I am going to purchase a couple of canteens soon and wanted some opinions on those canteens with a wide mouth and ones with narrow mouths. Does one offer any real advantage over the other? Thank you.

That depends on how you like to be kissed.

http://m.rei.com/product/777295/humangear-capcap-water-bottle-top

I would recommend the above product to convert a wide mouth bottle to a narrow mouth.

The narrow mouth makes it much easier to drink from on the run in my opinion. A wide mouth is easier to clean and it can be used for food as well as drink.

The converter let's you have both bottles in one. The strap broke on my first one but I carabiner clipped the strap to my bag every day for many months and it got knocked around. I tied accessory cord around the lip of my Nalgene and clipped from there and so no issues with the second one.

wide for adding ice and cleaning and storing other supplies (when not needed for liquids), like food, survival or water purifying gear

narrow for drinking when moving, like in shaking vehicle

I decided to go for wide mouth canteens and I am still happy with the decision. They are much easier to fill and to clean. The option to easily add ice cubes is nice to have but no real advantage to me (YMMV).
The are plenty products that allow to drink as easily as from a narrow mouth canteen. I use the sipper insert:


I am satisfied with it and you only need one. It is easy to put in or take out and it does not add bulk.
There are no converters that add the advantages of a wide mouth canteen to a narrow mouth canteen.

I've also done well with wide-mouth water bottles that had integrated straws.

You can comfortably enough cook in a wide mouth SS bottle if needed. And you can always convert it to a narrow mouth type. Also there are plenty of attachments and adapters for water filters for a wide mouth bottles (if you stick with a Nalgene kind).

How does one handle the hot SS bottle if cooking in it? I've been considering this upgrad to my get-home pack.


Most of my Nalgenes are wide mouth but the anti-slosh inserts are really nice.
But my first-use water is a small-mouth Nalgene which I found on the trail when backpacking many years ago.

Multitool pliers make great potholders .

Or with the workgloves that is an essential part of every kit.

I've mostly switched over to metal bottles with about a 1" opening. (And discovered the stoppers are not always interchangeable.)

Another vote for wide mouth stainless NALGENE's.I also use the Human Gear CapCap.To remove the metal Nalgene from a cooking fire use a multi tool or a carabiner clipped inside the top rim.I have seen a wood toggle used to suspend it over a fire also.A lot of options on the metal water bottle.Go with wide mouth for options.....

BOATMAN
John

For SS bottles in the fire, use a set of wire fish mouth spreaders. They are cheap and can store in the bottle when not in use by simply squeezing them.
When open you can insert into the bottle, simply use them as bail and hang the bottle above the fire or as a handle. I can't take credit for the idea, some viewer suggested it to Dave Canterbury and he liked the idea too so he added it to his repertoire.

And of course, everything in your kit should be multipurpose so you can use them as initially intended to spread a fish mouth to retrieve hooks.

I have lots of canteens,since I spend a lot of time in arid country, and variety is a good thing. My favorite, however, is a recycled Gatorade (or similar) bottle - light (much more so than Nalgenes), cheap, watertight, and expendable. I usually slip a SS canteen cup onto the bottom to allow for cooking in a nice cheap, light setup.

Fish spreader! Never heard of it befor but .... sure looks like the solution.

I'll second the Human Gear Cap Cap. They're a way better solution for the widemouth bottles than the "no splash" inserts - I had those for a while, and they almost without fail get pushed down into the bottle. More trouble than solution, in my experience.

Won't it ruin the mouth roundness or the thread ??

I've never had threads noticeably damaged this way. I have seen small scratches on the lip.

I use wide mouth and pack a straw. I can't drink from anything but a straw or tube when I am moving. It just don't work for me otherwise.

Much as I hate to do anything so silly as to purchase bottles of water, we occasionally get the bottles of Poland Spring with the squirter nozzles. The squirter prevents backwash, so they can be refilled indefinitely without being cleaned. The plastic of the bottle feels really flimsy, but we've never had one fail. I like having a semi-disposable canteen that I don't care if I lose it. I also like the squirter to possibly cleanse wounds.

David

Seems like an hydration pack would be the solution. Some folks seem to use them consistently-inline filters and 3 liter capacity suggest that it might be the most time-efficient water management technique. That said, I can't warm up to them. Is it a generational thing? Sort of the way older warriors tend to be fans of .45 acp/30 caliber and the younger crowd prefer 9mm/.223?

I use a hydration pack and a canteen (metal Nalgene).If my water bladder should rupture I have the canteen as a back up.For water sanitation it's a Sawyer Mini and clorine dioxide tabs. If that should fail I can boil in my canteen and cup. I have never had to go to those extremes. It's nice to know I can. A wide mouth metal canteen is easier to scoop snow into in winter. Place it between layers of clothes to melt with body heat. For in my neck of the woods it's solid kit.....

BOATMAN
John