Customer Reviews

Contigo AUTOSEAL Stainless Steel Vacuum Insulated Tumbler, 16 Ounces, Green

5 star:		(674)
4 star:		(137)
3 star:		(44)
2 star:		(54)
1 star:		(51)

 

 

I imagine most people need to know two things about this mug.

1) It really is a terrific insulator. Your coffee will be hot all morning, and probably into the afternoon with this mug. I have found coffee hot 5 hours after I poured it. Hot.

2) It doesn't leak. Yeah, that's what they promise, but the surprise is that the clever and more importantly well constructed lid does not leak. You could store it upside down in your important files cabinet if you needed to. It's a great mug.

Also, I think it looks cool. It fits my cupholder in my truck. It's easy to clean. Those are all nice too.

HTH

My husband called my old car "the cheesemobile," because I often spilled my white chocolate whole-milk lattes between the seats while driving and couldn't clean up the mess before it soured and stank. Hot summers in that car were not fun.

My new car is the same color as this beautiful insulated mug, and the car smells fine because the mug works so well. Screw on the lid and your drink is secure - hot or cold. Simply press the button and drink. When you release the button and put the mug down, the drinking port closes tightly. Knock the mug over and the most that will spill (assuming the lid is screwed on securely) is the one drop that might be left in the drinking port. Keep the button pressed until you put the mug back in the cupholder and even that drop probably won't be there. No levers to forget to close. No lids you need to align, or snap on and wonder if the snap worked.

Because the mug is designed with two-layer construction with an air gap, hot things stay hot, and cold things stay cold for longer than it usually takes to drink the contents.

The steel construction makes this a durable item I expect will last me for years. The sleek design is very attractive and well-proportioned -- it fits in most cupholders without being top heavy, and it feels good in my hand.

Even washing the mug can be fun: put a bit of soap and half a cup of really hot water in, close the top tightly, shake vigorously, then point the top away from you into the sink and press the button. Enjoy the dramatic fountain spray! (Just watch for the backsplash, and don't get burned...)

My one complaint: the blue paint isn't as durable as the plain brushed steel finish. My husband's steel version still looks new, while my blue one looks a bit scuffed.

If I ever lose this mug, I'd replace it in a heartbeat.

These mugs were the answer to our prayers. reusable coffee cup, lid that worked well, stainless body, kept coffee really hot for a long time.
And then I washed the lids. And reused them, washed, reused--and within a week, my coffee developed an off-smell. The lid smelled like a locker room, and the smell would not go away. I could hear liquid in the lid, and it would not dry out.
The concept is great, and I want these mugs to work, because they're the best I've tried, but I won't buy them again. The lids are just impossible to clean thoroughly, and if you're drinking coffee daily, there's just no way to wash the tops properly. Gross.

I owned this mug for several months. It delivered on all of the promises: wouldn't spill when flipped upside down, kept liquids hot or cold for a long time, sleek design duly noted. However, the lid is impossible to clean, and things get funky fast. I am not someone who leaves their coffee cup lying around for days; I diligently cleaned the mug after every use, yet the coffee-crud build-up was inevitable. After a month's worth of daily use, it got to the point where not only did I preemptively dread taking a sip, I felt it was not in my best interest to do so. The weird taste/stench coming from the lid screamed unsanitary! I bought a fancy mini-brush to see if a deep scrub would do the trick; nope.


This product would be worth the full 5 stars if one could clean it. But as it stands, it's a waste of $20. Keep looking for the perfect travel mug (and let me know if you find it)!

I purchased a two-pack of these from a local warehouse store, and I'm very pleased with them. They are definitely spill proof - you can hold it upside down without a drop coming out. The paperwork states that the stainless steel models are dishwasher safe (but not the plastic versions though). I've found that they keep a cup of coffee hot enough to drink for about 2 hours. I haven't had the cleaning issues that others have. I simply dishwash them and they seem to come out clean. I would think warm soapy water would also get them clean without much trouble.

Overall, I'd definitely recommend the Contigo Stainless tumbler.

Please be kind enough to indicate if reviews are helpful.

Just to put it out there, we clean our contigo mugs after everyuse, but there is a smell in the lid that won't go away. I've tried a small tooth brush to clean in the lid, but you can't get in there. we have 4 mugs and they all had this vile growth in the lid. [...]. as a coffee mug they work great, but they are a bacterial breeding ground.

I love the design of this. The seal of the lid is tight - nothing leaks. It's very easy to operate and fits nicely in my car's cup holder despite the fact that it's a little bulbous towards the bottom. Drinking from it is also nice and clean - it doesn't leave residual liquid sloshing on the top of the lid. The hole for taking in air (also controlled by the autoseal button) is covered so nothing comes out there either. One thing to note, if you have hot liquids, pressure will build up and depressing the autoseal will release the steam and possibly some moisture - this makes cleaning it kind of fun as you can add hot water, detergent and shake then see how far you can spray. The stainless steel look is sharp and so far, hasn't dented or scratched. The rubberized potion of the lid provides good grip for you to hold the cup as well.

However, the lid needs serious work. The lid itself is what is holding me from recommending this product as well as purchasing it again should anything happen to this cup. First of all, I use a standard nylon dish sponge with pad to clean. It is too abrasive for the relatively soft plastic on the lid and left swirl marks. Also, brand new from Amazon, the lid has a deep scratch about 3/4" long on the top (so it's not from cutting the box open). Maybe it was returned? Also, the mouth area from where you drink from will pick up scratches from your teeth assuming you have decent dental hygiene. But those are mere quibbles. The real problem with the lid is that it is difficult to clean. I could have sworn I read somewhere that the lid can be dismantled for cleaning but this is NOT the case. inside the lid is a fairly complicated network of plastic with lots of spaces for liquid to get pocketed in. The actual plastic that controls the open and shut piece is hidden and cannot be seen - thus cannot be cleaned. The only way I can think of cleaning this is with hot water and detergent and copious amounts of shaking. This is not enough for me. I want something that can be taken apart and cleaned. I've used this 4 times now - it's a week old. I use it to hold coffee every morning to work. Coffee is in this cup for about 3 hours. I rinse it out using the above method after and use it for water from a water cooler. The water tastes like coffee. It's not strong...but it's there. The tumbler itself holds no taste of the coffee or smell...it's from the lid. I imagine if you use this strictly for coffee and coffee only...then you don't have this issue but...just because you don't taste residual coffee doesn't mean that it's not there.

On the Contigo site, you cannot use cleaners containing bleach, chlorine, abrasives, and/or other harsh chemicals to clean this. Basically, it's clean only as hard as you can agitate the water. Not very clean in my opinion.

This is definitely the best travel mug I've ever owned - it looks nice, is relatively compact, and doesn't leak. But, there's the issue of the lid. I would drink mint tea in it, clean it, put coffee in it, and the coffee would taste like mint. The same thing happened with orange mandarin tea, which was really gross. But- last night I turned the lid upside down in my sink, put a squirt of dawn direct foam in it, and some really hot water, and let it soak overnight. When I rinsed it out this morning, all the smells were gone. It worked better than putting the lid in the dishwasher. Maybe this is the answer? I really don't want to give up on this mug.


Update - a few months later

OK - it's not so great anymore.
The smells are staying in the mug, and the dishwasher isn't doing the trick on the lid. I won't even drink out of it anymore. My husband uses it as a last resort. This thing refuses to be cleaned properly. Don't do it. I wish I hadn't.

<update 3 years later... I still use these mugs and their newer 20oz sibliings every single day. Never had a problem with our dishwasher getting them clean. We have broken a few tops, but for 7 bucks, they just send to you another one. I have yet to find anything better for my purposes, tho my wife likes the contigos with the clip on the handle for attaching it to things>

I see reviewers state that the tops are hard to clean by hand. I have never tried. We use the dishwasher and they come out very clean.

We are up to 10 Contigo mugs (this very model). The extras are used for either extra ice storage on trips and/or backups when one needs cleaned.

Avoid the plastic version. Contigo Double Wall Plastic Tumbler with Autoseal lid, Black, Red Button. They are no where nearly as well insulated, the button is not as easy to push, are not any lighter to lift and do not hold as much.

Although the color versions comes in handy to differenciate whose is whose in a family of 5, the color chips off fairly quickly and only the non-painted SS versions still look like new. You can get differenciation by buying different color tops from gocontigo dot com. I purchased several more for differing colors and for wear and tear and no worries over breakage. This also allows throwing the tops into the dishwasher and just grabbing another top. We have had 4 tops break after dropping onto cement.

I purchased our first mug in order to evaluate it as a replacement to our insulated plastic sippy(drippy) cups for our 4 year old and it worked out so well that when we saw 2 packs at Costco, we quickly purchased 6 more. Our youngest switched at 2 years old.

Contigo does have a line of plastic cups for kids, but the button is harder to press and they are NOT insulated. A side by side test of water with 4 cubes of ice showed a dramatic loss of temperature.

You DO want to get into the habit of pressing the button before you put it up to your mouth. Hot liquids release steam and soda releases fizz. Not a big deal to me.

These are far, far less likely to leak than our Nisson mugs when thrown into the back of the car, thus we were able to say adios to the arguments with my wife about the potential of the Nisson mugs leaking in the car.

The design of the area you drink from is also nice in that it less prone to dribbling (More than once I have shown up at a meeting with water or pop all over my shirt with the Nisson mugs), however the design would also probably make it a bit more difficult to sense just how hot a beverage is and let it cool before touching your lips since there is nowhere for the liquid to pool under your nose before you taste it.

Athought I no longer notice, at first, I did seem to notice a slight change in taste of my soda, but I think it is simply due to the shape of the mouthpiece. With other designs, you can smell the liquid and sense the bubbles as it travels between the lowered spout and your lips. With this design, it goes straight into the mouth. Since much of our sense of taste is actually our sense of smell, the raised spout design probably changes the taste slightly. For water, this is a non-issue.

The packaging states that the tops ARE dishwasher safe, but the SS mug is not. For the 100% plastic version both the top and the bottom are hand wash only.

As a practical matter however, we have had these for over a year now and I have been putting both tops and bottoms in the dishwasher without any noticable problems. The bottoms are easily cleaned by hand so usually just the tops are put into the dishwasher.

I bought this because it was rated very highly in a consumer magazine. It looks nice, fits the hand easily, doesn't spill...however, when you put in a hot liquid it tastes strongly of plastic, this taste does not go away over time. With the concerns about chemicals used to make the plastic I wonder what I was drinking. It cannot be cleaned adequately; you can use hot water and shake the lid until your arm falls off and it still isn't clean. Coffee acumulates in the crevices and turns into a scum which will wash out in disgusting pieces but I never feel it is clean. You cannot reach into the lid's spaces, I've even tried q-tips. I bought 2 and dislike them so much I can't even feel comfortable putting them in a yard sale, much less giving them away to some one I like. This is not a product that lives up to its positive reviews and I would not recommend it to anyone just because it doesn't spill.