Oil Carry Bottles - State of the Market?

[Neo]

It appears that oil gets it's way around a thread so a snap bottle could be ok, just one lip

(do'n gimme no lip)

[Orion]

Amazing how much interest there is in this thread.

I ended up carrying 4 kiddie yogurt pouches of oil. 3 worked well, one leaked all of its contents. Not sure why (user error or equipment malfunction).

But doesn't give me great confidence in these going forward.

Anyone tried a small soft drink bottle? Those things seem to be very robust with generally good seals.

It's frustrating that made for bushwalking containers that are light, easily refilled/cleaned, and seal effectively aren't available. So we have to be creative.

I suspect your yogurt container wasn't closed or the cap got twisted. Sometimes it's not a bad idea to put a piece of packing tape on the lid if you think that might happen.

Soft drink bottles work very well. That's what I use for larger amounts for travel or car camping. I buy a glass bottle of olive oil and transfer it to a coke PET bottle. I've done this dozens and dozens of times over a period of probably 15-20 years and never had one leak. The lighter weight PET bottles that water comes in also work well and are often available in smaller volume sizes.

[Neo]

Something I thought of is the salt deodorant pump sprays I use have a rubber seal under the cap. One is almost empty so will see if the seal fits another smaller bottle to stop oil leakage.

[Yarbles]

https://www.madaboutscience.com.au/shop ... -pack.html

Can I suggest using PET bottle preforms as in link? Or from different venders...

Can be had cheap or even free
Really strong.
Different sizes available
Light and compact.
Same cap as soft drink bottle so can be replaced or colour coded.
Recyclable

[ribuck]

Anyone tried a small soft drink bottle?

Furthermore you can shrink these bottles.

Hold them by the neck and submerge the body in boiling water. Keep the neck out of the water and it will be unchanged.

[sKelly]

Bearing/Industrial shops carry a range of o ring seals and gaskets. You should be able to find an appropriate seal, food grade even, for your favourite oil container.

Someone like this http://www.alliancesealing.com.au/#/

[Orion]

Anyone tried a small soft drink bottle?

Furthermore you can shrink these bottles.

Hold them by the neck and submerge the body in boiling water. Keep the neck out of the water and it will be unchanged.

Interesting trick! I'll have to try that.

I usually just squeeze all the air out to temporarily "shrink" a bottle, but that's not quite the same as what you're describing.

Do you have any sense for how this heat treatment affects the durability of the bottle?

[Neo]

When the bottle shrinks it is the same amount of plastic just harder.

Will reduce by maybe 30% so start small like a kids pop top juice or the smallest size coke bottle.

(i ended up with mini nalgene, one for oil, one for bio soap and one with a cracked pepper/paprika blend)

[Yarbles]

Probably cheaper than the pet preforms unless you get them for free....
But the pet preforms are a lot neater....there was actually a company that sold them for camping but they had looped lids..... more expensive though

Here on amazon
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blue-Desert-Ke ... B00NNPD290

[CasualNerd]

I ordered a bunch of mylar oil pouches on ebay, they're only $14 for 50 x 150ml bags. I just filled this one with water and put a decent amount of pressure on it, no leaks. Would oil might be more tricky ?

They're probably not ideal if they're going to get poked in the bottom of your pack though, I imagine you could puncture them if you're not careful. They only weight 7 grams each !

[Mark F]

They look identical to the smaller ones you buy kiddies yoghurt in from the supermarket (about 70ml?) and the ones McWilliams uses for their ValSac wines (250ml) and one doesn't have to buy 50. They hold oil without any problems. Obviously they shouldn't just be tossed into the bottom of a pack - I keep mine in my food bag which is packed near the top of the pack or in the pot if I am using a 100g canister. I have been using the small ones for olive oil for a couple of years and have used the larger one for metho which I occasionally use for overnight trips.

[Orion]

I've avoided the metallicized baby food / yogurt containers because (a) they look more fragile to me and (b) it's harder to tell if they are clean. I don't know if they really are less durable but the inability to see if all the food residue is washed out matters to me. So while a little harder to find I've been buying the clear polyethylene ones. At about $2 each (in the US) they are kind of expensive (and I don't eat the baby food) but they do seem to hold up pretty well. I use them primarily for sunscreen, oil, and (before I got the urine jars) finely milled pesto.

Those mylar ones will of course be pretty clean since they're brand new. And at $0.28 each you could treat them as disposable if used for something sticky. Whether the cap seals for oil is just something you have to test.

I've never had the top unscrew or the container burst, but inside a ziplock as a just-in-case is worth it, particularly for oil.

[CasualNerd]

I just filled one half way with water and pout my entire weight on it - 85kg - and no leak, I'm pretty impressed

[Orion]

Burst pressure is one thing but puncture resistance is perhaps more important. And durability when repeatedly flexed is another question. That is, if you plan to reuse them. They are likely not intended for multiple uses.

The threading may seal oil but testing with water won't tell you that.

[Neo]

Hi does anyone know where to get a little bottle with a dropper nozzle?
Like the very small nalgene. I don't want to re-use an eye dropper etc.

It's for taking a small amount of Micropur as a second opinion to UV. Is hard to measure one drop from those mini nalgenes!
Cheers

[rcaffin]

Most Nalgene bottle have a leakproof seal in the lid. How useful.
However, 3 out of 3 tests with olive oil (sun-dried tomatoes) showed that they DO leak slightly, without pressure. Use them as single serve and wrap in paper towel marginally works. A better solution would be nice.

Butter on the other hand seems to stay inside those Nalgene seals, even on hot days. Interesting.

Cheers
Roger

[Neo]

Yeah I have oil in a 50ml one but still keep it in its own little zip lock bag.

[andrewa]

Won’t it still leak through the ziplock? I had a horrible experience one winter years ago with my shop bought roasted capsicums which leaked through my ziplocks onto my sleeping bag. I gave up on oil based things after that. I do, however, trust medical urine containers for small quantities of stuff - I even had some baby oil/dettol/tea tree oil in one recently (insect repellant) and it stayed inside, as it did with another small naglene container. Urine jars are way cheaper ( or free).

A

[Neo]

The nalgene doesn't leak much oil, maybe only the bit that dribbles on the thread when pouring. So in a zip it's OK in my mess bag.

I found the urine jars a bit worse for oil so just use them for powders/spices. One full of popcorn kernels is just the right measure for popping in a 1 litre pot!

[Orion]

[quote="andrewa"]Won’t it still leak through the ziplock? /quote]

If it's a normal ziplock it will. I've put leaky containers in 3 or 4 ziplocks. It results in a big mess but it is a way to keep the oil from migrating outside too quickly.

There are better ziplocks though. I have some that I use for carrying really stinky soft-ripened cheeses or cut onions. And I have another one that I bought for my phone that is supposedly waterproof to 60m and will maintain a seal at -40°C. It's heavier than a regular ziplock of the same size but about the same weight as three of them. Of course they are a lot more expensive and you'd still have a mess inside. Much better to have a container that seals.

[Mark F]

I now try to carry my flexible yogurt pouch of oil in my pot or screw top bowl although it often ends up in my food bag. Being in the pot stops it being crushed or pierced and if a little did manage to escape then it gets cooked and cleaned up in the normal meal time flow - not that I have noticed any seeping out over the last three years of using the flexible pouches.

As for durability of the pouches I have had two in use for about three years and both are still are working well. I dislike treating anything as disposable if it can be reused let alone buy a vast number of new ones when I can re-purpose the quantity I will actually use for far less cost.

While I am not choosing to eat baby food, the yoghurts are just a slightly more liquid yogurt (easiest to clean out) and the fruit puree ones are excellent as a desert. I used to take the small tins of baby food fruit as deserts when I started walking in the 1960's.

[Moondog55]

We could simply avoid the whole issue of leaking oil by going back to using lard, dripping, speck and butter or clarified duck fat
Yummm Clarified duck fat

[Neo]

Coconut oil solidifies when cool.

I've never tried cooking with ghee...

I grew up with one of those enamel strainer pots in the fridge for keeping roast drippings. Now I don't eat lambs or have a (beer) fridge, how un-Australian of me!

Have four sizes of Esky though

[Neo]

Last week I found some people who use Trangias don't use oil, just a bit of water to avoid melting the thin pots. Seemed to work

[dashandsaph]

Another alternative container is the plastic 250 ml pre mixed salad dressing bottles - one brand is Birch and Waite. I haven't tried them in the field but they seem pretty robust and have a good seal presumably good enough seal for the oil in the dressing. May be worth a try.