Nathan QuickDraw Plus – Product Review
Pretty much since I started running Ultras, I’ve been a “loyal” user of Ultimate Direction handhelds. The Ultimate Direction FastDraw Extreme has been my go-to handheld for years. There are a few other brands out there, but I’ve been happy with my UD bottles
At Badwater this year, Nathan was kind enough to hook our team up with a bunch of bottles (including the QuickDraw Plus, the QuickShot Plus and some Fire & Ice Bottles), hydration packs, LED Strobe Lights and reflective vests.
As far as I was concerned, the two most useful items they gave us were the QuickDraw Plus handheld bottles and the LED Strobe Lights. At Badwater, with the runner and pacer going each through at least one bottle every mile and the crew needing to have a few different bottles ready at all times, it’s hard to have too many bottles. And between 7pm and 6am, every crew member is required to have two small red lights on them – one in front and one on their back.
QuickDraw Plus:
Here are my main pros and cons:
Pro:
- The strap has a hole at the top that your thumb can go through. It makes the bottle sit further back on the hand than I’m used to but it’s very comfortable to carry while leaving the fingers free for other things. This was especially useful as a pacer at Badwater where you’re often trying to carry a lot of things at once and juggle multiple tasks at once. You can always also carry it the normal way. See the pictures below.
- Comfortable in the hand
- Huge pocket can hold a ton of stuff, including a phone and some gels or other small items. I doubt I’ll ever carry as much stuff in there as can fit, but I guess it’s nice to have the option and the big pocket doesn’t weigh anything or get in the way.
- Great variety of colors
This is how I’m used to holding my handheld bottles with the bottle in the front of my palm and my thumb wrapped around the top of the bottle (still an option with the Nathan):
But on this strap there’s a hole that you can put your thumb through. The bottle sits further back on your palm and it frees up your fingers. I think this way uses even less effort to carry the bottle. It took a little getting used to, but it’s how I carried the bottle for most of Badwater pacing and during my run yesterday and today. It might seem silly at first, but it actually makes a big difference in a positive way.
Con:
- The “tightening” strap on the outside of the hand grip won’t stay tight and keeps coming out of the little buckle thing and flapping around. The strap doesn’t seem to have much of a purpose anyway, so I cut it off one of the bottles already and will likely do that on the other one next time I remember.
- The bottle isn’t clear, which means that you can’t easily tell how much water you have left in it. Not a huge deal because you can tell by feel, but a clear bottle would make more sense to me. Also, at Badwater, when Ray was carrying his own bottles it would have been nice to have been able to quickly see how much he was drinking. The fix for this is to just swap out the bottle for one of the dozens I have in my “bottle” cabinet. But I shouldn’t have to feel a need to make that change.
- The valve/”push-pull cap” pretty much blows. It’s stiff to open and close and on both of my bottles at least it doesn’t slide closed very easily, it often goes a little uneven and doesn’t seal. Again, problem easily solved by swapping out the bottle.
LED Strobe Lights:
This is a totally simple little light that weighs almost nothing and performs its function perfectly. It’s bright and can either stay on solid or rapidly flash. It has a simple clip on the back and is light enough to clip on the front and back neck of a shirt and not notice it while running. You can see it from pretty damn far away. And that’s about all you need from a light.
At Badwater, it was nice to be able to see how far away Ray was from us. On city streets, hopefully it would make a driver slow down or at least avoid hitting you. It comes in red, yellow, purple and green.