We met up recently with the eco-folks of Klean Kanteen, who showed us their new Wide Insulated bottles. You have probably seen Klean Kanteen products at your local yoga center or Whole Foods. These particular beverage holders have double-walled vacuum insulation and are made with a solid 18/8 brushed stainless steel designed for handling food. They’re also BPA-free, but what isn’t these days since the “scare” of a couple years ago. They come in three sizes—12, 16, and 20 ounces—and all cost less than $30 ($22.95, $25.95, and $27.95, respectively). They can also accommodate the optional cafe cap ($5.95) you can screw on, great for coffee drinkers.
But the big seller to these new bottles is the said double-walled vacuum insulation, which Klean Kanteen says will keep a hot beverage hot for up to six hours and iced drinks for up to 24 hours. Now, when you throw those kinds of claims in my face, I become skeptical (I’m generally skeptical anyway, but that’s another story). After all, we’ve grown up with those Thermoses that promised to keep our soups hot by lunchtime, only to find it lukewarm. After Klean Kanteen provided us with a 16-ounce model to try out, we put it through a quick real-world test.
We brewed some instant coffee (times are tough, leave us alone), poured it into the bottle, and sealed it tightly with the included loop cap. Just to see how tight the seal is, we threw it in a backpack that contains some clothes and we tossed around for the next few hours. Luckily the seal was tight and we didn’t find any coffee-soiled shirts. We opened it once after three hours to check on it (still hot). After a total of 6.5 hours later, we opened the bottle again and took a sip. Sure enough, the bottle lived up to its claim of six hours. But the coffee wasn’t just hot, it was lip-burning hot, as if we had just poured the coffee into it a minute ago. We were pretty surprised that it was so hot. Luckily we had the cafe cap on, which made it a bit easier to drink than pressing your lips directly on the stainless steel (ouch).
We didn’t test it with cold beverages for a complete 24 hours, just 12. We poured in some diet cola with ice, sealed it, and left it in a warm room with a steam heater nearby. After 12 hours, we removed the cap and found the cola very cold, how soda should be drank. The ice, however, had melted, so the cola tasted somewhat diluted but nothing we couldn’t drink.
The one issue we noticed is that, despite having cleaned it with soap and water after we dumped out the coffee, we could still smell a bit of the coffee in the bottle when we were sipping the cola from it. Klean Kanteen says the bottle does not retain or impart flavors, which we didn’t find when we tasted the cola, but we wonder if that also meant smelling it from the bottle. Also, due to a narrow internal chamber it’s a bit difficult to wash using just a regular household sponge, yet the bottle was too big to fit in our Jeep’s cup holder (although Klean Kanteen says it’ll fit most). Plus, it feels a bit heavy when you compare it to non-insulated bottles.
Design-wise, some may find it a bit boring to look at, but we think the simple and clean design is appealing. It lacks the design and color choices of a Sigg bottle, but here we think the function definitely outweighs the option of graphics or pretty colors (just slap a sticker on it to make it yours). Overall we are really impressed, and we think it’s worth the money if you like having the option of either hot or cold.
Update: We soaked the bottle overnight in regular dish-washing detergent, and we found no trace of any smell from the liquid it held prior. So make sure you give it a thorough cleaning unless you enjoy smelling coffee with your cola.