Review: GuyotDesigns Firefly, Bottles, Gription

GuyotDesigns makes a pile of semi-obvious, semi-enlightening pieces of gear which are nominally intended as part of your hiking kit, but which are ergonomic enough that you want to use them every day. 

The Gription, for example, may not look like much at first: it's a splashguard for your wide-mouth water bottle, and at £6.50 each, it may cost more than the bottle itself.  However, it's so intelligently and beautifully made, with an omni-handled grip (my lefty John had no problems using it) and it makes you realize just how unpleasant all bottle shapes are; the narrow necks are too narrow and the wide mouths do indeed splash.  It's incredibly easy to use, as it should be, and the handle is sturdy enough that you don't feel uncomfortable shackling it to your kit.  It's also very easy to wash - no problems with trapped bacteria - and keeps the water in the bottle fresher longer, which is important as I tend to forget my water container in the car and have it go rapidly vile.  Which brings us to the container itself, the Guyot bottle, which I also love.  (And then their trendiest gadget, the Firefly, about which I am much more reserved.)  More after the jump.

The GuyotDesigns bottle first looks like any other typical stainless steel mug, but after using it for a while you realize that it's much easier to keep clean than a typical plastic bottle, that water doesn't pick up that flat plasticky taste, and it doesn't pick up smells.  But here's the most important part and the part that made it my favourite water cannister ever: I left a full bottle in the car, in baking afternoon sun.  I returned to a hot, evil car, and expected hot, evil water.  But the bottle was cool - at least ten degrees colder than the car, maybe more - and the water within, also cool.  I don't know how they've managed this.  The bottle isn't insulated (and not recommended for hot drinks, consequently).  I've had metal water bottles before and not experienced this.  So at £6.50, this is a super deal - but do pick up the Gription also, since it measures out perfect little mouthfuls.

I was less impressed with the Firefly, unfortunately.   Designed to fit your wide-mouth water bottle (it didn't fit mine, but mine may be some deviant shape), it contains a blue LED that you can switch on in order to turn your water bottle into a very long-lived night-light with no additional kit carrying on your part.  While it does work on that basis, inserting the batteries requires using the very tiny Allen wrench (included, of course), removing a bunch of screws, and inserting a whopping 3 AAA batteries (not included).  It seems like an awful lot of effort, considering that I, like many Hippy types, intended to use rechargable batteries, and don't really want to carry around a tiny Allen wrench alongside in case I have to rip out the batts and put in some new ones.  I realize their intention was to create a very smooth profile and a durable product, but still, some kind of sliding panel would've changed my irritation into geek love.  However, you can easily find yourself using the Gription and their bottles every day, where the Firefly is basically a very entertaining novelty piece, so it's preferable that these are the ones with the best design sense anyhow. 

  [GT]

GuyotDesigns bottle | Gription | Firefly

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