Hydro Flask bottles are a pretty expensive addition to your outdoor gear. These stainless steel bottles can keep your drinks cold for a long time and are extremely useful to have with you during your outdoor activities and adventures.

As Hydro Flask water bottles are so popular, it’s probably not much of a surprise that some people are trying to cash in on them by selling fake Hydro Flask bottles.

In this article, we look at some of the ways you can tell the difference between an authentic Hydro Flask and a fake Hydro Flask.

1. Seller Reputation
   You can normally get a good idea about the quality of the product you will receive from a seller based on their reputation.
   Buying your Hydro Flask from the brand itself is probably the best way of making sure you’re going to get the real deal. Other big-name stores with good reputations are also a good choice.
   When buying online (particularly on sites such as Amazon and eBay), you need to be careful and look at the seller in a bit of detail. Are they a well-known store? Do they sell other cool gear that looks like it could fit in with them selling Hydro Flasks? What are the reviews about them like?
   Getting a better understanding of the person or business you are buying from can go a long way in helping you work out if your Hydro Flask is genuine or fake.
2. Lid – Rubber Seal
   Some companies that are selling Fake Hydro Flasks have actually done quite a good job at making them look as similar to the real thing as possible. The lid, in particular, can make it quite challenging to tell the difference between the real one and a fake.
   However, if you look closely at the lid, there are usually a couple of things that give away a fake Hydro Flask. The rubber gasket in the lid is the first thing to look at. On a real Hydro Flask, this gasket will be clear, whereas on fake Hydro Flasks, they are usually black. This is likely because black gaskets are more common and cheaper, so the fakers spend as little money as possible making their counterfeit Hydro Flasks.
   Another thing to look for on the lid of your water bottles to see if they are fake or not is to look at the overall quality. On a real Hydro Flask, the lid will be solid, well-made, and look neat. Fake Hydro Flasks will probably have gaps, lines, cracks, and other deformities that give them away as fakes.
3. Logo Font and Text
   A fake Hydro Flask would have been made cheaply, quickly, and in ways that severely limit the quality of the product. This means there will be a lot of errors and irregularities that show you have a fake Hydro Flask.
   Looking at the logo font and text on your bottle is usually a good way of telling the difference between a fake and a genuine Hydro Flask. Weird gaps, inconsistent shapes, and strange styling are indications that you have a fake product.
4. Writing on the Bottom
   Real Hydro Flasks have printed information on the bottom exterior surface. This is printed in upper and lower case letters and is neat, easy to read, and fits the style of the bottle.
   Fake Hydro Flasks will have larger, normally uppercase letters printed on the bottom of the bottle. The text may or may not make complete sense, and it will look out of place on expensive water bottles.
5. Colors and Size Options
   Hydro Flask only makes its bottles in certain colors and sizes. Before purchasing a Hydro Flask online, you should check with the brand itself that the color and size combination is one that they have actually made.
   For example, the brand has never made black and white bottles. If you see a black and white Hydro Flask for sale, it’s guaranteed to be a fake as they have never been made.
   Some colors are only available in certain sizes too, so it’s worth taking some time to see if the brand has ever made the type of bottle you are looking to buy.
6. Price
   A cheaper-than-expected Hydro Flask is probably a fake Hydro Flask.
   The brand has strict price points for retailers to sell their products at, so if the price looks too good to be true – it probably is!
7. New Neck Design
   New Hydro Flasks have a different neck design than older models. This can be a way of telling the difference between a fake and a genuine bottle, as fakes will still have the old, more rounded design.
   That being said, real Hydro Flasks are still available with the old neck design, so this might not be the easiest way of telling them apart.
8. Packaging
   Looking at the quality of packaging can also help you identify a fake Hydro Flask. A genuine Hydro Flask will be packed in a sturdy box with a recyclable sleeve around the bottle.
   Fakes will probably be sent in a cheap, thin box with bubble wrap or similar used as cushioning.
9. Inner Base Bubble
   On the interior base of a real Hydro Flask, there is a fairly large bubble. This bubble is present in a lot of fakes, but it tends to be smaller than the real one.
   A quick look inside your new bottle can help you work out if you have a real or fake water bottle.
10. Printed Leaflet
    Real Hydro Flasks will come with a branded printed leaflet telling you how to care for your bottle. Fakes are unlikely to have this.
11. Printed Sleeve
    The printed sleeve that goes around the bottles looks very similar to the real and fake Hydro Flasks.
    Look for errors or inconsistencies in fonts and styling as well as the sleeve being glued onto the bottle (genuine Hydro Flasks have the sleeve slid on and not glued in place).
12. Barcode Sticker
    Although the barcode stickers can look very convincing on fake bottles, errors in the year and color tend to be clear giveaways that they are not genuine article.
13. Ice Retention
    It’s worth keeping in mind that fake Hydro Flasks work better than you might expect. They tend to have a vacuum seal and are vacuum insulated, so they can actually perform equally as well as the real Hydro Flasks in ice retention tests.
    You would think that the fakes wouldn’t keep your stuff cold for very long, but they do seem to do a pretty good job of this.

Where to Buy Real Hydro Flasks

If you want to be 100% certain that you are buying a real Hydro Flask, buying it from the brand itself will be the best way.

Hydro Flask produces stainless steel bottles (and other cool gear). Hydro Flask products have impressive ice-retaining properties and are all available on Hydro Flask’s website.

If you are buying on Amazon, Tall Ridge is the exclusive Amazon seller, so if they aren’t selling the bottle you’re looking at – it’s likely to be a fake.