof when open

• Easy to Carry: Comfortable carry handle

• Stays Dry: Sweat-proof insulation

• Easy to Clean: Filter rinses clean and bottle is dishwasher safe

• Drink Clean: BPA, BPS, and BPF free

• 32 oz: 30 Hours Cold

• Lifestraw® and CamelBak Give Back: one product, one child, one year of safe water

• Volume When Filled: 26 oz capacity with filter

• Not for use by children under age 12 without adult supervision

CamelBak Eddy+ Bottle Review

For some time now one of my biggest challenges is staying properly hydrated. I spend a lot of time these days shooting media and training in addition to running hard expedition trips. One of the things I run into is my time being severely compressed between long portages, complex training scenarios, or trying to get the right shot while I have other boaters waiting on me. All of this often causes me to have little time to either purify water or I am working so hard that I don’t bring enough water on a trip. All of this requires me to find solutions that are quick, easy and require little thought on my part.

For those reasons I have pleasantly surprised by the Eddy+ bottle. It seemed a little gimmicky at first, but it turned out to be a great addition to my kit. So, what is the Eddy+? This product is a collaboration between CamelBak and Lifestraw to simply place a filter cartridge in a metal bottle. On the plus side you don’t have to mess around with pulling out or storing a filter. There are a few important considerations about this bottle that I will go over in a bit, but overall (having used several different products on the market) this is one of the better options for boaters in my opinion.

Ideal Uses for the Eddy+ Bottle

Ideally this is a fantastic addition to any boater’s kit simply because it allows you to have water at any time you need without sacrificing the tempo of the river trip. Making downriver progress is often on the minds of boater’s so being able to dip the bottle in any water source (mostly) keeps the trip moving downstream without making a dedicated stop for water. I feel like this would be an ideal piece of gear for side hikes on river trips as well since we tend to hike creeks where there’s always a source of water around.

One use I would say would not be ideal is in below freezing conditions though. Lifestraw filters are composed of hundreds of tiny straws and I could easily see though small straws bursting from freezing if it was stored with water in the filter after the temperature dropped.

How is the Eddy+ Bottle on the river?

I have used this bottle in rivers with some pretty high turbidity. With my local backyard runs being wrecked by massive wildfires recently, it caused a ton of ash and sediment to enter the river after a record rainfall. Even a month or two after the rains we still see super murky and nasty water. Every time I used the filter the water came out clean even in those tough conditions. I didn’t notice any foul taste or odd aftertaste from the filter so that was a huge plus.

I have also used this bottle for hikes and it works super well for that purpose. It was really nice to start a full day hike at my truck knowing that I didn’t need to carry 2 bottles and a hydration bladder with me. Adding 8.5 lbs. of water at the start of the hike from 4 liters of water kind of sucks. Since I am generally always hiking creeks and rivers to scout my next run it was super nice to carry no water and just grab it from the creek as I went.

The biggest downside is that you can’t add supplements and electrolytes to your bottle of water. For that though you can always keep a spare bottle with you filled with your supplement of choice. Also, once you drink through your electrolytes you will be down to water anyway so it’s not the end of the world.

On a similar note, if you need to need to purify water for a group it is not going to happen with this unit. Traditional filters and purifiers can drip water through them so you can fill multiple containers and prepare food with. This bottle is purpose built for individual hydration unless you don’t mind swapping spit with someone else.

How tough is the Eddy+ Bottle?

I got my hands on one of the vacuum insulated stainless steel bottles as I’m generally not a fan of plastic bottles. Since I’m a rafter the weight doesn’t bother me at all, but if I was a crazy ultralight hiker or climber trying to shave ounces off my gear, I could see how it would not be as popular for that application. I have beat the steel bottle around a lot and it is pretty hard to scratch or damage as you might expect from steel.

The tops of the bottles are universal between the plastic and steel bottles, but they are pretty dense and tough, though I haven’t tried to break the integrated plastic loop handle off yet. Unfortunately, the threads on the bottle aren’t particularly deep so I am concerned about the bottle separating from the top as with most water bottle designs. That being said I did clip the bottle to a d-ring on the raft and run some class III rapids and surprisingly the bottle did not detach from the top.

The bottle does use a little sippy bite valve that folds into the top. When it is folded down the tube leading to the second stage of the filter is compressed closed and prevents water flow. This is only held down by two small plastic tabs though and I can see these getting worn out quickly. The good news is that it is replaceable.

The 2-stage filter is held together with threads and an O-ring that are pretty sturdy. My biggest concern is actually where the second stage of the filter attaches to the lid. The threads are much smaller here and a small plastic tab prevents the filter from backing out. I could see this tab breaking or snapping rather quickly, but the threads are pretty tight so I’m a little less concerned about this. It seems like CamelBak actually did a decent job of making this product to be beat around.

Important Considerations

• You should always assume that the bottle is contaminated in some way so it is important to wash it after each use and let it dry. The bottle itself is dishwasher safe though so it is super easy to clean that way.

• It is a filter and not a purifier so it is not isolating water from other compounds. While that seems a bit technical the bottom line is that it does a great job of getting rid of almost everything that is harmful.

• The filter is good for 4000 liters or 1000 gallons so you’re probably more likely to lose it before you need a new filter (big thumbs up on that)

• Though the total capacity of the bottle is listed at 32 oz, you will only get 26 oz in the bottle with the filter installed, so if you have a long way to go between water sources, bring a backup bottle.

• It will keep the contents cold for extended periods. The packaging claims 30 hours, but I haven’t personally tested that claim.

• Because of how the filtration system works you can never use this bottle with electrolytes since the filter will filter those out too.

• The 32 oz (1 Liter) bottle does feel 1lb 4.53oz (582 g) compared to a 32 oz polar bottle at 5.71 oz (162 g); or a 32 oz Klean Kanteen Steel bottle a 9.66 oz (274 g)

• The filter is rated to remove: 99.999999% of Bacteria (E. coli, etc.), 99.999% of micro plastics and protozoa (Giardia, Cryptosporidium, etc)

• The filter also reduces chlorine and lead as well as removes odor, bad taste, and organic chemical matter (Herbicides and Pesticides)

Is it worth the cost?

Again, because I’m a boater and I do a gravity assisted sport rather than a gravity defying sport, I don’t care that much about shaving ounces. I really care that the product works reliably and simply. I have a First Need Purifier and although I love that product it is super complicated and annoying to use. Similarly, I have used Sawyer Straws and they are so hard to get water out of that I end up not drinking enough because it takes too much time. I find this to be a super good alternative to those two filters because of how fast this thing works.

The filters and bite valves are replaceable so if anything is damaged you don’t need to buy a new unit which is another huge plus for this product. I like how you can just pick up the pieces of it, since buying a whole new unit seems wasteful if you already have parts of it lying around.

At $70 you get the whole unit and you are good to go which I feel is a super reasonable price especially if you are day tripping it on the river. For raft guiding, especially day trips I would hands down take this any day. The flexibility of not having to worry about filling my bottle before the trip and just grabbing water whenever I need takes my hydration concerns off my mind and frees up more of my attention to focus on my guests.

From a price stand point I look at a few factors:

• Eddy+ bottle with no filter retails for $30, so essentially the filter is $40 on top of that.

• Sawyer Squeeze filter runs $36.95 plus the cost of a bottle.

• Most other decent filters are going to be in the $100-200 retail range.

So, from a price point it is pretty comparable to the Sawyer product and sits at a good price range for an out of the box filter – bottle combo that you don’t need to think about and has a good taste to it. There are some features that the Eddy+ flat does not do, but for most boaters in most situations you probably won’t need those extras so it is a good choice if you just want to make your life easy.