Think Sport Stainless Steel Bottle Review

Has anyone else heard about the bad coating in the Sigg bottles?!!!!!!! I’ve been using mine for years thinking it was a good choice!!!!!!!

Hi Kirstin,

I wouldn’t worry too much just yet. It is kind of a strange issue, because SIGG won’t share what their lining is made from. They have confirmed, however, that it does not leach BPA as Treehugger.com pointed out in this article.

Alicia

Did a search online and came up with this about Sigg bottles:

http://www.freemarketorganics.com/coabsi.html

That article was very intriguing. It always makes me think twice when a product made with undisclosed materials (as with Fisher Price, where all of their products ingredients are “proprietary”).

Thanks for sharing your findings!

Alicia

I still love my ThinkSport!!!

Thanks ever so much for the tip! I’ve been a bit apathetic about making the leap towards a safer water bottle but your enthusiastic report has motivated me! Now, can you help me find BPA-free popsicle molds? I’ve written a post about homemade popsicles but we’re befuddled with where to find molds. Crate and Barrel has discontinued theirs and we haven’t been able to hunt down any others. Since The Soft Landing is the place to go for great information on safe products for baby, we decided to check with you! Thanks!

Call me crazy, but I think water tastes better coming from a metal bottle!

John

I have a mixed review for this bottle.

We bought two about three months ago, and within that time, three things went wrong: (1) the coating on the outside of the steel bottle began peeling off; (2) the tab connecting the small top cap came loose, rendering the tether ineffectual; (3) the worst problem: the metal covering over the main cap became separated from the plastic underneath it making it extremely difficult to unscrew the main cap without just spinning the metal covering around and around and not getting any traction on the cap.

I contacted Think Sport to return the bottles, and the founder told me he wouldn’t accept returns on defective products more than 30 days past the purchase date. This is disappointing. If one is going to spend over $20 on a water bottle, one expects it to last more than a few months, and one expects the company to stand behind their product.

To Think Sport’s credit, they did acknowledge that the top of the bottle had been redesigned — implying that they’d had problems with it in the past. Also, they did send me a new small top and tether and I’m waiting on a new main cap that they said they sent. I hope this remedies the problem.

If it does, and if this was an isolated incident, then this is a great bottle. Still, future models of this bottle would be made much stronger by eliminating the metal/plastic combination in the caps and going with one or the other as a solid piece. Metal would be preferred. This will make the bottle heavier and probably more expensive, but it would solve the problems I’ve had and make it a much better bottle.

I just started using an aluminum bottle (SIGG) and I love it! There is no taste to the water and it definitely has the “coolness” factor. The only downside: you can’t see how much water you’re pouring in.

I was totally convinced by the softlanding article/review that the Thinksport bottle was the way to go. Granted it was awesome for keeping my drinks cool, however there was one major defect, similar to the comment left by Kyle: “the tab connecting the small top cap came loose”.
Well, mine didn’t come loose, the tab completely disengaged from the small cap (which meant my bottle went careening onto the floor since it was being held by the tether)! Although I managed to push the tab back in, a couple of days later when my 750 mL bottle was again full and I was carrying it by the tether, low and behold, the tab popped out again.
I contacted the store where I bought it from and the customer service said that they’ve actually had a LOT of customers returning the Thinksport bottle because of this problem. They are in the process of contacting Thinksport to have them look into this defect which at the moment remains a mystery to them. From my experience, the material holding the tab in the small cap is not strong enough to hold the weight of 750 mLs of liquid along with the heavy bottle.
Needless to say I returned the bottle immediately. And “luckily” the defects surfaced in under 2 weeks of my purchase, otherwise, the store would not have granted a refund and I would’ve been stuck with a not-so-ideal, less-than-perfect and extremely expensive ($30 CDN) water bottle.
Another note: I also bought the Thinkbaby bottles a number of months ago and I won’t even go into the problems I’ve had with those!

Hi Cindy,

It sounds like you purchased your Think Sport bottle from a retailer who didn’t take the time to communicate with the manufacturer about the strap/cap assembly. After we sold our first few bottles with straps/caps that popped off, we contacted Think Sport and gave them some constructive feedback about the situation. They responded immediately by revamping the strap assembly and replacing every single original cap for each of our customers having trouble with theirs.

We’ve included info on our Think Sport product page for the last several months about the new strap assembly:

“NOTE: The manufacturer has upgraded the Think Sport bottle strap assembly. The strap is much more durable, but also more difficult to twist open/closed at first. It just needs to be broken in like a new pair of shoes, then you’ll have the most wonderfully durable and intensely insulated stainless steel bottle on the market.”

Creating a new product always entails a time of revision and improvement – that’s just expected. The Think Sport company is fantastic about making changes to their products based on customer feedback.

We’ve tried every single water bottle on the market, and Think Sport remains at the top of our list. There isn’t a bottle in existence that can compare in our opinion. We really hate to see you miss out on a Think Sport bottle. You may want go ahead and contact Think Operations with your complaints.

Sincerely,

Alicia and Sisters

I agree with your comment that “creating a new product always entails a time of revision and improvement”. However, if Thinksport is already aware of this problem and has already made improvements, then shouldn’t they have contacted the retailers to pull the defective ones off the shelf and restock with bottles that work? Why should they wait for customers to complain to the retailer, and then for the retailer to contact Thinksport before they provide the solution to this “mysterious” problem?

I actually did call Thinkbaby when I had the bottle problems. The person I spoke to assured me that they were redesigning the baby bottle caps so that it will be anti-leak and that they’d mail out the new caps (for free) to any customer who had the old caps (btw, these ‘old’ caps are actually their 2nd design since the 1st ones had a piece that was a potential choking hazard). So a couple of months down the road I called them back to ask for an update. This time the person that I spoke to said that the caps have not been changed. Instead they designed a new nipple (cross cut) that reduces leaks and that I’d have to buy it.

Needless to say I was an unhappy customer and vowed not to buy Thinkbaby products again. However, the awesome review about Thinksport made me give them a second chance that I now regret. Even if I go to another retailer to purchase another Thinksport bottle, how can I be sure that I’m not buying another defective product? As a customer, I’m looking for assurance in the quality of the product that I purchase and I don’t know if I can get that guarantee from them.

As an addendum to my post above …

I received a new main cap to replace the defective one I described. The same problem has already resurfaced: the metal cover has separated from the plastic core.

The only explanation I can come up with is that the heat of a dishwasher’s drying cycle melts whatever adhesive Think Sport uses to bond the metal cover to the cap.

Bottom line: I’ve had it with the problems and so-called “design defects” these bottles have, am angered Think Sport won’t accept a return of what’s clearly (and consistently) a poorly engineered product, and am throwing these things in the Goodwill pile.

I bought a thinkbaby sippy cup and had some issues, and the owner promptly sent me a replacement–VERY good customer service in my opinion. I also bought a few of the thinksport bottles and love them. I may have the redesigned version because I bought directly online and haven’t had any issues. I highly recommend their products and their great service!

Does anyone else have a metal taste in their water? I am sure that I read somewhere that the Thinksport would not change the taste of the water. I have had mine for a week and unless I fill it and drink the water right away (with an hour or so), the taste is terrible.

Thanks for the info, I haven’t come across these bottles before and I am kind of a nerd like you! I have been a fan of the Siggs and Klean Kanteens, but sounds like having double wall stainless for insulation is a major plus. I’ll check ‘em out. Thanks!

Stay away from the aluminum bottles…the internal coatings are nasty and tend to flake off.

The best bottle I have seen to date is the ones from Pura Stainless. These bottles have stainless lids (instead of plastic) and a LIFETIME WARRANTY! The best bottle that I have used by far…in fact I threw out three SIGG bottles and a Klean Kanteen after I picked up one of these.

Double walled insulation with interior lining makes the unit non-recyclable. It's a double edged sword I guess. Do you want performance or do you want recyclability? I guess at the end of the day performance wins out. There's a new bottle I picked up at the green Living Show by Planet Forward. Very cool design and the 1l size fit in my oversized cup holders. Check them out http://www.planetforward.ca

The Kleen Kanteen Double-wall Bottles do not keep liquid warm and the design is a bit awkward and if you make a mistake when reassembling the top cap, they leak. The ones from thinksports used to be sold by watergeek and they are no longer selling it because they also do not keep liquid warm for very long and when used with hot liquid they leek after a while (all made from the same chinese company).
I have one unbranded double wall stainless Steel bottle that keeps liquid hot for over 8 hours but I cannot find it again. If you want something that keeps liquid warm at this point your beste bet is a thermos. I tried single wall stainless steel bottles from several companies, the best one I have is from Watergeeks, it has a filter (like a brita) so you can refill it with city water and it makes the water taste great. It has a snap on cap, so you do not need to screw it back on after use.

Hi Alicia
Please excuse my mistake I might indeed be wrong.
This model of bottle, duplicated by several company are my least favorite of
all :
It's a big bottle that does not fit in most (any?) bottle holder such as
car, gym, etc…
It's a large bottlemade for big hands.
I must say that my aim when I get a double wall bottle is that my tea
morning is still warm in the afternoon
So far only one double wall insulated bottle past and well exeeded that
test…it is unbranded and i cannot find it again
When I do find it, I will happily share my finding

2010/4/7 Disqus <>

After trying severa ldouble-wall bottles this is the best one – The insulated SS sport flask from kikkerland. It keeps liquid really hot for over 12 hours. It is small, light, has no bulky cap and contains 750 ml or a liter in the smallest insulated bottle. I searched a lot to find this bottle again. No other bottle I have tried keep liquid hot for that long. You can find it at : kikkerland.com and search for Sport Flask. It is double-wall INSULATED, unlike most double wall sport flask like the Kleen kanteen one, which as got a double wall but no insulation in it, this one actually is insulated. The liquids will still be hot even after over a day.