Glass water bottles are a great option for getting hydrated if you prefer cleaner-tasting water and want to avoid plastic and BPAs. We tested nine glass bottles and tumblers for several months to find the best-designed and easiest-to-use glass water bottle.
We liked the Ello – Syndicate water bottle the best for daily use because of its easy one-touch opening, wide mouth for drinking lots of water, and comfortable silicone body. Our runner-up is the Ello – Aura for its similar drinking experience and sleek design. If you love drinking iced cold water with a straw or sipping coffee from a glass, we recommend the Mukoko – Glass Tumbler for its versatility.
There are many different glass water bottles in the market and one of the most important features to consider is design. For example, you can buy glass bottles for water or hot drinks like tea or coffee. These differences change the design of the water bottle or tumbler.
They can come with straws or mouths that feature sippers for easy drinking. Sippers allow you to gulp more water, while straws are suitable for people who don’t like to lift their entire bottle each time they drink water. If you want a bottle that’s easy to use during the day for exercising or driving, we recommend a lid that opens with one touch. If you’re going to use the glass bottle for drinks other than water, like iced coffee, we recommend something with a straw attachment.
If you’re interested in glass water bottles because you want to use less plastic, keep in mind that other parts of the bottle beside the body can also still be made of plastic, like the cap or the straw. Some brands offer caps made of different materials like bamboo or have designs where the mouth is made of glass.
Size
Since glass can be heavy, it’s essential to think about what size of glass water bottle you want to carry around all day. Many of the bottles and tumblers we tested ranged from 16 to 25 ounces because this was the average size and wasn’t too heavy. However, some brands sold water bottles with capacities between 8 to 32 ounces.
Cleaning
The less amount of parts included the faster the cleaning experience. Keep this in mind with glass water bottles or tumblers that include a straw because they often have more parts and need additional tools for cleaning. While the glass tumblers we tested were easy to use because they had wider mouths, the glass water bottles we tested needed bottle brushes to reach all the smaller crevices. Straws also need straw brushes too. We removed the silicone or rubber sleeves for some bottles to prevent any dirt between the sleeve and the glass surface.
Other features
Do you prefer to carry your glass water bottle in your bag? Make sure to pick a bottle with a secure locking mechanism to prevent leakage. Some bottles also have silicone seals that also keep leaks minimal and nonexistent.
Another feature is sleeves made out of silicone or rubber to help grip and reduce condensation. Often these sleeves are removable, but some glass water bottles are a little more difficult to remove and replace. Some silicone sleeves are designed not to be removed, making cleaning easier.
How we selected:
We selected nine glass water bottles and tumblers in various sizes and designs for under $35. These bottles also featured different ways of drinking, like wider mouths for sipping or gulping or straw attachments for easy drinking.
How we tested:
Cleaning
We cleaned the bottles multiple times by hand and ran them through the dishwasher, noting what additional tools they needed to clean, like bottle or straw brushes. We also observed how many items needed cleaning.
Leak/seal tests
We added colored water inside each bottle and laid it on its side for up to 30 minutes to test if there were leakage issues. We performed leakage tests by flipping each bottle over and shaking it repeatedly. Since the tumblers have openings for straws or sippers, we didn’t want to lay them on a flat surface because they would leak regardless. So we tested the glass tumblers by positioning them horizontally over the sink to test their lid seals.
Ease of use
For each glass bottle, we tested each bottle for an entire week throughout our errands, events, driving, work, and gym time. While we didn’t test dropping these bottles purposefully, some bottles were accidentally dropped, and we noted any damage.
1
Ello - Syndicate
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The Ello – Syndicate glass water bottle is our favorite because it’s easy to use with one hand, has a glass sipper, and is affordable. This water bottle comprises two parts–a glass body covered with a silicone grid sleeve and a plastic cap that twists over the glass mouth. This bottle also features a sliding lock next to a one-touch button to open the lid. You can drink directly from the glass body and always experience clean-tasting water. If you’re sensitive to water flavor, we recommend this bottle!
The grid pattern on the silicone sleeve helps with gripping the bottle and prevents any slippery accidents. There’s also a silicone handle connected to the cap; however, it may be too small for some larger hands. Cleaning this bottle was easy with a standard bottle brush because of the wider mouth opening. We loved drinking from this bottle because it made drinking water easier, fit in cupholders, and the leakproof seal helped transport water in a backpack without worrying. This affordable bottle is under $20 and comes in a series of colors.
2
Ello - Aura
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If you don’t like the grid pattern on the Ello – Syndicate, we recommend going with the Ello – Aura that’s designed similarly, except it’s got a sleek, minimal, and tapered body. The Ello – Aura comes in two pieces: a silicone-sleeved glass body, a plastic cap with a locking mechanism, and a one-touch opening.
Like the Syndicate, this glass bottle is great if you want less plastic because the spout is glass. However, the handle is sturdier as it’s made of plastic and attached to the cap. We found the handle was useful for hand leverage when lifting the bottle to sip water. Since the spout is slightly smaller than the Syndicate bottle, you need to use a thinner bottle brush. We recommend the Ello – Aura for the same drinking experience but want to carry more water throughout the day and still fit in standard cupholders.
3
Mukoko - Stainless Steel Glass Tumbler
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The Mukoko – Stainless Steel Glass Tumbler is our favorite for multiple uses when drinking water, tea, or coffee in a glass vessel. This tumbler comes in a set including a 12 oz glass tumbler, 18 oz stainless steel cup, bamboo lid, plastic spout lid, and one plastic straw. This set is excellent for those who want to drink cold or hot beverages in a glass.
The stainless steel cup can act like a sleeve to hold hot tea or coffee, but it can also be used as its own cup because the bamboo and plastic lids fit. The stainless steel mug as a sleeve should fit most cupholders. Using this tumbler in multiple ways made the $25 price point worth it. The only issue we had with this tumbler was that we wished the glass was bigger so we could drink more!
4
Zulu - Atlas
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The Zulu – Atlas glass water bottle is similar to the Ello water bottles in that it’s made of a silicone-sleeved glass body with a twist-on plastic cap that’s fully leakproof and fits in standard cupholders. Where they mainly differ is the design. The Zulu silicone sleeve has a spider-like rubberized design with textural bumps throughout the body to give you a comfortable grip.
After testing this bottle, we noticed some differences in the quality between Ello and Zulu bottles. The Zulu one-touch cap was more difficult to push than the Ello bottles and the sliding lock also gave us a similar experience. Since the Zulu – Atlas is at the same price as the Ello – Syndicate, we recommend the latter unless you prefer a more rugged design that comes in different colors.
5
Tronco - Glass Tumbler
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The Tronco – Glass Tumbler features a silicone sleeve that covers 3/4ths of the glass body and is topped with a press-in bamboo lid. There’s a small incision on the top of the bamboo lid that fits a matching plastic straw. We liked that the thick silicone sleeve gave us a comfortable grip, and it was also easier to hold the cup when it was full of iced drinks.
When we tested this seal by laying the tumbler horizontally and rotating it to see if there were any spills (mindful of not pouring water out of the straw opening), we didn’t notice any water leaking.Read more…
Be warned that there are a lot of parts when cleaning. You should remove the lid silicone seal during cleaning to prevent future molding. This glass tumbler is great for iced drinks like water or your favorite iced lattes or matcha. It also comes in an array of different colors to match your style, and it fits most cupholders.
6
Kodrine - Glass Tumbler
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The Kodrine – Glass Tumbler is a glass bottle with a thick glass body, silicone-sleeve cover, screw-top lid, two straws, and two brushes. Unlike the Tronco tumbler, the Kodrine silicone features cutouts that let you see how much liquid is left in the glass. Unfortunately, when we first received the Kodrine tumbler, we noticed that the silicone sleeve didn’t lay flat against the glass body and bubbled out. This was cosmetic, but we eventually needed to remove the silicone sleeve during cleaning to prevent potential mold growth.
We liked the thick glass body; it felt durable to use and fit most cupholders. The screw top lid also has a very tight seal and didn’t cause any spillage while traveling with the tumbler and drinking beverages. While we wished the lid was made of glass to reduce the amount of plastic we use daily, we did appreciate that it came with a metal straw too.
7
Beast - Hydration (not recommended)
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Out of all the glass water bottles we’ve tested, the Beast – Hydration bottle was our least favorite because the rubber materials made the water taste horrible. The Beast bottle has two screwtops. One that opens a wide mouth that makes cleaning and adding ice easy and a smaller spout for drinking. There’s a swing handle attached to the top, and the overall bottle has an elegant design made up of borosilicate glass and silicone. Due to the wider body of this glass water bottle, it rarely fits standard cupholders.
The Beast – Hydration bottle includes a stainless steel and rubber fruit or tea infuser that clips into the cap; however, the rubber material inside the glass bottle affects the taste and smell of the water bottle. We wouldn’t recommend this bottle because the experience was off-putting and wasn’t worth its expensive price.
8
Contigo - Autospout (not recommended)
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The Contigo – Autospout was the only glass water bottle that was a sports bottle featuring a straw. We were excited to try this out; however, after testing this multiple times, we didn’t like the difficulty in sucking up water through the straw. There seemed to be a lot of resistance when using the straw, no matter how much we tried to loosen the lid.
Due to this design flaw, we noted how it negatively affected the amount of water we drank during the day. Since this water bottle uses a straw, there are also more items to wash and more crevices that could potentially grow mold if you don’t clean every nook and cranny. We wouldn’t recommend this glass water bottle because it didn’t work well and wasn’t worth $30.
9
Bkr (don’t recommend)
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The Bkr glass bottles were one of the first experiences we had with using glass bottles years ago. They offer a modern and sleek design compared to other models of glass bottles that look more rigid and sports-like. Each Bkr bottle consists of three pieces, a glass bottle, a full silicone sleeve that covers the entire glass body, and a plastic screw-top lid with a stationary handle.
After testing different glass bottles, we noticed how much smaller the Bkr bottle spout was compared to other models. This can be a deal breaker for some people who want a more effortless experience drinking an ample amount of water–it’s much harder to take bigger sips. It will also take a thinner and bendable bottle brush to clean because of the small spout. Since this is a screw top, you need both hands to open the lid.Read more…
The Bkr bottle is for someone who prioritizes style and wants a sleek-looking bottle that doesn’t mind using a screw top for drinking water. Note that depending on the size of the Bkr bottle, it may not fit in regular cupholders. We wouldn’t recommend this bottle outright because it’s the smallest and most expensive we tested.
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Bryan Vu, Editor
Bryan is our cooking and kitchen expert, with more than 15 years of experience of cooking and testing kitchen products. When outside of the kitchen, he enjoys woodworking, photography, videography and figuring out how to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle. He thoroughly enjoys discovering the best, whether it’s ingredients or equipment, and finding products that can stand the rigors of daily use.
