Vault 13 Canteen

The Vault 13 canteen is a miscellaneous item in Fallout: New Vegas.

Characteristics
As long as this canteen is kept in the player's inventory, the Courier will take a sip from it every five minutes, restoring 15 HP and lowering dehydration by 25 in Hardcore mode. An on-screen notification will tell the player when this happens. There is no animation for taking a drink, nor does it interrupt any other action; amusingly, it can even happen while the Courier is attacking an enemy in V.A.T.S.

There is no way to forcibly take a drink, nor does the canteen ever run out of water; the five-minute timer starts when the canteen is placed in the player's inventory (not, interestingly, when a save is loaded) and runs in the background, even while the Pip-Boy is up. Under certain circumstances, such as when sleeping or fast travelling right before the hydration level reaches the trigger point, the player can skip this trigger point and become dehydrated.

Bugs

 * The "You take a sip..." notification appears during the ending slideshow (of both the main game and all add-ons).

Location
Originally, the only way to acquire this canteen was by redeeming the code that came with the pre-order exclusive Classic Pack. It can now also be acquired by purchasing the DLC Courier's Stash.