I also would much rather melt snow than thaw a water bottle, but I routinely hard freeze recycled Gatorade bottles and nalgenes, taking care not to fill them to the brim, to use them as cooling agents in ice chests, with no ill effects. I should get in the habit of storing a few in my freezer to keep things cool during power outages.

One thing about Gatorade and similar beverages, the bottles often have a bunch of wrinkles and corrugations which would seem to be able to expand during the freezing process. You can't beat the replacement price if they should go bad for any reason.