How do you prevent your drinking water from freezing?

I was wondering how everyone prevents their drinking water from freezing while out in extremely cold conditions. I've read some methods online but wanted to know what peoples real experiences are with keeping their water warm.

For full disclosure I'm a design student with 4 years experience looking at creating a hydration product to be used specifically in below freezing conditions and would love to hear your thoughts!

If you could complete my survey on this topic it would really help me out for my degree and will take under a minute of your time.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/XD3NP67

Thank you!

Store your Nalgene or other bottle upside-down when it is in your backpack to prevent the water from freezing it shut.

If you use a camelback, you carry it on your stomach, under your jacket/clothes. And allways blow back the water in the tube.
Wear pants with proper pockets. Altough its out of fasion to make outdoor-pants with usable pockets, in cold conditions you want as many possibillities as possible to store stuff close to your skin, Depending on how cold it is, you kan store a decent bottle in the pockets on the thigh, or a slightly smaller one in the front-pockets.

Batteries, phone, snickers, water... you want all of this in pockets close to skin, or underneath your jacket.

You dont necceserily need the big camelback or the biggest bottle; after you drink, you fill it up with snow/ice that melts for the next pit-stop.

A hydration product for extreme cold would either simply be a thermos, or something you could wear comfortably close to skin.

Camelback hoses and mouthpieces freeze even with those insulated liners i dont know why people try to use camelbacks in the winter. For Nalegens, these OR Bottle Parkas are great  . If not using a liner of sorts, storing a wide mouth nalgene bottle upside down, the small mouth ones freeze more easily, is key.

We talking like winter camping type application? Or a day Hike? Either way, Insert warm water into nalgene, Put nalgene in OR Parka thing. Enjoy warm water.
Keep in sleeping bag while hitting the sack (and heat it up beforehand for nalgene cuddling goodness).

Burying my water bottle in snow overnight has worked for me down to -18F. Discovering that was a game changer. The trip before trying that, a partner's cuddle bottle leaked in their sleeping bag; that was a bit worrying.

I have found these insulated bottle covers from Forty Below work well. I prefer them over the OR product because I don't have to worry about fiddling with a zipper.

Corey Day wrote: Camelback hoses and mouthpieces freeze even with those insulated liners i dont know why people try to use camelbacks in the winter. 

I use the insulated bladder/hose/valve cover setup for ski touring, so several hours.  If you put warm water in and keep it flowing regularly it works fine down to 15 or 20 degrees.

anyone who has spent time climbing above 20k knows managing your water is a job. insulate you water bottles, sleep with them in your bag and don't use camelbacks.

when traveling, put your bottle in an insulated sleeve and bury it in your pack...maybe even wrapping it in your extra layer.

Fun Police wrote: You can alter the freezing point of water by adding a few shots of vodka. The more alcohol, the lower the freezing point. 

Username does NOT check out. You sound like lotsa fun!

Dallin Carey wrote: I have found these insulated bottle covers from Forty Below work well. I prefer them over the OR product because I don't have to worry about fiddling with a zipper.

Dallin, what do you like for a bottle for these? I don't like plastic, generally, but if that's the best choice? I'm headed to Bozeman ice fest mid December, and want to be able to function if it decides to go single digits. I'll pack a thermos for something hot, but will also want water.

It was his own fault, he forgot a quart bottle in the car for a few hours, but my son had a beefy metal one burst in really frigid temps. But, he also is still using another metal one that is sorta bent over. Got backed into, lol!

Best, Helen

Keep bottles buried under stuff in your pack and keep them as close to your back as possible.  If you have extra socks or mitts, use them to insulate the bottles. And start with hot water if possible (duh).

Insulated bottles like hydro flask or eco vessel seem to do a good job at keeping my drinks from freezing and warm. Usually wrap it in a puffy and stuff it in the pack. On really cold days I usually boil water poor in the container to heat it up, dump it and then put whatever I am drinking for the day in the bottle, usually some sort of tea. Never had any issues temps as low -19F in the morning and being out all day in the cold ice climbing or ski touring.

Adding flavored drink mixes to your water that contains sodium will lower the freeze point...

For backcountry (shit am I gonna get sued?) skiing and other winter activites, I just use a giant thermos of non caffeinated tea. Delicious, hot, hydrating.         

I bought a 40oz insulated Kleen Kanteen just for backcountry skiing because I was tired of dealing with ice/water so cold it hurt my teeth so I didn't drink enough. Has been a wonderful item in my pack. 

Noah R wrote: We talking like winter camping type application? Or a day Hike? Either way, Insert warm water into nalgene, Put nalgene in OR Parka thing. Enjoy warm water.
Keep in sleeping bag while hitting the sack (and heat it up beforehand for nalgene cuddling goodness).

I think you are mistaken. That's the OR Burrito Buddy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmAwg4hbql0

I have used the OR water bottle parkas for decades now. They work quite well, though I have blown several zippers. OR has replaced those parkas under warranty. On big trips I often have a .5 liter bottle in my parka so to have easy access when it is really cold and one is moving all of the time. Otherwise I toss mine in the top of my pack. At night, the bottle goes in my sleeping bag.

I should note that for decades I have been using the Hunersdorf water bottles

Gvigliotti Vigliotti wrote: I use 5 tablespoons of salt, per liter.  Never had a problem since.  

Aside from the hypertension.

Depends exactly what your endeavour is...

I'm generally not a fan of the sleeves or similar insulator like OR's. It's bulky and just another thing to bring along and manage. If you're doing backpacking or skiing or anything similar, there are similarly effective ways to manage. I'm not much into ice climbing so I don't know much about that, but I assume gear-wise it's not that different from rock climbing and generally, the higher you need to go the less you want to carry extra stuff you could manage without. So I fail to see how those are useful.

If you're into some sort of backpack based expedition....

• Many mentioned hot water & turning it upside down. Whatever bit is exposed to air will freeze first. Typically, if it's cold enough for you to worry about water freezing, you probably want to start the day with something hot to get going. Take that chance to boil some extra water.
  • CHECK THAT IT'S CLOSED PROPERLY BEFORE PUTTING IN YOUR BACK. Just a good habit to get into. Turn it upside down BEFORE it's above the pack, THEN put it in. I'm not saying that because I onced sprayed close to a liter of water into my own sleeping back midway through a 4 day solo winter camping trip. But if that HAD happened to me, it would surely have sucked and I would surely have gotten into a manic habit of doing that.
• Size matters. I like to have a 1.5L with me as a reserve. Takes longer to freeze. Even in 20 or 30 (celcius) below zero, I've seldom ended up without any non-frozen water at the end of the day. I'm not sure how pouches (like MSR's) fare. But the key is is to have as low a ratio of surface/volume as you can. Unless you find a spherical Nalgene, a cylinder is pretty though to beat.
• Packing properly. I try to squeeze the 1.5L lower in my backpack. It's not accessible but presumably you would have a smaller 1L for that. Don't put it completely at the bottom either - ideally it would be surrounded on all sides by your stuff. Better if you can wrap spare clothes around. One of the sides should be your back (or well the part of your backpack that's next to your back). If it's really cold, this will block convection from outside air. Plus if you're doing any exercise, this will be significantly warmer.
  • I also try to have a more accessible, smaller one (1L) that closer to the top. Again, better if you can put on top or it something, like an extra layer.

Favor wide mouth. I actually don't know why would people want narrow mouthed Nalgenes - the only time I can think of where it is better is in the car on a dirt road. So the part of the trip where they matter the least.  For everything else, wider is better, so go wider.

If you're not a fan of drinking hot/warm water, try putting something like gathorade in it. I know warm gathorad isn't attractive while you're sitting in your living room, but I swear it tastes like Unicorn's tears once your face is frozen into a permanent grin from a full day in ass-freezing temps....

Agree with the above... Nalgene in OR cover works best...but zipper with gloved hands is fustrating! Camelback just doesn't cut it for mountaineering applications in my experience.