Yeehaw! In my parts, the Polar bottles come with the state of Texas emblazoned on them.

My experience: I’ve used various incarnations of the Polar brand water bottles for the last three years to carry my liquid of choice on the bike.

Function: 5/5

Style: 3/5

Build Quality: 4/5

Overall: 4/5

Summary:

When riding in warm conditions, the water or other liquids you carry can get warm after a short time making them less palatable. Polar water bottles aim to keep your liquids cooler longer with their insulated plastic bottles.

Extensive use of the Polar and regular bottles found they do indeed keep liquids cool longer usually about twice as long in the Texas heat. Aside from some a lingering plastic taste in an early version of their latest design, the Polar water bottle performed as expected.

Polar offers 20 and 24 oz versions of the bottle in multiple color choices for less than $10 and has the option of custom designs available through their website.

Function

Polar uses a bottle within a bottle design with foil in between much like thermos to achieve a bottle they claim keeps liquids cold twice as long. My experience has been this is generally true. My ride home from work generally takes about 25 to 30 minutes. With regular bottles, my water is warm within the first 15 minutes. With the Polar bottles, it stays cool all the way home.

I have found the ability of the bottle to keep things cool is a function of how cool your water and the bottle start out. If you leave the bottle out in the sun then put tap water in it, the water will get warm fairly quickly. However, I’ve had bottles stay cold for over an hour when I start with a bottle that has been in the refrigerator a few hours with 1 part cold water and 1 part ice in the bottle put in just before I leave.

The outside is made of a rubberly plastic that does a good job of staying put in my bottle cage. Polar bottles now come with a rubber handle that goes around the top of the bottle under the lid. This is a nice feature if you want to attach the bottle to a bag, but for cycling, I’d discard it as it will get in the way.

Polar does not recommend putting hot liquids in their bottles.

Style and build quality

Polar has changed bottle design in the last year to a more streamlined design. In the past, all their bottles were white with different color accents and had a large protruding lid. The new design offers multiple metallic colors and a lid that is more flush with the lines of the rest of the bottle. The new look is an improvement over the previous version though as a Bianchi owner I am disappointed to see the elimination of the celeste color from the choices. You can order bottles through Polar directly that have your name on them or other custom designs.

Polar bottles are made in Boulder, Colorado and have solid feel to them. The lid seals tightly, and there are no leaks once secure (something Specialized could learn from.) My only issue with the build quality was a bottle I got when the new design just came out. It had a strong plastic smell that you could taste in the water. It took about 20 washing of the bottle with soap and water to make it go away which I thing is inordinate. This may have been an issue with the first batches under the new design as Polar bottles I’ve purchased since do not have this problem at all.