Helium Ergo Hydration Lightweight, Two-Bottle Running Belt

This is not a pull out of box and give comments review; ran 8 miles with it in first day to get a general impression and then followed up with an 18 mile run the following day. I experienced no discomfort with it; rides very well on your hips despite first impressions of it being bulky.I do realize there are some reviews of people that have experienced difficulties with using the bottles, I almost let them dissuade me also, but decided to give it a fair chance.Hopefully these end up in order of the pictures.•Getting the bottles out: You will notice the bottles have indents near the top. Slide your index finger in pouch to that indent, put your thumb into pouch to the back of bottle, then the bottle will come out freely.•Putting bottle back in: Insert bottom of bottle into pouch, grab the pouch band with fingers, use your thumb to push the bottle in. Fast and easy.•Caps don't let liquids out/makes a mess: Using your teeth, pull the nozzle out, you have to pull it out all the way. If you don't, it will look like cap on left, it needs to come out like cap on right. If you look underneath the cap you will see two sets of tabs on silicone nozzles, that last wing has to be bottomed out when you pull it open. Once you do that, keep your teeth where they are, pull a drink out, it will come out very freely. You don't need to bite the nozzle or squeeze it, just take a drink.•Pouch will hold an iPhone 8 with an Otterbox case. You have to put one end in first diagonally, but it will fit. However, it will leave very little room for Gu gels or keys.•If you are thin side, there is extra tension loop point under the pouch. I missed that on my initial run. There is a wrapper pouch behind the pouch also. Look the belt over for these things.Overall I'm pleasantly surprised with this belt and will recommend to any of my friends.Update: 13 and 20 mile long runs in and still pleased with this belt. Will be using this without question for my upcoming marathon. Beats using a handheld for long runs.

UPDATE - Upgrading from 3 stars to 4 -I reviewed this after my first use and thought I owed these an update after having used them a lot. Quite simply this is my favorite Fuel Belt (and favorite of any kind of drink holder for running) that I've used yet. I think I've had 4 fuel belts as well as a few other things. The biggest thing with all of them is the way they bounce. This one just doesn't. I also didn't like how bulky all the others were, and this isn't. I still have problems with the length of the straps and the design of the bottles. I find that when I drink I lose a little bit of water that doesn't make it into my mouth due to the way I have to bite the bottle and squeeze to get water out. I don't care to lose any of the water I carry, so that's bad. I just really think they could have done better than that. Again, though, this is my favorite of all belts I've had. While the primary purpose is to drink water and it kind of sucks at that, the majority of the time the bottles are just sitting around my waist and this does the best job in that regard.Original review below -I ordered this without there being any reviews and thought I should review it as soon as possible. This may be long... The short version is that I like the design of it as a whole, but the bottles themselves are difficult to drink from.The fit is good. I didn’t like that there is a lot of extra strap when I put it on. I’m 6’1 and 190 pounds, which I mention just to give some context to my statement. When I get it comfortable there is a lot of extra strap (4 or so inches) hanging off of each side. There is still plenty of Velcro gripping, so that’s not an issue, but it just makes me wonder how it will fit a smaller person.I do really like how the bottles tuck away. There’s also no “bounce” to them (if you’ve used other Fuel Belts you probably know what I mean.). Also, there’s a pouch on the front that’s pretty big which I didn’t think I’d like but I do. It’s also removable, but if the size of it bothers you removing it just leaves a similarly large thing underneath. Again, I thought it was too big but after using it I like it a lot. The bottles and the front pack all sat nicely under my shirt while I ran.The bottles are where things get weird. They are made of a pretty hard plastic that’s kind of hard to squeeze (at least hard compared to other Fuel Belt bottles.) I could quickly get used to that, but they also put a tip (not sure what to call the actual part you drink from) that you have to squeeze (bite) to get anything to come through. I found this combination of biting the tip and squeezing the bottle difficult while running. Add onto it that the tip locks if you push it in (like on older Fuel Belt bottles) and I found that while biting the tip I sometimes accidentally pushed it in and locked it. I just really found the bottles to be unnecessarily difficult to drink from. I just wish I could pull the tip out and squeeze the bottle to get water out.Today was my first time using them so perhaps I’ll get used to them over time and will update if I do. First impression is certainly that they were way more difficult to use than they should be. At the same time, the fit and extra pocket were very nice.

I have tried different ones and never really like them until someone recommended me that one !!Super good !!!

Love the "no bounce" and contoured fit and it fits my iPhone 6 (not plus) great. Unfortunately I've resorted to simply unscrewing and removing the bottle cap each drink I take directly from the bottle. Here is why:1. First you have to figure out that an extra hard pull is required to pop out the silicone spout otherwise you didn't actually open the spout and nothing comes out.2. Now that the spout is actually open, you can squeeze the bottle, but then liquid comes out all sides off the spout and gets all over your face and shirt.3. Ok, so I'll just suck it out, except the spout allows air in while you are trying to suck out the liquid so you end up swallowing a bunch of air and now you are trying to burp the rest of your run.

I'm sure it's a great belt if only it was a reasonable size. It's huge! Yes, you can adjust velcro straps but they then you would have them flopping around as you run. Very disappointing.