Homemade Backpacking Gear

by Jason Klass

A Cheap, lightweight Storage solution for liquids

by Jason Klass

Difficulty Rating:  1

Material Source:  1 - 2

I recently purchased these dropper bottles:  Dropper Bottles (shown right)  to pare down my stock containers for liquids.  They're great because they're light (0.175 oz.), the nozzle is removeable for easy filling, and they're small for easy storage; however, they're not perfect for every situation.  I found that the 10 ml capacity was more than I needed for overnight trips and was a bit overkill.  In Walgreens drugstore today I happened across some breath-freshener drops that were more compact (shown left) and were only $0.59!.  Notice the shorter height and slimmer profile. 

anatomy of a dropper bottle

From the picture you can see that taken apart, both bottles have a removeable nozzle that makes for easier filling.  Notice the smaller size of the cap and nozzle of the Walgreen's bottle on the left.

I.D.

The BPL bottles are easy to label.  The plastic will take to any permanent marker and the colored screw tops will help identify contents.

Dimensional Comparison

 Dropper Bottle

 Weight

 Capacity

Dimensions

 Price (ea.) 

 BPL Mini Drop Bottle  0.175 oz.  10 ml  2 1/4" H x 3" around  $1.14
 Walgreen's "Fresh Breath" drops  0.100 oz.  3.7 ml  2" H x 2 1/4" around  $0.59

for aqua-mira users

The BPL bottle uses 7 drops of both A and B.  The Walgreen's bottle uses 11 drops of both A and B.

Caveats

1.  The Walgreen's bottle takes some effort to remove the mint smell.  Be prepared to wash it thoroughly.  So, Unless you want mint-flavored Tabasco sauce, you should probably get the untainted BPL bottles for your consumable liquids and put things like soap or toothpaste in the Walgreen's bottle. 

2.  Keep in mind that the mouth of the Walgreen's bottle is much narrower than that of the BPL one and will require more skill to fill.  You will most likely need to transfer the contents of whatever you're storing to some kind of intermediary bottle with a spout like the Nalgene squirt bottles to fill this one.

3.  If you like to label the contents of your bottles with a Sharpie, you should know that the BPL bottle holds ink much better than the Walgreen's bottle (it easily rubs off).  Confusion among contents can be avoided if you differentiate by bottle style rather than color coding or labelling.

Conclusion

While the Walgreen's bottle is cheaper, more compact, and lighter, the limited capacity would only be suitable for highly-concentrated liquids (eg. Tabasco, DEET, biodegradeable soap/sanitizer, etc.) mostly on shorter trips and overnighters.  If you need more capacity (eg. foot powder, hand lotion, etc.), the BPL bottles would be better.  Since I do mostly 1-2 night trips, I like the compactness of the Walgreen's dropper.  So, combinations of the two different styles might satisfy most but I think those of us condemmened by our jobs to overnight trips would find the Walgreen's dropper bottle the most suitable and economical choice.

where to get them

Click on the links below to buy, locate, or compare the specs of the bottles mentioned in this article.

BPL Drop Bottle

Walgreen's Fresh Breath Drops

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