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Old 07-08-19, 05:44 AM
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DCwom
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Originally Posted by 3speed
I've wondered for a while now if bottle color would affect water temperature on a sunny day. Has anyone looked into this? Would a white bottle stay cooler since it reflects the light rather than absorbing it, black the hottest, etc? What about the stainless bottles? Should they be the coolest if you had a mirrored surface to reflect all of the light? Though metal slides always get scorching hot in the summer, so maybe those bottles would be the hottest?
There are at least two things to consider, absorption and conduction. Darker colors will absorb more solar energy (heat) and metal will conduct heat better than say plastic or wood.

Polar bottles help with their limited insulation but they aren't much of a match for a hot sunny summer day. One trick if you want cool water when you stop is to fill a Polar bottle with just ice, no water, or even better yet freeze a half filled bottle overnight. This will limit the amount of contact between the fluid (ice) and the inside surface of the bottle, hence reducing heat transfer, then add water to the ice at a rest stop. The down side of course is that you have to carry an extra bottle.

Last edited by DCwom; 07-08-19 at 05:52 AM.
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