Klean Kanteen: A Review and a Discount!

Several months ago, I bought some Klean Kanteens for my boys. In my last post, I talked about how I prefer to use metal over plastic due to the side effects of BPA and who knows what else in plastic. Klean Kanteens are made of stainless steel, but they do use a plastic (polypropylene) sippy spout.

Price: About $15 to $20 including shipping

Availability: Amazon.com, The Soft Landing, etc.

Description: Klean Kanteen sells all sizes of bottles, and we have a variety of them in our house. Scott loves the big 40 oz, I use the 27 oz, and both of the kids use the 12 oz sippies. This review will focus mainly on the sippy cups.

All of the Klean Kanteen bottles are made of food-grade stainless steel, inside and out, so there is no need for a protective lining between it and your drink (like when you use an aluminum bottle). The sippy cup option has 5 parts: the stainless steel bottle, a plastic adaptor that fits on the bottle, a plastic sippy spout, a plastic ring that holds the sippy spout to the adaptor, and a plastic insert that makes the sippy leak-proof. It sounds complicated, but it's not. :) It's much easier to put together than the majority of the other sippies we've used!

The sippy spouts are made by Avent for Klean Kanteen. All the plastic parts are BPA-free polypropylene (#5) and are probably the "safest" plastic out there. There's a picture of the spouts to the left here.


Pros:

• They are completely dishwasher safe. Scott usually handwashes our big bottles, which we just use for water, but we always put the kids' sippy cups in the dishwasher since we use them for milk and juice.
• They keep your drinks cold for quite awhile.
• Your drink tastes clean and great.
  
• They are BPA-free!
• The sippies hold 12 ounces, which I've found is a good size for the kids.

Cons:

• Your hands get really cold holding this! Because it's just stainless steel with no insulating on the outside, putting cold liquid inside makes the outside of the bottle very cold, too. According to this blog post from The Soft Landing, the Momo glass bottle covers work really well with the Klean Kanteen sippies and would solve that problem. I was going to order some today, but it looks like they are out of stock. The Soft Landing also recommend the Green Sprouts Neoprene cover, which has built-in handles! That sounds perfect for those little guys learning to use a sippy cup.
  
• Without a cover, the sippy is succeptible to dents and scratches in the paint when dropped. If you get the plain silver one (with no paint), it will look prettier longer! (Again, if you have a cover, this won't be an issue.)
  
• If you fill it all the way, it can get heavy.
  
• As it is, it doesn't come with a lid. You can buy one separately, or if you have old Avent bottles or sippies, the lids might fit. If you have an older kid, you can opt for the sports cap, shown below.

Bottom line: These are my favorite cups for the kids. They are easy for my kids to drink out of, easy to clean, and easy to transport. The biggest drawback is that they don't come with lids. If you get the kind with the sports cap, like in the picture to the left, that's not as big of an issue.

Discount: Because of the whole Sigg Scandal, The Soft Landing is offering The Bigg Bottle Swap. If you have a Sigg, you can send it in and get a 30% discount on a new stainless steel bottle. Or, if you don't have a Sigg, you can fill out a little form and get a 20% discount. Wahoo! This offer is only good for a short time, so check it out soon!