YETI Rambler 16 oz Travel Bottle with Commuter Cap Review

The perfect travel bottle should have a few key ingredients: be easy to open and close, comfortable to drink from, and keep your beverage at the temperature of your choosing. It should also not leak, because otherwise you could just bring the glass or mug in your cupboard with you wherever you go, right? Oh, and it needs to fit in cup holders and bottle pockets, so you just don’t have to carry it everywhere.

Turns out, that’s a pretty long list. Can the YETI Rambler 16 oz Travel Bottle with Commuter Cap rise to the occasion? Let’s find out.

The Rundown

We’re testing the 16-ounce version of the bottle, but you can also opt for a 12-ounce size if you don’t need as big of a bottle. We like the larger capacity because we drink a lot of coffee, water, and tea throughout the day, but plenty of brands sell 12-ounce options, so someone must be using them. You will save 0.12 ounces of weight with the smaller bottle, and when you consider that the 16-ouncer weighs as much as it can hold, that might be worth it for you.

It’s stainless steel with a powder-coated finish on the exterior and comes in a range of colors, like most metal water bottles available today. We’re testing a seasonal colorway, Black Forest Green, but seven core colors are typically available, along with the rotating ones.

They each come with a black Commuter Cap, which is made with BPA-free plastic. It comes in two parts: an outer ring that screws into the cup and an inner plug that screws into the ring. It’s easy to take it apart and simple to clean just two pieces, which we appreciate. The entire bottle is also dishwasher safe if you prefer.

The Commuter Cap allows you to drink from anywhere around the ring, so you don’t have to worry about which way the bottle is facing in the car. Just untwist the center plug and take a sip. We have to point out that it can take some effort to untwist the plug from completely closed, though, and it’s harder to do while driving. You can unlock the plug from its completely sealed, leakproof position and then turn it just partway back after you sip to make it easier to open one-handed next time, but it’s definitely not the easiest-to-open bottle we’ve tested. We often leave it open while driving so as not to be distracted behind the wheel, but that will affect the insulation.

You can get a different cap if that bothers you. YETI Rambler bottles are compatible with a wide variety of caps, including the Chug Cap, Straw Cap, and Cup Cap. Some of those don’t work with hot liquids, though, so keep that in mind if you want to use your bottle for coffee or tea along with water and other cold beverages.

The YETI Rambler’s double-walled insulation keeps your drink at the temperature you want for a long time, as long as you seal the cap. In fact, when we poured boiling water inside, we had to remove the entire cap for a few minutes to get it to a drinkable temperature, as it was not cooling down on its own after quite some time with the cap just unlocked.

Packability

What makes this bottle different from other YETI Ramblers is its tapered base. It has the same wide mouth as other bottles in the line, yet narrows near the bottom to be more cup holder-friendly. We haven’t had any issues using it in several different cars, and it slides in and out quite nicely when you’re trying to take a drink. Our only problem is with unlocking the cap when we’re trying to do so. The bottle doesn’t get stuck in a cup holder, which is great, but then you also can’t count on it holding the bottle in place as you try to wrench open the top. You win some, you lose some. We were usually able to unlock it by pushing down on the bottle as we untwisted it, trying to hold it in place, but it didn’t always work on the first try.

It’s also quite heavy, coming in at 1 pound (0.5 kg) when empty. You probably won’t mind that as much when you’re taking it in the car or carrying it in a backpack, but if you’re holding it by hand on a walk, it gets heavy fast. We tested it with coffee on a 3-mile morning walk and started to feel it after just a few blocks. By mile 2, it was getting quite heavy. It wasn’t leaking, even as our tester shifted it around and carried it horizontally instead of upright to give her wrists some relief, but it definitely got uncomfortable to hold. After all, there’s no handle, so your hand must grip the bottle the entire time, which can get tiring.

Quick Comparison

The easiest comparison with the YETI Rambler 16 oz Travel Bottle with Commuter Cap is the YETI Rambler 18oz Bottle, of course. The two are remarkably similar in size, with the 18-ounce option only 0.8 inches (2 cm) taller than the 16-ounce because it has a broader base. It comes with the Chug Cap, though, which has a bottle spout instead of a ring to drink from, and a handle on the top that makes it easier to carry. Since most of the difference is with the caps, though, if you want to drink hot beverages through the 18-ounce bottle, you can put the Commuter Cap on. If you want a handle on your 16-ounce Travel Bottle, you can add the Chug Cap to it.

Maybe you’re considering another brand, though, perhaps a ​​Hydro Flask Coffee with Flex Sip Lid? It comes in 16- and 20-ounce variants, so the capacity is about the same, and the 16-ounce weighs 0.72 pounds (0.3 kg), which is less than the 16- and 12-ounce versions of the Rambler Travel Bottle. In our testing, the insulation works as well as the YETI. The Flex Sip Lid is also easier to open, and it includes a handle. Win, win, win. However, the caveat is that we’ve had the Flex Sip Lid leak on us a time or two (or more!) when drinking after using it for a while, and it has four pieces to clean and reassemble compared to the Commuter Cap’s two. So, you’re making some sacrifices to make it easier to hold.

Which is better? That’s up to you.