Hi Robert,

I have never warmed up to the "condom for water storage" idea (I have had a few break) so I use Whirl-Pak bags, and am happy with them. I am often required at work to secure liquid in these bags, when closed correctly they do not leak and withstand quite rough handling.

Doug did a test of these compaired to Gerber bags in the Equipped Briefs section of the main webpage found here http://www.equipped.org/etsbriefings202.htm#condom_alternatives

The only difficulty I have found with Whirl-Paks is that they usually have to be purchased in bulk, where the Gerbers are found in small quanities at many stores.

Mike

We used to use oven baking bags to line our crock pots, made cleanup a lot easier. Then a while back they all started leaking, every one of them, every time. So, using one of them as a replacement for a condom, for whatever reason, is not recommended...

Why not use the Nalgene Bottle itself? It's not compact but it is easy to carry (tons of different carry options). You can store your gear in ziplock/glad freezer bags inside the container so they're good to go if you have to empty the bottle for use as water storage.

Another option are these http:

http://www.basegear.com/lmwaterpouch.html

I just received some and they are far superior to the aloksaks (which I also received in the same order) I blew air into one of the liberty mountain pouches, sealed it and stood on it. The bag didn't let go. That test didn't work with the aloksaks, in fact the seals on them don't work well at all.

I think these are cool as well, little off topic but great water storage

http://www.msrgear.com/hydration/dromedary.asp

or

http://www.msrgear.com/hydration/dromlite.asp

Again not compact but easy to edc.

JMO

BTW not affiliated with any of the above mentioned.

Blitz

I buried it a bit but so far my favored provision for carrying water in my kit are the Platypus bottles.

http://www.platypushydration.com/product_detail.aspx?ProdID=36

They are tough, compact and reliable. If and when they get a pinhole after a lot of rough use they are repairable. Even after many trips under lousy conditions and with little to no pampering none of my Platypus bottles have had to be retired. The patches are cheap, light and compact. I usually slip one or two into my wallet on trips.

I keep two rolled up half-liter ones in my small PSK and two liter size ones in the larger kit. For hiking the bladders and canteens see use but these Platypus bottles. Note that the screw-on caps are a bit lighter and more compact than the pop-up tops but they have to be completely removed to drink and so they more subject to loss. In my larger kit I use one pop-up and one screw -on. With a screw-on as a spare. A bottle without a cap is pretty useless.

This is also one of my main complaints on using condoms or oven bags or zip-locks. The closures are not very good or easy to use.

This company also sells larger carrier bags and bladders. I haven't used one but they are said to be good. When my present set of bladders and canteens give up I will be looking closely at what Platypus has for replacements.

Tip - If you take a screw on cap and drill a 1/16" hole in the center and screw it on a half-liter collapsible bottle you have a nice device for irrigating open wounds. You can also do it with a zip-lock but these tri-laminate bottles can take more pressure and be reused many times. I colored the drilled cap with a red marker so it doesn't get confused with the others and also keep one without the hole handy. All three pieces ride in my first-aid kit.