When I was shopping for my son to start preschool, I was thrilled to find these thermos bottles. He will only drink ice water, so I thought the straw design was wonderful for him. We wanted to be kind to the environment by NOT sending a plastic bottle every day. When the Thermos cups work properly, the cups do keep the ice water cold all day long, and the straw design is okay. Plus, they do give you an extra straw when you purchase it. I thought it was the perfect cup...HOWEVER, I am so frustrated with the Thermos lid design that I could scream!!! These cups, by the cute character designs, are geared towards younger children. My son dropped this cup once, and the lid broke. When the lid breaks, the cup is no longer spill-proof, and it cannot be used in a lunch box again (water leaked everywhere). These cups are very expensive--around $15 each. I bought him one replacement cup, and he had it for about 3 weeks before he dropped that one, and the lid broke on that one also. I cannot find any place to purchase replacement lids. And I am never going to buy another one of these cups until they change the design of the lid--or make them easier for young children with small hands to carry by adding a handle or something.
If you are lucky enough to never drop this cup, then it''s great! If you ever drop it on a hard surface, then it''s terrible.
UPDATE: I did contact the THERMOS customer care line 1-800-831-9242, and I was able to order replacement lids for the thermos cups. They only cost $2 per lid and were shipped quickly with replacement straws as well. Since you can order replacement lids, I would update my review back to 3 stars.
Buy Thermos Funtainer Bottle, Spiderman Now
We purchased this Thermos (with the Hello Kitty design from Target) over 1½ years ago. It has held up through almost daily use. It is one of the best kids drink holders I''ve ever had. We actually have two, one blue one pink.They each came with an extra straw set but my originals are still going strong.
I can put ice water in it in the morning and send my daughter to camp (outside, no refrigerator) and when she gets home late afternoon, there is still ice in it.
We use them for lunches, travel and daily household use.
Milk stays cold for up to 12 hours (although we don''t usually let milk stay out that long).
It has been tossed around (not dropped from any great height) and has rolled around the mini van and the only wear it shows is with the imprint on the outside.
We do not wash it in the dishwasher although I think you can and I take the straw apart each time I wash it it is a two piece part.
Since we put milk in it, I often clean the straw out with a pipe cleaner so that any residual milk is removed. I use a knife point to go around the inside of the straw connecting point because this can sometimes build up some milk stuff.
It sounds like a lot but it takes less than a minute to wash and I feel like it is clean when we are done.
It reassembles so easily. I''ve had straw cups that have to be carefully threaded and pushed. This just pops in.
A little pricey for a drinking cup but well worth every penny.
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UPDATE 9/3/2010
I just purchased another Funtainer (from Amazon) so that we had one at school with cold water and one at home. Coincidentally, my daughter dropped our old one at school and the top broke. It has been dropped many times in the past and it is almost two years old so I feel like it held up well. In defense of the product, she dropped it on a hard floor.
I did want to point out that the one we just received from our Amazon order did not have an extra straw set but seems to be constructed like our older one.
Read Best Reviews of Thermos Funtainer Bottle, Spiderman Here
We have had two of this bottles for about 2 years now. Both are THERMOS brand but they are different designs. One is a Funtainer and came on its own (bought it in-store at Target), the Hello Kitty design. The lid and straw part has held up well, but the bottom part (plastic) shattered during the first week of use (what kind of kid does NOT drop things!) and has been superglued, taped etc many times.The second one is a FooGo and came in rigid plastic wrapping, also bought at Target. This one does not have the issue of the Funtainer with the fragile bottom, but instead, the straw has been split in half for a while now. What is worse is that the straw insert is not made of 2 but 3 pieces, an absolutely bad design because you have to take all the pieces apart to wash and then put them togheter for use again, if you dont take all the pieces apart, you risk having soap in betweek the 2 big pieces or water that will never dry up because is caught in between the 2 tight surfaces.
If Thermos could only combine the 2 designs and make one with a good 2 piece-only straw and a more flexible plastic bottom then it would justify to pay $20 for a water bottle. Until then I will keep shopping for something that makes for sense and is durable as well.
On the good side, both bottle keep water very cold (I add ice in the morning before school) for several hours and we have not had any leaking issues when the lids are closed. It is easy to close the lids properly compared to other Contigo bottles (bpa free plastic) that I bought at Costco and are a leaking nightmare if not perfectly aligned and closed properly.
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I purchased three Barbie Funtainer Thermos'' with straws. I saw the Thermos version on Amazon and was looking for something close. The Barbie and Hello Kitty ones were super cute so I bought one for each kid. At first I was really impressed! I put two ice cubes in and the thermos'' stayed freezing cold all day long outside of the fridge, even when I left them in a 100 degree car while we all went shopping, at the end of the day the ice was still intact. Nothing seemed to leak or sweat or anything. About a week later my youngest left hers with the lid up and it fell over on my couch. A second later there was a big pool of water on my couch! "No leak" apparently doesn''t apply when the lid is up. There is a small air hole next to the straw that caused all of that water to be able to get out. I turned the thermos over just to see how fast it would drip... don''t do that... when turned completely upside-down the water poured out of the straw like a little hose, and all over my floor. Luckily it was just water because if it had been fruit juice I would have been in trouble. The other main fault for me is an even bigger one. The taste! I hadn''t ever actually taken a drink out of these thermos''. When I did I was shocked at how bad it tasted. The rubber straw made the water taste like I was drinking out of a tire! Seriously, drinking from a garden hose has less of a rubber taste. I then unscrewed the top and took a sip from the thermos, but the straw had soaked in the water in the thermos and it all tasted like rubber. I tried the other two thermos straws as well and they all taste equally as bad. My kids don''t seem to notice, but I do wonder about safety with a thing like this. All in all I think they should remove "no spill" from the description and fix the straw. My kids have tons of other sips with straws and none of them taste like this!
