mastertangler wrote on Oct 18^th, 2011 at 4:25pm:

DD help me out.......what is meant by "contact" problems for the electrical connections? And.......why would the specially designed nalgene be better than just say an ordinary bottle? I was under the impression I just stuck the pen into a bottle and swished it around. I am missing something.....

When you submerge the ultraviolet wand on the end of the steripen, it will not activate unless the two electrical contacts at the base of the wand are also submerged.  So, if you don't submerge the wand deep enough or you inadvertently lift it while swirling it around in the water, the unit will not come on (or will turn off).

With the new cap, since you can invert the bottle, there is no way that water will not submerge the two electrical contacts.  But so long as you are careful to keep the wand submerged, any container sufficiently deep to submerge the wand and contacts will work.

dd

BTW:  The directions indicate that you should use either Nimh or Lithium batteries.  My paddling partner has had one of these for a few years and tried it with standard AA's.  It wouldn't come on at all.