Hydro Flask
Steel body, plastic gateway: the 18/8 stainless bottle is the selling point, but the standard Flex Cap is polypropylene with a TPU strap, so water sits against plastic threads every time you drink. That's why the flagship rates "minimal-contact" rather than plastic-free - the "steel bottle" framing glosses over the fact that the closure, the part your water actually touches as it pours, is plastic. Hydro Flask minimizes plastic in the body while leaving it exactly where a plastic-avoider would care most.
How clear are their specs?
They name the 18/8 steel body clearly, but the polypropylene cap and TPU strap are the sort of detail you have to go looking for rather than something the marketing foregrounds.
Lead testing disclosure
Publishes a dedicated FAQ addressing lead directly: after independent testing (Lead Safe Mama) found a lead-based sealing dot under the base of older bottles, Hydro Flask states it moved to a proprietary lead-free vacuum-sealing process ("TempShield") starting in 2012-2013, and says current bottles undergo third-party lab testing confirming compliance with FDA and Prop 65 lead limits. This is a specific, named-mechanism disclosure with a dated history, not just a "lead-free" label - though it stops short of publishing the actual per-batch test reports.
- manufacturer https://faq.hydroflask.com/en_us/does-hydro-flask-use-lead-for-sealing-bottles-and-tumblers-HkQrgJLq6 Hydro Flask's own FAQ on the lead-solder sealing dot, its 2012-2013 TempShield transition, and third-party FDA/Prop 65 testing
- lab-test https://tamararubin.com/2017/11/hydro2/ independent XRF testing that first surfaced the leaded sealing dot in older bottles and confirmed newer (2017+) bottles are lead-free
