SLSON Collapsible Dog Bowls Review: What Months on the Road Taught Me

The margarine tub is what finally did it. I had it riding loose in the cargo area of the Outback with about a quart of water in it, and every time I took the ramp at Osseo a little faster than I should, the tub would slide the width of the car and slosh water into the carpet. By the time I pulled into the truck stop in Tomah that tub was mostly empty, the carpet was wet, and Scout was giving me a look that said this was somehow my fault. She was right about that.

That was the second Saturday in March, my monthly transport leg. I drive 90 miles down I-94 from Eau Claire to Tomah, hand a dog off to the next driver, and drive home again. Scout, my six-year-old terrier mix, usually rides along. Eighteen pounds of opinions in the back seat. I ordered the SLSON collapsible bowls that same afternoon, the two pack with the carabiners, and I have used them at every stop since. Eight months now. They live in the car and they have not come out of it.

How I've Used It

Every transport Saturday runs the same way. I load Scout into the back seat, clip her to the harness, put the folded crate in the cargo area, fill the water jug, and check that both bowls are where they belong. One bowl rides clipped to Scout's leash by its carabiner. The other sits in the glove box, which sounds strange until you have had a strange dog in the car and needed a second bowl in a hurry.

The glove box bowl is the one I reach for at Tomah. I set it down on the asphalt, pour from the jug, and let the dog that just came off the previous leg have a drink before we move again. Then that bowl goes back in the box and Scout gets the one off her leash. Two dogs, two bowls, no shared water. That is not fussiness. It is the simplest way I know to keep a strange dog and my own dog from drinking out of the same dish in a parking lot, and it takes zero thought once the bowls live in the car.

One Saturday in July is the one I measure everything else against. Ninety-one degrees in Tomah, no shade on the west end of that lot, and a young dog coming off the leg before mine who had ridden the whole way in a crate in the back of a pickup with a topper on it. He came out of that crate dry as a bone and headed straight for the first puddle he could find. I had the glove box bowl on the asphalt and filled before his paws were off the tailgate. That is the whole reason the bowl lives in the car and not in a tote bag in the garage. When you need it, you need it in about four seconds.

At home the SLSON bowls get rinsed in the kitchen sink, shaken out, and set on the shelf by the door to dry. They are back in the car by Thursday. In eight months I do not think they have missed a single transport Saturday, and they have come along on vet trips and one long weekend to my sister's place in Chippewa Falls besides. Dale has never once had to ask where they are, which for this household is the real durability test.

What Twelve Ounces Actually Covers

The listing says each bowl holds up to 12 fluid ounces of water or about 1.5 cups of food. Twelve ounces is a cup and a half, which for an 18 pound terrier at a rest stop is plenty. Scout drinks maybe four or five ounces, I pour the rest back in the jug or tip it out on the gravel, and we move on. That is the whole job, and at that job the size is right.

I measured it once out of curiosity, the way you do. Twelve ounces comes to roughly three quarters of an inch below the rim, and that is the right fill anyway, because a bowl filled to the brim and set down on a slope is a bowl you are about to pick up off the ground. Scout takes about four ounces and walks away satisfied. A dog that has been in a crate for an hour and a half will take eight or nine and look at you for more. Do that arithmetic against a jug and you know how many stops you have in you before a refill.

Where the number starts to matter is a bigger dog. A 70 pound lab can put away 12 ounces in one go on a warm day and want more. That is not a flaw, it is arithmetic. If your dog is over about 40 pounds, plan on a refill, or pour half, let the dog drink, and pour the rest. I have handed the leash bowl to a volunteer with a big mixed breed at Tomah and refilled it twice. It works fine. It is just smaller than the bowl that dog has at home, and pretending otherwise does nobody any good.

The listing also gives breed sizes as small, medium and large, and I understand why a seller writes that. A large dog can drink out of a 12 ounce bowl. The question is how many times you want to bend over with a jug in the other hand while a dog stares at you.

Half an Inch Tall and the Glove Box Question

Folded, each bowl is about half an inch tall. The listing gives the expanded footprint as 5.1 by 3.5 by 2.1 inches and the weight at 100 grams. What that means in practice is that the bowl in my glove box sits under the registration and the ice scraper and I forget it is there until I need it. The one on Scout's leash does not swing or bang against the door frame. My old margarine tub took up more room than both of these together.

The fold is the reason these stayed in the car when other things did not. Anything that has to be remembered, washed and repacked gets left on the shelf in the garage by about the third month. The SLSON bowls fold flat, get clipped to something I was already carrying, and stop being a separate item on the list. That is the entire design argument and after eight months it holds up.

The plastic is soft, not rigid. The listing describes it as odorless and durable, and the warranty is listed at two years. I have not had to test the warranty. I am just noting it is there, because soft plastic and a two year warranty is a fair pairing for something that lives in a car through a Wisconsin year. The bowls have gone into the dishwasher twice when they got truly nasty after a muddy hand-off, top rack, and came out the same shape they went in.

Eight Months of a Wisconsin Year

They went into the car in March, which in Eau Claire means mornings in the twenties and salt on the roads. They have been through a July that hit the nineties, a wet October, and one cold snap in the spring when the water in the jug had a skin of ice on it by the time I reached Tomah. The bowls themselves have not cracked, gone soft, or picked up a smell. I rinse them, shake them, and they dry.

The cold mornings are the ones I watch. The second Saturday in February this year was nine degrees when I pulled out of the driveway, and the bowls had been in the car overnight. Folded, they were stiff, the way soft plastic gets in that kind of cold. I opened one with both hands instead of one, and it went. No crack, no white stress mark along the fold. I would not make a habit of opening one at nine degrees with a wind coming across a parking lot, but it did not fail, and I did not have to thaw it against the heater vent on the way home.

The soft plastic does hold a little grit if you set the bowl down on gravel and then wipe it out with your hand instead of rinsing it. That is true of any bowl ever made. At a truck stop with a wind coming across the lot, I set it on the tailgate instead of the ground, which solves the grit and most of the tipping at the same time.

Tipping is the honest complaint. On flat asphalt, fine. On the gravel shoulder where I actually stop, a bowl with 12 ounces in it and a dog nosing at the rim will go over if the dog is enthusiastic. Scout is not. A young lab would be. I have learned to hold the rim with one hand at a strange dog's first drink, and after that everybody settles down and the bowl stays upright.

Anything that has to be remembered, washed and repacked gets left on the shelf in the garage by about the third month. These fold flat, clip to something I was already carrying, and stop being a separate item on the list.

The Carabiner Does One Job

Two carabiners come in the pack, one per bowl. The listing says they clip to a belt loop, a backpack, a leash or a collar. Mine clips to Scout's leash and stays there. That is the job: carrying a folded bowl so my hands are free for a jug and a door handle and a dog who wants to sniff the same patch of grass as the last four dogs.

It is a light clip. I would not hang a full bowl of water off a backpack strap and expect it to stay level, and I would not use it as a leash attachment for the dog. It is not that. It is a way to keep a folded piece of plastic attached to something you were already carrying, and at that it has held up for eight months without bending or losing its spring.

If the clip ever gives out, the bowls still work. That is worth knowing before you buy, because the clip is not the part that matters.

Where They Come Up Short

What I tried first was simpler than any of this. I put the margarine tub in the cargo area and told myself I would remember to move it to the floor behind the passenger seat once we were rolling. I did remember, twice. The third Saturday it slid under the folded crate and I found it a week later with an inch of something in it I will not describe. So the honest comparison is not SLSON against some other bowl I have never owned. It is SLSON against my own good intentions, and my good intentions lost to a dairy tub every single time.

I also looked at a travel water bottle with a built in trough, the kind another volunteer carries on her leg. It is tidier than a bowl and a jug, I will say that. What I like about a separate bowl is that I can set it down and let the dog drink at her own pace, and I can see exactly how much went in and how much came back. With a bottle you squeeze and hope. Different tool, different trade, and I have not owned the bottle, so I am only telling you what I saw at a hand-off.

The other shortfall is size. Twelve ounces is a stop, not a day. If you are hiking and need to water a dog four times, you want a bigger bowl or a bottle. If you are driving 90 miles and stopping once, this is exactly enough. Buy for the stop, not for the hike.

And it is soft plastic, so a dog that chews will get through it. I do not leave a bowl with a chewer, and I would not leave one clipped inside a crate with a bored dog. Mine are either in my hand, on the tailgate, or folded in the glove box. Nothing else.

Who This Is For

If you drive with a dog and stop somewhere that is not your own kitchen, these earn their place. Rescue transport volunteers especially, because the two pack solves the shared water problem without anybody having to think about it at a cold truck stop. Same goes for anyone who keeps a dog in the car on a regular basis, or who carries a leash and a backpack and a habit of forgetting things. The fold is what makes it work. A pair of SLSON bowls takes up less room in the car than the registration does, and after eight months mine have never once been left behind on the shelf.

Who Should Skip It

Skip it if your dog is big and drinks like a horse at every stop, or if you hike and need to water a dog repeatedly on a trail. A larger bowl or a bottle with a trough is the better answer there, and I would not talk you out of it. Skip it too if you want one bowl that doubles as the everyday bowl at home. This is car gear. It folds, which means it is not the sturdy thing on your kitchen floor, and it is not meant to be. And if your dog chews, this is not the bowl to leave within reach.