Water Bottle in Cadet? Also considering Pilot

[WilliamTheBastard]

Hi, I'm new to this forum, and I know this topic (Cadet vs Pilot) has been done to death.

However, I didn't find any information regarding packing a water bottle in the cadet. Will the small front pocket (most people seem to use it to hold a cell phone) hold a 20 ounce insulated kleen kanteen? It's a 3" diameter bottle. 9.6" tall.

I did consider the pilot as well, but I have a 15" Dell XPS, and although it apparently will fit (I saw the pictures of the 15" MacBook fitting), it seems like a tight fit, and I do plan on using a cache.

This would be my second Tom Bihn product; I just have a cache now and I'm using it in my TAD Litespeed. The top opening is great, as is the quality.

[moriond]

Welcome to the forums, @WilliamTheBastard,

Most people who carry water bottles in the Cadet appear to use the main compartment, both because it is easier to accommodate the height of water bottles (the front compartment doesn't run as far up in height), and because it you really want to use the front compartment to store additional accessories in the various pockets, you will be hard pressed to find sufficient room.

Take a look, for example, at the pictures @tpnl posted in the EDC : Pilot vs Cadet vs ??? thread:







I've excerpted a few pictures, but there's a very detailed text description as well as a comparison pack up of the Pilot in his post (#5) if you go back and read the thread. You won't have any problems with the 15" Dell XPS fitting along the length of the Cadet (it will easily accommodate a 15.6" Lenovo W520). I think the length of your laptop means that you would have to put the water bottle in a separate row from the laptop (as @tpnl does in his pictures; if I'm carrying a 13" MacBook laptop in the Cadet, I can put the water bottle next to the laptop in its cache):



(I show a 22oz Life Factory water bottle (3.1" diameter) inside the main Cadet compartment, next to a 13" MacBook, and with an A4 sized file box in the pocket, folders, and an iPad in its cache)

HTH

moriond

[UK-Limey]

A Nalgene flask fits in the front compartment of my Cadet. Being slim, it is also very easy to slide into the Tri-Star water bottle front pocket even when the other compartments are already packed full.

https://www.nalgene.com/bottles/flask/