I've frozen my Skratch and Elite (nano?) bottles with no issues. The Elite works best out of all the ones I've tried so far.

Polar- no problem here. Don't fill all the way up and leave the top off.

Great way to keep bottles cool during a race. Freeze the night before and the put on your bike in the morning. X2, the ice will expand so keep a little extra room for expansion.

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Freeze Hammer Perpetuem in Polar bottle, no issues.

This. If you freeze with the top on, and have any water in the nozzle area, it will be hard to get the water out, or even get the cap off, and you will have to thaw it out.

I froze a Podium chill once, laying on its side, with the cap on and nozzle locked, and then I could not get the cap off, could not unlock the nozzle. Had to thaw it out for a bit before I could do anything.

Echoing above...yup, it is fine.
Be sure to practice this a little bit. I have frozen gatorade in a podium chill and it was barely thawed in a pretty hot (~90ish?) 3 hour ride. I don't remember for sure, but definitely at least half ice still. Additionally, your perfectly mixed gatorade will thaw unevenly, making the first sips very sweet and the final sips quite dilute.

geoffreydean wrote:

Has anyone had luck freezing water or water/Skratch in an insulated bottle like Camelbak brand or Polar brand? I'm concerned they'll crack and be worthless.

In the summer, I used a hydro flask Freezing insulated water bottle to pack ice beer without cracking. After 24 hours, the beer in the bottle is still cooler than the beer in the glass. It is really a pleasant thing for the hot summer, isn't it? Even if its price is more expensive than ordinary stainless steel cups, believe me, it is worth the money, you will not be disappointed.

Yup. All summer long. Polar xxx chill of various sizes and insulation.

I usually leave the house with my bta filled with ready to drink mix, and two frozen podium chill bottles.

I have had a bottle crack on me while freezing, even with leaving a space and the cap off - basically the indentation where it grips onto the cage prevented the freezing water moving upwards, so it moved outwards instead. Admittedly this was with a bottle made of a fairly rigid plastic, and a couple of season's use.

This has made me more cautious. Although I have never had problems with bottles made of softer plastic (ie. if you can squeeze it as you drink it, it is probably OK.

Now I either freeze it in stages (fill 1/3, then freeze it, fill another 1/3 and freeze that, then freeze the final 1/3). Or I fill it with ice cubes, then fill the gaps with chilled water - doesn't last as long as a solid frozen bottle, but the upside is that I have some liquid I can drink in the early stages of a long hot ride.

The other thing to watch is that when frozen plastic can become brittle, and can split/splinter if dropped when solid with ice.

For water, fill the bottle with crushed ice (ideally) or ice cubes and top off with refrigerated water. This way the bottle is squeezable from the start.

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I'll typically do this and just fill as much ice as I can then fill up the bottles. But if I wanted to freeze it just don't fill it full and leave room for expansion. I'd personally just tilt the bottle a little to give more even distribution of the ice for cooling/melting effects (and so I can have a spot to squeeze the bottle for what is melted so far otherwise it is a solid mass for quite some time).

I've got a couple Camelbak podium chills and a polar brand insulted. I typically use the camelbaks when riding though because I like the auto nozzle better than the Polar's more traditional pull/push type.

Yeah Polar. It seems to be an art of freezing them the perfect amount. Also, sometimes I'll freeze the back bottle more so that its perfect in the heat.

I've largely abandoned using those bottles now and pretty much use the throwaway Gatorade bottles that they give at races. I can toss them if they aren't good and if I need more, I order 12 bottles to my front door off of Amazon for $24 bucks.

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Been doing it for years with Podium Chill bottles. No problems whatsoever. (Well, except that it can take awhile to thaw. I've been on rides when I wanted a drink and there was nothing but a solid block of ice in the bottle.)