This is sort of a continuation of a previous thread about storing water in a vehicle in a region that has a genuine winter (temps. frequently below 32 degF (0 degC). Here in the glorious upper Midwest, one has to expect the temperature to hover around the 0 degF mark (-18 degC) and it's not unheard of for the mercury to drop to around - 20 degF (-29 degC).

I originally was planning on keeping some water in the vehicle in four quart-size Nalgene bottles, realizing that for three to four
months out of the year they would be cylindrical chunks of ice. I tried freezing one of the Nalgene bottles several times, it
expanded significantly in the middle as expected, but didn't crack or split. The bottle was filled to rated capacity and frozen
upright. Store-bought bottled water bottles may have less elasticity (more brittle... don't know, haven't tried 'em), but as others have said, one can always partially fill them and/or freeze them on their sides to get around the ice expansion problem.

Then, in the aforementioned previous thread, IronRaven (yeah, that guy...) mentioned using a metal container, such as an old
military canteen or one of the stainless-steel bottles from KleanKanteen so that one can expose the container to a heat source (like the vehicle's engine) so that one would have a chance of having some actual liquid water even in winter. Intrigued with this notion, I did a quick web search and found that the metal Mil canteens were replaced with plastic somewhere around the Vietnam era and were therefore hard to find. I decided to order a couple of 40oz. KleanKanteen bottles and also a few aluminum Wenger bottles (identical to the Sigg bottles, near as I can tell, but less expensive). I bought the Wenger bottles just to see how the aluminum would hold up the repeated freeze/thaw cycles that the bottle would be subjected to inside the vehicle. Storing them in an insulating container like a cooler would be like adding thermal mass, the temperature swings would be slower, but they'd still be expected to freeze solid and thaw completely repeatedly. I had more confidence in the stainless-steel bottles. There is a FAQ at reusablebags.com that contained anecdotal evidence that these
assumptions had some validity. The aluminum bottles aren't exactly ideal anyway for heating because they have both an inner coating (to prevent interaction of aluminum and liquid) and outer coating (powdercoating?).

Anyway, I did some totally unscientific testing using the kitchen freezer. The goal was to 1) see if the aluminum bottle would fail with repeated temperature cycling, and 2) to see if the stainless-steel 40oz. bottle could be used to hold 32oz. water (1 quart). Each test was below repeated for 5 cycles. I'll explain below

"Wenger bottle" = 750ml., aluminum, lined, and exterior coating, synthetic stopper
"KleanKanteen bottle" = 40oz., stainless steel, no interior or exterior coating, stainless steel stopper.

1) Wenger bottle filled to 600ml. with ethanol/water mixture (a.k.a. vodka), in freezer upright and corked, thaw at room temp.

2) Wenger bottle filled to 450ml. with water, corked, frozen vertically, thawed at room temp.

3) Wenger bottle filled to 525ml. (70%) with water, capped, frozen horizontally, thawed at room temp.

4) Wenger bottle filled to 600ml. (80%) with water, capped, frozen horizontally, thawed at room temp.

5) Wenger bottle filled to 600ml. (80%) with water, capped, frozen horizontally, thawed at 180 deg. F

6) KleenKanteen bottle filled to 24oz. with water, capped, frozen horizontally, thawed at room temp. (just for grins)

7) KleanKanteen bottle filled to 32oz. (80%) with water, capped, frozen horizontally, thawed at room temp.

I started out by filling the Wenger bottle with a common potable liquid I knew wouldn't freeze at 0 degF just to see if there would be a problem with just the temperature differential between the relatively warm liquid inside and the cold ambient temperature, didn't seem to have any effect. I then partially filled the bottle with water and froze it vertically as many do with their plastic water bottles, also no negative effect. I then worked my way up in volumes with the bottle frozen horizontally, I stopped at 80% because, eventually, there will not be enough space for ice expansion and the bottle will bulge. I wasn't too interested in what that point was, but 80% full I thought was impressive. I then moved the 80% full Wenger bottle directly from the freezer to the oven pre-heated to 180 degF (measured) and kept it there until completely thawed (and Leigh, this took around an hour and a half). I then skipped, with some confidence, to the target 80% full KleanKanteen bottle frozen horizontally.

So the Wenger bottle went through 25 temp. cycles without any effect aside from the nylon (?) washer under the cap that didn't care for the oven treatment (it deformed somewhat). I'm not sure how to get one of these to fail, maybe filling with hot liquid and plunging it into an ice bath... The aluminum bottle would appear to be ok if not for the int./ex. coatings.

It should be noted that smaller volumes will thaw faster, so if all you want is a couple of cups of water to make coffee/tea...

I'll still have to see what happens over the winter, I will probably use some sort of insulated bag to catch water if there's a failure and maybe help to avoid condensation (ice cold bottle / warm moist air).


FWIW, 'Meat

Great test, and AAR. I've always been intrigued by the Wenger bottles and those like them. Looks like a good reason to invest in a couple.

Small point that I wanted to mention and forgot:

The 40oz. KleanKanteen bottle will fit inside a 16oz. Olicamp mug w/ the folding handles. It's a real close fit. In fact, I used the mug to check for deformation of the KK bottle.