Some water bottles have been discontinued since our testing. This list includes only those that are available:Brumate’s 12-ounce Leap tumbler comes in more than 20 colors and includes a locking stainless steel straw that keeps plastic from sitting in water. By twisting the lid, kids can lock the bottle so water doesn’t leak out of the straw, but we found this mechanism annoying for us, and challenging for a young child. (The company recommends this bottle for ages 4+.) We also didn’t find it practical for taking to school or out and about, as the straw spout is always exposed.The plastic 15-ounce Bentgo Kids Water Bottle has a “bite and sip” spout that does not leak even when it’s open. We found it annoying, however, that the spout repeatedly re-opened after we clicked it shut.We tested two TAL bottles meant for kids and tweens: The 24-ounce Stainless Steel 2-in-1 Bottle allows you to both chug and sip water like the Owala, but the TAL’s spout and straw have two separate openings in the lid that feelt overly complicated, not just for drinking but also for cleaning. The hinge for the 18-ounce Ranger Stainless Steel Bottle’s spout, meanwhile, felt stiff, sticky, and is hard to open and close.PlanetBox’s 10-ounce stainless steel Glacier Water Bottle comes with a metal straw, which is great for those wanting to avoid plastic. But the cap made an unsettling scraping sound each time we screwed and unscrewed it. Responding to a customer complaint about this in the reviews, the company said the sound is a natural occurrence because the metal is not treated with lubricants or chemicals, and that the scraping goes away with time.We tried both the plastic 15-ounce B.box Tritan drink bottle and the 17-ounce B.box stainless steel insulated drink bottle. The parts of the two are not interchangeable. The plastic Tritan bottle has a triangular shape, with a long, flat silicone straw spout that was challenging to drink from, even for older kids and adults. The insulated stainless steel bottle has a more traditional soft silicone straw spout, covered by a lid that pops open by pressing a button. While we thought it was a good bottle, we did not find it superior to our picks.Thermos offers the 18-ounce insulated stainless steel Icon Kids Water Bottle for older kids, with a clear, hard plastic spout that pops up. But the spout has a snapping mechanism that can be challenging for young kids to open and close, and it feels like it could loosen or break over time.We found it challenging to twist open the straw spout of the 12-ounce Klean Kanteen TKWide Insulated Water Bottle.The 12-ounce and 17-ounce insulated stainless steel Snug Kids Water Bottle looks like a knock-off of the Thermos Funtainer bottle, with a large assortment of colorful, kid-friendly designs. We dismissed it without testing it, however, because Snug Kids does not offer any replacement parts, a common complaint noted in the reviews; after a piece breaks or gets lost, the bottle becomes junk.The 16-ounce plastic Zulu Torque is dishwasher-safe, but online reviewers complain that the long, thin, rectangular spout of the Torque is challenging to clean, and we agree.We dismissed both the 14-ounce plastic and 13-ounce insulated stainless steel versions of the Contigo Autospout Straw Flip because the pop-up drinking spout was difficult for our testers to push down and close. And though the entire bottle is dishwasher-safe, online reviewers have complained of mold developing in difficult-to-reach crevices, like the drinking spout.With just two pieces, the 12-ounce Nalgene Kids OTF was one of the easiest bottles for us to clean; you can also place it in the top rack of the dishwasher. But we found it difficult to open and close. To secure the lid, you must press down hard enough to click it shut, and you need enough dexterity to snap a thin, metal bar into place.The 12-ounce Nalgene Tritan Grip-N-Gulp is a lightweight, strawless plastic bottle that is dishwasher-safe. But its sippy-cup–style mouthpiece limits water flow and is meant more for toddlers.The 14-ounce stainless steel Simple Modern Summit Kids Water Bottle kept water cold during our temperature test, but it failed our leak test twice.We dismissed the 12-ounce Lifefactory Glass Water Bottle without testing it. Though it has a silicone outer sleeve, we saw multiple complaints indicating that it can still crack or shatter when dropped.This article was edited by Amy Miller Kravetz and Kalee Thompson.
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