Chiming in with a glowing review
Based upon the excellent critical and positive reviews here, I purchased this Thermos, and I'm not at all disappointed. It's exceeded my expectations, in fact.
An example: I filled it with hot green tea yesterday at noon. It's now 9:30am, more than 20 hours later. I was expecting lukewarm, or even room temperature, tea, and was surprised to be greeted with steam when I unscrewed the stopper! It's still hot! Not as hot, of course, but I also did not "pre-warm" the thermos with hot water before putting in the tea.
Other things I've done wrong besides not pre-warming would be filling it too full, then screwing in the stopper and causing a little overflow (there has to be room for the stopper, obviously). Even with the stopper in tight, this is a recipe for spills as the liquid moves around, expands and contracts, plays cards, whatever those crazy liquid molecules do in a Thermos. However, the "lid/cup/cap" thing you screw onto the very top caught 99% of the spill after the overfilled thermos Jostled around in my accouterments. I know this because the inside of my bag was not a mess (a tiny little wet spot on a paper, but I like tea stains anyway), but when I unscrewed the lid/cup/cap thing, all the spill came out. Thank you, lid! That could have been bad. This is a product that compensates for user-error.
The construction is fantastic. It's strong and pleasant to look at, and it feels like it holds much more liquid than you'd think it should by its appearance. When I'm filling it, I keep pouring and pouring. Isn't it full yet? No? More! It's shiny, though, and will show fingerprints and water spots. Not that I care. It's very LIGHT. I was expecting it to weigh much more. It's lighter by far, even filled to overflow, than all the books I lug around with me.
I only have two (minor) critical observations. The stopper must be screwed tightly into the bottle. This can make it difficult to open if you have, say, lotion on your hands (I often do). It's also a little hard to clean. It's not a big deal if you have a bottle brush, and even if you don't, you can just fill it with water, a little soap, and shake it around. Just make sure you get all the soap out. And finally, the pouring is not flawless. It dribbles a little. I don't really care. If I do it with skill, it doesn't dribble at all, and it's pretty ingenious to use the stopper as a pouring mechanism (you pour with the stopper in place but unscrewed somewhat).
Is this a Japanese design (Nissan) with an American label (Thermos) manufactured in China? Or an American design with a Japanese label manufactured in China? I think it's the former, making use of some Thermos patents. It is definitely a bi-lingual product, having instructions in both English and Japanese hiragana on the stopper. That way, if someone who does not know what "pour" means, they will hopefully know what "susugu" means.
I've had it about a week. It does come under warranty (it says 5 years on the box, but it says 1 year in the instructions, seems like a finicky replacement program, and you have to send the thermos away for a new one, and only at their option), though I don't expect to need it. If something went wrong after a few years, I'd happily buy a new one. I suppose the warranty is to catch defective units, like one described in another review which did not hold temperatures.
There was also a complaint by someone that theirs smelled like coffee. I really don't think Amazon is selling used units. They just kind of smell like that (the materials and processing do smell vaguely like coffee, I'll admit, but it is not coffee).
Thank you to all the reviewers who made this excellent purchase a no-brainer for me. I hope my review will be equally helpful in assisting other potential buyers.
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Spending $1.65 + gas less each day!!!
I am extremely impressed with this Thermos bottle! Even though I miss the smiling faces each morning at the Tim Horton's drive-thru, I get to slow down a little and not be so manic trying to get out of the house, I control the strength of my brew exactly like I like it, I save $1.65 each morning, I don't waste gas while waiting in line to get to the drive-thru window, and I have two cups of coffee in the morning instead of one. And both are as hot as when they were freshly made! Oh, and Tim Horton's ground coffee is available at Tim Horton's and the grocery so I don't miss out on that wonderful flavor of theirs.
I don't understand the comments about the stopper not sealing or leaking, though. I've had no problems at all and just unscrewing the stopper a little bit lets me pour my coffee without getting over-excited and drenching my desktop. Yes, I've done that. And it's easy to carry! There's plenty of room in my computer bag if I don't want to carry it by hand.
All in all, one heck of a buy; useful, durable, and looks good. What more could you want?
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