These are the plain workhorse bottles — natural translucent, unlined polypropylene screw closure, nothing printed on them. They are lab bottle stock, which is why they are worth having in a vehicle: they hold up to solvents and fuels better than a kitchen container, they stack, and they cost little enough that you can keep a dozen sizes.

Square is the reason to choose these. Round bottles waste about a fifth of the space in any box or drawer; square ones sit shoulder to shoulder. In a vehicle where every liter of storage is accounted for, that is not a small thing.

Specifications

• Capacity 16 oz (500 mL)
• Closure 53 mm
• Height 146 mm
• Diameter 74 mm
• Bottle HDPE, closure polypropylene, unlined
• Natural translucent
• Leakproof with its Nalgene closure
• FDA 21 CFR 177.1520 and USP Class VI listed
• Autoclavable — not published
• Upper temperature limit — not published
• Country of origin — not published

On the leakproof claim: the manufacturer guarantees these leakproof with their own closure, with water, at ordinary temperature and pressure. That is the claim as made — it is not a pressure rating, and it is not a promise about solvents or hot liquids.

These are genuinely HDPE. Worth stating plainly, because Nalgene also makes a square bottle in polycarbonate — sold as “Lexan” — which carries a California Proposition 65 reproductive-harm warning on the manufacturer’s own pages. We do not stock the polycarbonate squares. This one is HDPE, and HDPE is not within the scope of that warning.

Closure sizes vary by capacity in this family — 38, 43, 53 and 63 mm. A cap from one size will not fit another.

What the manufacturer does and does not publish

This is lab-quality bottle stock — the same molding Nalgene supplies to laboratories, which is exactly why it is good for the field. Being honest about the data that comes with it: the manufacturer publishes the resin, the capacity, the closure size and the dimensions, and lists compliance with FDA 21 CFR 177.1520 and USP Class VI. It does not publish a country of origin, an upper temperature limit, or a BPA statement for this line. The BPA-free language you will see on Nalgene’s consumer bottles is a claim about those bottles, and we are not going to borrow it for this one. If any of those three points decides the purchase for you, ask us first and we will put the question to the supplier.