****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
******************3-Week Update***********************I've been using this thermos at least once a day for the past three weeks since getting it. During conference calls, I keep the thermos full of coffee or tea on my desk. I've never kept a beverage in the thermos for longer than 90-minutes. I hate lukewarm coffee/tea so finish the contents as quickly as I can. But in the 90-minutes, my piping hot coffee/tea cools down to just warm. I fill the empty container with boiling-hot water before adding my coffee or tea. The temperature still falls fast, especially as I drink (smaller volume hot liquid left in thermos). It's so noticeable I've returned to using a glass vessel left on a plate-warmer to keep my coffee/tea hot while I'm working. This way, it doesn't matter how much liquid is left or how long I leave it, it's always HOT when I want more.My next complaint about this thermos is the silicone seal. There are two--a cylindrical ring at the top and a fitted sleeve at the bottom--both on the pour-through lid. Immediately, these began to smell and taste of whatever hot beverage I'd put in the thermos. I scrub them with mild dish soap after using each time. They still smell/taste like coffee or black tea. And they turn an unsightly black/brown very quickly (I guess that's to be expected with dark beverages like black tea or coffee, but I can't get them clean again). I've soaked them in vinegar. I've left them in baking soda overnight. I've used the vinegar/b. soda mix to strip away oils... Nothing gets rid of the smell and taste of whatever hits the silicone. Anyone who cooks with silicone utensils knows what I'm talking about. They're odor/taste sponges. On the positive side, the seals are good enough to prevent leaking. I've held the thermos upside down with hot liquid inside. No amount of sloshing about gets the liquid to leak out.If a smooth, controlled pour is important to you, this might not be the thermos for you. The pour-through lid ought to be re-engineered. You have to unscrew it quite a bit to get a reasonable pour-through stream (otherwise, the "stream" is a globby, uncontrolled spray). But the best "stream" is a fat, messy pour that splatters beverage on papers, desk, electronics, hands... Be prepared with a napkin if you're going to try pouring from the thermos. Smooth-pouring is one of the most important features to me of any thermos. This is the 500 mL thermos--I've read in other reviews the bigger thermoses pour more smoothly.One more quip--though it's not about this particular thermos. I drink a LOT of coffee/tea. I've tried many different kinds of vessels to hold the beverages. To me, glass is best because it never absorbs scents or imparts any flavors to its contents. While sometimes you have to use stainless steel (travel...), I find no matter how often or well you wash steel, it smells and throws subtle but detectable flavors into new beverages. This thermos is no different. I wash it after EVERY use and dry it upside down in a dehumidified environment. It still smells strongly of the last beverage I made in it. I tried the paper-towel trick. No improvement. As a result, I can't use this thermos for green or white tea. Their lighter flavors are ruined by the remnants of smokey black teas or coffee.All in all, I wouldn't buy this thermos again. Too many problems. What it does well is prevent liquids from spilling out, ruining your bag... But the silicone seals discolor easily, retain beverages' scents, and impart old beverage flavors to new beverages. And beverages cool noticeably in just 90-minutes. To end on the positives, the thermos is handsome, all stainless steel (minus the silicone rings), prevents liquids from spilling out, and comes with a terrific 8-oz/250-mL cup (cap).******************Original Review***********************We just got this today. I bought a Klean Kanteen (much larger) about three years ago and it broke in three months (from just falling onto the floor of my car!). I emailed the company both here on Amazon and at their company email on their website but never heard back from them. I gave them up until I saw the current thermos on sale on Amazon. So far, I'm happy enough with this thermos to keep it.First, a negative. The thermos arrived with ugly stickers plastered onto the metal. They were the Amazon thank-you-for-recycling and the company info guide, but they were glued directly onto the metal. To remove them, I had to use something sharp... Unnecessary and wasteful, leaving unsightly scratches and glue residue. The instruction label ended up so badly damage it's now illegible.The cap holds exactly 250mL to the thread line. Great because it's big enough to catch even an errant stream out of the thermos. And while the pour mechanism can't match the smoothness of a goose-neck system, it's much better than I was expecting after reading reviews. It helps NOT to have the thermos full of liquid (thermos holds max of 500mL) to give the liquid room to spread out for a smoother pour. But I could get a 3/4-full thermos to pour into a small 3-oz cup with a bit of care.I've learned Klean Kanteen's estimates on heat-retention time is waaaay off. I just want a thermos to keep my coffee or tea hot during a 1-hour conference call. And this works well. But I wouldn't trust it to keep a beverage hot even through the morning if I were driving with it to work.The 500mL thermos has a base diameter of about 72 mm. That's small enough to fit in most cars' cup holders. With its straight walls, it fits neatly in a bag with other things keeping it vertical. It's slightly bottom-heavy since the cap and lid are light with much of the upper space taken up with air between the cap and lid. So it doesn't tip over easily.And despite that thin piece of silicone that seals the lid so it doesn't spill liquids easily, you get a nearly completely stainless steel-on-beverage container. I hope the thin silicone ring is safe as liquid does come in contact with it. I first tried coffee in the thermos and noticed some of the grounds got under the silicone ring's edge. I could clean this up with a fine brush, but I wonder how this system will hold up to daily coffee grounds.I deliberated between this and an insulated ss water bottle. I chose this because it's the perfect volume for a hot beverage to keep me company on daily conference calls. I'm happy I got the KK because the lid doesn't have to be removed to pour out liquid AND the cap double-serves as an easy-to-clean cup. If you can get this on sale and you don't need to keep beverages hot for more than a couple hours, it's a great little thermos.
