Analyzing All 3 Versions Of The Collab Between Sawyer Squeeze x Cnoc
Squeeze + Vecto 2L | Squeeze + Vesica 1L | Squeeze Micro + Hydriam .75L
To reliably meet their water carrying and purifying needs, many thru-hikers choose to combine a Sawyer Squeeze x Cnoc Vecto 2L Bladder. The marriage of these two best-in-class products is a naturally synergistic fit, and thus an organic brand collab was born. Specifically, the Sawyer Squeeze is considered the most reliable backcountry filter, and Cnoc Vecto Bladder is an upgrade to the complimentary Sawyer Pouches because it’s more durable and easier to fill.
While that’s the main story, Sawyer Squeeze is also sold accompanying the Cnoc Vesica 1L Collapsible Bottle, and the Sawyer Squeeze Micro is paired with a Cnoc Hydriam .75L soft bottle. Compared to purchasing any of these items individually, no discount is given.
- Sawyer Squeeze x Cnoc Vecto 2L is the best-in-class, most reliable hydration bladder filter combo. Shop now.
- Sawyer Squeeze x Cnoc Vesica 1L is a Smartwater bottle alternative with relative pros and cons. Shop now.
- Sawyer Squeeze Micro x Cnoc Hydriam 750ml is too tall for its intended use case, despite both products being good individually. Shop now.
Compare to more great options in our guides to water filters, ultralight water bottles, sustainable water bottles, and shoulder strap bottle holders.
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Tables of Contents
- Sawyer Squeeze x Cnoc Vecto 2L Bladder (↓)
- Cnoc Vecto vs Sawyer Pouches (↓)
- Sawyer Squeeze x Cnoc Vesica 1L Bottle (↓)
- Cnoc Vesica vs Smartwater (↓)
- Sawyer Squeeze Micro x Cnoc Hydriam 750ml (↓)
- Cnoc Hydriam + Micro vs Katadyn BeFree (↓)
- Conclusion (↓)
Comparison Table
| Filter | Vessel | Price ($) | Capacity (L) | Weight (oz) |
| Sawyer Squeeze | Cnoc Vecto 2L | 65 | 2.00 | 5.8 |
| Sawyer Squeeze | Cnoc Vesica 1L | 60 | 1.00 | 4.8 |
| Sawyer Squeeze Micro | Cnoc Hydriam 750ml | 50 | 0.75 | 3.4 |
| Sawyer Squeeze | x2 Sawyer Pouch 1L | 41 | 2.00 | 5.0 |
| Sawyer Squeeze | Smartwater Bottle | 43 | 1.00 | 4.2 |
| Katadyn BeFree AC | Katadyn BeFree AC | 45 | 0.50 | 2.5 |
Sawyer Squeeze x Cnoc Vecto 2L Hydration Bladder
The biggest badge of honor for Sawyer Squeeze is that it’s the most popular filter unit on the PCT. Thru-hikers trust it because it is the OG and most reliable unit in a crowded field of great options, and fits onto more desirable bottles than any other. While some filters have marginally faster flow rates when new, Sawyer Squeeze seems to have the best durability and long term flow rate, and is the most consistent unit midway into its lifespan. Furthermore, it responds better than others to flush cleaning. While similar in size and weight to Platypus QuickDraw, the biggest downside to the Sawyer Squeeze is that it’s larger and heavier than competing options from Katadyn, HydraPak, and Lifestraw.
Hydration bladders are another important piece of gear wherever water is scarce, and the Cnoc Vecto 2L is widely considered best-in-class. It has three major things going for it. First and foremost, the fact that its 28mm threaded head fits a Sawyer Squeeze filter (42mm head also available, fits Katadyn BeFree). Secondly, the fact that the back end opens up for fast and easy filling and reliably closes shut without leaking. Third and finally, it is lightweight and durable. Most other bladders check two of those boxes, but no other option we’re aware of checks all three.
Combining Sawyer Squeeze x Cnoc Vecto 2L is a best-in-class system for storing excess water and filtering into other vessels.
- Price: $65
- Filter Weight: 3.0
- Bladder Weight: 2.8 oz
- Capacity: 2L
- Competitors: Platypus QuickDraw System 2L. HydraPak Seeker with Filter Cap
- Pros: Large, light, packable. Most reliable filter. Easy to fill. Ideal for filtering into other vessels. Proven effective on many thru-hikes.
- Cons: Awkward to drink out of. Floppy filter head. TPU taste at first. Must not freeze. Sawyer filter is larger and heavier than avg. Doesn’t come with spare gasket.
Cnoc Vecto 2L vs Two 1L Sawyer Pouches
Traditionally, the Sawyer Squeeze Filter unit has been sold with two complimentary 1L Sawyer Pouches. The nice thing about them is that they’re free, and lightweight. At one ounce per pouch, two of them are 0.8 lighter than the 2L Cnoc Vecto. And together, they create a redundant system. If one pouch should fail, you still have the other pouch to fall back on.
However, the Cnoc Vecto 2L also has some major advantages. It is significantly easier to fill with water. The Sawyer Pouch can only be filled with their 28mm opening, whereas the entire back end of Vecto opens. It takes many swipes through the lake to fill a Sawyer Pouch, but Vecto fills in one fell swoop. Furthermore, the Sawyer Pouch are prone to leakage caused by damage from over squeezing. Conversely, the Cnoc tends to hold up to long term squeeze filtering better. One downside worth calling out is that when new, it imparts a plastic-y TPU taste onto the water (while Sawyer Pouches do not), but this goes away over time.
While both options are lightweight and collapsible, we believe the reliability of the Cnoc Vecto and user-friendly fill up experience makes it the superior water-storage option compared to two Sawyer Pouches.
Sawyer Squeeze x Cnoc Vesica 1L
As we noted above, Sawyer Squeeze is the preferred option for thru-hikers because it is the most reliable, long lasting water filter in the genre. It mounts to a wide array of 28mm threaded bottle heads, including Cnoc Vesica 1L, and the two can now be purchased together as a cohesive unit, albeit without a discount.
The Vesica is a unique hybrid hard/soft bottle. The top and bottom are both hard plastic, while the sides are soft, made of the same TPU material as Cnoc’s Vecto bladder (see above). When combined, the system is great for filling other vessels, and you can drink out of it directly with two hands. Note that like Vecto, the Vesica imparts a plastic-y taste on the water at first, but this fades with time.
This design has significant pros and cons compared to other options. The advantage of its soft-sided-ness is that it’s collapsible, meaning it stores small when empty, and shrinks in size as you drink from it; no burping required. The advantage of its hard-sided-ness is that it can stand upright on flat surfaces.
But there are significant disadvantages too. Mounting a Sawyer Squeeze atop the Vesica makes it extremely top heavy. And in conjunction with the unstructured sidewalls, the end result is a very floppy and unbalanced bottle that can only reliably stand upright when full. When a Sawyer-mounted Vesica is half-full, the filter head is extremely prone to flopping over sideways. This makes it awkward to store in backpack side bottle pockets, unless there is an additional strap to keep the Sawyer Squeeze in place and the system in vertical alignment. If a half-full Vesica is opened to re-fill with air, it retains the advantages of a stable structure that keeps the system in vertical orientation, but the top-heaviness gets even worse and it loses out on collapsibility. Ergo, it’s either stable or collapsible, never both at once.
- Price: $60
- Filter Weight: 3.0
- Bottle Weight: 1.8
- Capacity: 1L
- Competitor: Smartwater Bottle + Sawyer Squeeze
- Pros: Lightweight. Collapsible. Most reliable filter. Doesn’t require regular burping. Doesn’t support the single-use water bottle industry. Capable of standing upright. Good for filling other vessels and to drink out of.
- Cons: Very top heavy and floppy when upright. Flops outward in backpack side bottle pockets unless restrained or full. TPU taste at first. Must not freeze. Doesn’t come with spare gasket.
Cnoc Vesica vs Smartwater Bottle vs Sawyer Pouches
The elephant in the room, and Cnoc Vesica’s stiffest competitor, is the 1L Smartwater bottle, the preferred vessel of thru-hikers and ultralight enthusiasts. Compared to Smartwater, Vesica has advantages and disadvantages. At the end of this section, we will also draw a comparison of Vesica to 1L the Sawyer Pouch.
Vesica’s primary performance advantage is that it is naturally collapsible, and does not require “burping” to let air in as you drain water out. As such, Vesica is the superior option to use for filtering water into other vessels.
But also, the fact that using a Vesica instead of a Smartwater means you are not supporting the abhorrent Single-Use-Water-Bottle Industry. And to be clear, even if you use a Smartwater bottle for months or even years on end (which can be done), you are still funding an incredibly harmful business. Lastly, the plastic Vesica is made of plastic that is designed to be re-used, whereas Smartwater bottles are not. Long term use of a Smartwater bottle has not been safety-approved, and gives us nano-plastic contamination concerns with repeated warping of the bottle in sun and via squeeze-compressions.
Long-term health and ethics aside, from a performance evaluation perspective, Smartwater bottles have more advantages than Vesica. Firstly, it is far less expensive, costing about 10-15% as much money. Secondly it is also nearly an ounce lighter weight (1.2 oz vs 2.1 oz). Thirdly, the stiff sidewalls make it much more stable and capable of standing up right, and situates better in side pockets without the need to restrain the filter head for sideways flopping prevention. Durability-wise, Smartwater bottles are a simpler design, and we’ve seen them last for years of heavy-usage. Vesica’s body, on the other hand, is comprised of three pieces connected together, and has more potential for failure at the welds.
While neither is strictly better, we think Smartwater bottles are the better performer overall. But Vesica is healthier, more ethical, and superior at filtering into other vessels.
While both Sawyer Squeeze Pouches and Vesica are collapsible, the Vesica is more durable, stands upright better, and is easier to drink out of. Despite the fact that a Sawyer Pouch weighs half as much, we think Vesica is the clear winner and an upgrade over Sawyer Pouches.
Sawyer Squeeze Micro x Cnoc Hydriam .75
The Squeeze Micro combined with a Hydriam Soft flask is the smallest and lightest pairing in the Sawyer Squeeze X Cnoc collab family, weighing in at less than four ounces! Individually, these are both good products. But we’ll admit that we aren’t as keen on the synergies between them, given the system’s size, intended purpose, and a competitive marketplace of more compact options that do the same thing.
Let’s start by discussing the Sawyer Squeeze Micro. This version of the Sawyer Filter weighs 50% less than the original (2 oz vs 3 oz), and is about 30% shorter (4” vs 5.5”). That’s all well and good, but in our experience, the smaller unit has a slower flow rate to begin with, and is more prone to clogging. So despite the size and weight savings, we view the original Sawyer Squeeze as the superior option to the Micro, even for ultralight backpackers.
The 750ml Cnoc Hydriam is a high-quality collapsible soft flask made with the same durable TPU as the Vecto and cannot stand upright on its own. It is very high quality, and by itself one of the better soft flasks on the market. Note that like Vecto and Vesica, it also imparts a plastic-y taste at first.
The industry average soft flask tends to be either 500ml or 600ml, so this model is larger than average, and that’s part of the problem. With the filter atop, it’s 14.5” tall, making it difficult to front-mount on shoulder strap pockets when full. It’s also difficult to store in backpack side bottle pockets, since the filter will flop over and stick out the side unless retrained. A 500ml version is available.
Hydriam x Squeeze Micro is also too small and slow to justify choosing as your primary filtration vessel. If you wanted to fill up two 1L bottles, you would need to dip Hydriam into a water source three times, compared to only once for the Cnoc Vecto + Sawyer. And that’s not even accounting for the fact that the original full-size Sawyer filters faster than the Micro.
All said and done, we believe that the Sawyer Squeeze Micro x Cnoc Hydriam 750ml is not a great pairing. This system is too large to front mount, too floppy to side mount, kind of awkward to drink out, and is too small/slow to be a primary filter.
- Price: $50
- Filter Weight: 2.0
- Bottle Weight: 1.4
- Capacity: 750ml
- Competitors: Katadyn BeFree, Lifestraw Peak, HydraPak UltraFlask + Filter Cap
- Pros: Very light and compact. Micro has slower flow rate than original. Likely more reliable/durable than Katadyn BeFree.
- Cons: Too tall to carry in a front shoulder strap pocket. Flops outward in backpack side bottle pockets unless restrained. Low volume and slower flow makes it less effective as a primary filtering unit. TPU taste at first. Must not freeze. Doesn’t come with spare gasket.
Sawyer Squeeze Micro + Cnoc Hydriam vs Katadyn BeFree
Comparing this system to the Katadyn BeFree AC 500ml (and others like it with sunken filter units) is a slam-dunk in BeFree’s favor, and it all comes down to length. When both are full, the 14.5” Squeeze Micro + Hydriam is significantly taller than the 10.75” Katadyn, which fits into vest straps and shoulder strap pockets much better. Not only is the 750ml Hydriam soft flask itself longer than Katadyn’s, but the BeFree filter protrudes less because a majority of the filter body is sunken into the flask.
While individually these are both good products and the Sawyer X Cnoc version might be a bit more durable than BeFree, combined they are simply too large and long to justify the pairing, when significantly shorter options do the same task. As such, we can’t recommend this specific product.
Editor’s Note: during the course of writing this comparison piece, a new version of Katadyn BeFree was released, now called the BeFree AC (activated carbon). For all intents and purposes, we’ll assume the new version is similar to or better than its predecessor, and will revisit this review should we change our minds. The old version is pictured here.
Close Up on Cnoc Vecto Hydration Bladder Opening
Sawyer Squeeze x Cnoc Collab Review Conclusion
Sawyer Squeeze x Cnoc Vecto 2L is the best overall and most reliable hydration bladder-filter combo on the market. Sawyer Squeeze x Cnoc Vesica 1L is a respectable alternative to Smartwater bottle use that isn’t strictly better or worse. We’re unimpressed by the Sawyer Squeeze Micro x CNOC Hydriam 750ml because it’s significantly taller than competing options. While individual pairing results may vary, we’re absolutely stoked on this brand collab, and hope to see more like it in the future. Happy hydrating!
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