I kept hearing good things about them and saw some in a store, and they looked really tough (but expensive) and they weighed less than I expected. Then I noticed them on sale at Sierra Trading Post

http://www.sierratradingpost.com/xq/asp/base_no.99705/dept_id./est./qx/product.htm

and bought a couple (the 24 oz "Powerbar" shown above and the 1 liter "Maxi" which I guess they're sold out of).

I'm not that happy. First of all they smelled like metal coated in oil when I got them. Some anti-corrosion treatment? Several hot water rinses got most of the smell out but they still smell metallic (actually I've only done this with one of them so far).

Secondly the lids are kind of silly. They have a pull-up nipple like a sports squeeze bottle, but since there's no air inlet and the bottle itself is rigid, you can only get a little tiny bit of water out at a time. You have to unscrew the lid anyway to get a substantial drink from the bottle without taking a rather long time at it. But the pull-up feature creates at least the theoretical possibility of leakage (doesn't leak in limited testing, but that's not saying much). I got these things hoping for absolute leakproofness so I could safely carry the bottles inside a backpack with my digicam, laptop computer, etc. They do make solid stoppers for these bottles so I guess I'll try to buy some.

Third I thought these bottles were designed for reactive beverages like citrus juice or wine. I dunno if I'll ever use them for that, but if they need that anti-corrosion treatment at the factory I'd be leery of putting anything acidic in there. My intention, though, had been to fill the bottles and leave them full (pour out and refill a few times a year), so I'd always have some tough bottles around in case of a bugout. Now I'm worried about crap from the bottle leaching into the water over time.

Finally, the instructions say to clean them by hot water rinsing or with some special Sigg pills. I guess they're afraid that normal dishwashing soap will mess up the coating. I'm not too keen on this either, even if I can find a place to buy thse pills. I thought compared to the plastic bottles I've been using, these tough Sigg bottles were supposed to not need delicate treatment, but it appears the other way.

Sierra Trading Post also had some 1/2 liter Nalgene lexan bottles at a good price and I was going to get a couple but either forgot before placing the order, or decided I was already getting too many bottles. Now I regret it, though I probably won't order them separately unless there's something else I want (the shipping charge for the lexan bottle would be more than the bottle costs).

Thoughts? Are these Sigg things overrated?

Yes I like them but I didnt want to spend that much.
I bought 3 Avanti aluminium bottles for the same price and they come with both the solid stopper and the sip lids.

The sipper lids are gravity fead so you tip up the bottle and take the first mouthful and then you tip down to let the air in. Repeat for your next mouthful.
If you open the nozzle and tip the bottle you will empty a small amount of water, but the rest stays in the bottle untill you tip it back.
This is the feature that stops you loosing all of your water accidentaly.
Better to tip a few more times than accidentally loose all of your water.
I wash them normally and dont have any probs. I didn't have the oily problem with mine. Either it wasn't there or it disapeared when I washed them after I bought them.

I usually use the solid stoppers with the 2 on my pack because you can attach a cord through the top so you dont loose them.

They are a tough bottle, and I dont usually use my plastic bottles anymore.

I just checked the local supplier of these bottles, and they state they are lined to prevent odours and staining so they shouldnt have any probs with acidic drinks.

They are also half the price of last time I checked.

You may want to look at www.wiggys.com Jerry made a run of insulated stainless steel water bottles. They are also on sale. Siggs are nice, but I feel like they over engineered more hassles in than the addressed.

Secondly the lids are kind of silly. They have a pull-up nipple like a sports squeeze bottle, but since there's no air inlet and the bottle itself is rigid, you can only get a little tiny bit of water out at a time. You have to unscrew the lid anyway to get a substantial drink from the bottle without taking a rather long time at it. But the pull-up feature creates at least the theoretical possibility of leakage (doesn't leak in limited testing, but that's not saying much). I got these things hoping for absolute leakproofness so I could safely carry the bottles inside a backpack with my digicam, laptop computer, etc. They do make solid stoppers for these bottles so I guess I'll try to buy some.

Wow! I got kinda excited reading your post above. I really didn't know where you were going! And then I realized you
were talking about a water bottle! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Censor alert! Censor alert! <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

I have some Sigg bottles. Some of them are a couple of years old. They held up really fine to not so delicated treating (I cleaned them with hot water and baking soda and they have a coupole of dents). Recently Sigg seem to have adjusted their qualitiy though. Some newer bottle suffered from corrossion right in the middle of the bottom (with transparent paint you can see the center of a pattern from manufacturing there). It took an average of 1 1/2 years until the bottle leaked because of that. The newer bottles were not treated as rough as the old ones. I think that the bottles are overpriced and overrated.

I have one. I use it to hold lemonaid (seems pretty acidic to me), and no signs of corrosion. The lid works, IF you are careful to lift the drinking nipple all the way up, till it clicks hard. The one weak point is that the seal is old, and the lid has to be screwed down pretty hard to get it to stop dribbling.

I got mine at a garage sale for 10 cents, and I've definitely gotten my monies worth. It never occured to me that the Sigg bottles were tough: I think that the Nalgene LDPE bottles (the grayish-white ones) seem much tougher. My well-used Sigg has a dent in the bottom corner. I suspect that an equivalent Nalgene would have bounced (but can't say for sure, since I didn't put that dent there.).

I like mine, but it'll eventually be supplanted by a widemouth Nalgene or two, just as soon as I find one at a garage sale for 10 cents.