Why We Switched From Stainless Steel to Glass Water Bottles

If you’re looking to make eco-friendly choices, switch to a reusable water bottle. Learn why glass water bottles are a safer drinking choice than plastic or stainless steel.

Glass and stainless steel water bottles with other eco-friendly lifestyle items.
© Deposit Photos / bigacim.gmail.com

We try very hard not to use plastic water bottles. Over the last couple years, we have gotten very good about carrying our reusable water bottles with us everywhere and filling them up with our reverse osmosis water out of our tap or with the water from our Berkey water filter.

Up until now, we’ve been using stainless steel water bottles. I thought they were the safest option until I started doing some digging recently. It turns out they aren’t as safe as I thought ☹

One study on stainless steel water bottles found that:

  • Iron, chromium and nickel were all found to leach into both alkaline and acidic foods and beverages, while none of the metals leached into distilled water.
  • Leaching of iron, chromium and nickel was observed from both new and old utensils.
  • Leaching of iron occurred in all foods.
  • Leaching of nickel occurred in curd, fruit juice andpickle (more acid)
  • Leaching of chromium occurred in milk, coffee, and tea (only slightly acid)

Unfortunately, there are several other studies also providing data on the leaching of metals into food and beverages. You can find a list of many to start with at the bottom of this study I’m talking about.

We Switched to Glass Water Bottles

After learning that metals can leach from stainless steel, we decided to switch to glass water bottles. Yes, our Berkey is stainless steel. However, it doesn’t take a daily beating like reusable water bottles do.

I don’t know about you, but our stainless steel water bottles always get dings in them. So that makes me personally worry about leaching from the water bottles just a bit more than I would otherwise.

The first glass water bottle we tried out was a Lifefactory glass water bottle that we received to review. Our immediate reaction was that the water tasted so much better – so much cleaner. We liked it so much that we ended up buying glass water bottles for the entire family

Some people may even call me clumsy.

To give you an idea of how clumsy I am, in one week alone, I broke the glass shelf in the refrigerator and our 2-gallon glass beverage dispenser (). So it was no surprise when I went to take a drink and dropped my water bottle – from about 5 feet – onto our laminate floors.

Water Tastes Better from Glass

Like I said, even if you’re not personally worried about anything leaching from stainless steel, water tastes so much better out of a glass bottle. If I leave water in my stainless steel bottle for too long, it always has a funny taste to it. Kind of a metallic taste. I have not had that problem with my glass bottles.

We do still have some stainless steel water bottles for times where we can’t bring glass since stainless steel is still safer than plastic. But if I have to choose between glass or stainless steel, I’ll reach for a glass water bottle every time.

I feel safer drinking water from glass bottles, and it tastes immensely better too.

Where to go to Get The Best Water Filter

We love our Berkey water filter. It’s one of the best things we have in the kitchen. You can read our review of the Royal Berkey Water Filter  or you can check out their full line on the Berkey Water Filter Systems website.

Where to Get Glass Water Bottles

If the Lifefactory water bottles aren’t your style, here are a few other fun choices:

It’s a personal choice whether you go with stainless steel or glass drinking bottles. I hope this article gave you some good information to make the right decision for your family.

2 thoughts on “Why We Switched From Stainless Steel to Glass Water Bottles”

  1. I came across your article while looking for safe materials for cooking, which would be an extreme scenario of potential leaching in heat (and acidic foods). I’m curious, what effect of Nickle, iron, or chromium did you read was bad for health? I read this study https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4284091/ which says Nickle can cause dermatitis in Nickle sensitive people and that chromium can cause anemia (Stainless steel doesn’t leach much iron due to its protective shield of chromium oxide.) It says the leaching diminishes over time through use so it seems used stainless steel could be safer. I would love to use glass for everything but it’s not always practical, so I was thinking of using stainless steel because it seems safer than materials like Teflon and plastic. But I’m wondering if there were any negative health effects you read more extreme than dermatitis and anemia?

    1. Hi Sue, good question. Have you heard of Systemic Nickel Allergy Syndrome? Of course, this condition is rare, but there are those of us that do have severe nickel allergies. There is a nickel-free version of stainless steel called 18/0 that I use for silverware. I also use Caraway Cookware, which is ceramic coated and I love it.

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