Contigo Water Bottles

After seeing a review of Contigo water bottles on Tammy’s Recipes last year, I was really interested in getting some for our family.  My sister also purchased some last year for her family, and was very impressed with the quality and contruction as well.  She always had her water bottle with her.  However, the $12-$15 a piece price tag put them in the ‘save for’ category.   Just after Christmas, I noticed that the style that Tammy reviewed is currently on clearance at Target for $10 or less, but with 6 in our family…I was still going to ‘think about it’ for a while longer.

Then, my sister suggested that we take a trip to Costco, and lo and behold, they have the new Contigo Autospout Adison water bottles on sale…a 3 pack for $15!  SCORE!  They’re usually 3 for $20 at Costco, which is still a GREAT deal!

Showing off the new handle design…”I can hold it with one singer!”

Here is my review:  I love them!  We are enjoying them even more than I thought we would, and the color coding has solved several annoying issues with drink cups that I used to have.

These are the ‘pros’ from my perspective:

• We use WAY fewer glasses now, since each of us has our own, personal water bottle.
• They’re BPA free!!!
• The colors are really cute.  Each one of us got to pick our favorite.  The three packs come in either orange, green, and purple, or pink, blue, and gray.  If we had more than 6 in our family, I’d make key-chain tags to hang off the handles to ID the cups.
• The bottles are pretty much spill proof…as much as a good sippie cup.  You might get a tiny dribble from water left in the straw, but they won’t empty into the carpeting and cause our vehicle to start smelling like a bacteria farm, like some other water bottles that we’ve had first hand experience with.
• I’m getting rid of ALL other beverage bottles and all but 2 of the sippie cups…so I’m gaining cabinet space!
• They’re really easy to pop open…even the 22 month old loves pushing the button to pop out his drinking nozzle.
• …and speaking of the nozzle, they’re really comfortable to drink out of.  It’s a sort of soft-ish silicone type material that is really comfortable to drink from.  But it feels firm enough to where it wouldn’t be easy to bite into or absorb mouth ick.
• You don’t have to tip it up to drink from it…I find that nice.  I like straws.
• The bottles are see-through, so it’s easy to tell if you need to refill.
• Contigo water bottles are also calibrated in ounces (24) and ml, so you can keep track of how much you’re drinking throughout the day…and how much your kids are drinking.  They hold 3 cups if they’re full, and that’s a goodly amount!
• We’re drinking more water now.  The older kids, especially, have enjoyed having their bottle with them during school, and keep track of how many refills they are getting.

Five bottles in one hand!

• The built in handle is AWESOME…awesomely awesome.  It’s the next best thing to growing an extra hand per kid.  I can hold all 6 bottles in one hand by poking my fingers through the handles.  The handles are raised, and solid…not a floppy thing that you have to fiddle around with to grab hold of.  It’s ready and at your service.  Seriously, it’s one of my favorite parts of the design.  I think the slightly ‘stand up’ handle is a big design improvement over the previous model, because it’s SO easy to just grab.
• The mouthpiece is covered when not in use.  Which is really comforting when you’re at the zoo, in public places, or around people who you may or may not be related to who sneeze, belch or…you know.  Gross stuff doesn’t get on the mouthpiece.
• The bottles are narrow enough to fit into standard cup holders and diaper bag pockets.

Our new Contigo Autospout bottles fit nicely in the fridge door!

And the cons:

• You have to suck a little bit hard to get your water out…since the bottles are spill proof, they have a vacuum seal.  It’s not terribly difficult, and the little ones even do fine, but it’s different than a non-spill-proof straw cup for sure.  (The seals may get looser/easier to drink from as we break them in.)*
  I solved this last night, by gently pressing on the top of the little black seal, until it *barely* moved.  The water now comes out noticably faster/easier, and the seal still seems to work just as well after the ‘modification’.  Yay!
• When you flip the spout open, it flicks a few drops of water in your face.  The little ones close their eyes and look away. 🙂  I just keep my finger on the spout so it doesn’t flick open as fast.
• Closing the bottles is a little tricky for the under 2 crowd.  But this doesn’t stop him from trying.
• …and speaking of the under 2 crowd, backwash is still possible.  I’ll spare you that picture.
• Top rack dishwasher safe…the bottles can and do melt a bit if you wash them in the bottom rack, as my sister discovered with her last batch of bottles (they’re still useable, just not as cute).  Since we’re only using ours for water, I plan to hand-wash every few days to keep them fresh.  Especially for those who backwash.
• when the bottles are empty, they’re top heavy, and fall over easily.  It’s a little annoying.  (Solution: keep them filled)
• Since they hold 3 cups, and have to be narrow enough to fit into a cup holder, they are a little tall for your average cup holder, and thus top-heavy when they’re in the car cupholders (like all other decent sized water bottles we’ve tried).  Which is why I’m SO sold on the leak proof thing.
• The Contigo Autospout bottles work almost exactly like a sippie cup, but the size is a bit overkill for small people.  I choose to use small zip up duffel bags that my little ones carry themselves…so I’m keeping a couple of the smaller sippies on hand for when they go to Sunday School or when we’re out and about.  Contigo also makes a smaller ‘kid sized’ cup, so that would be an option if you wanted a junior size.

And now, a video review from our favorite 3 year old.  This is just something that I did spur of the moment, because she was telling me all about her new bottle today at lunch and it was SO cute.  I literally just picked up my camera and started filming with no prepping…I think she did a GREAT job!  She demonstrates her favorite features, and gives it two thumbs down…or up…if she can find her other thumb. 🙂

Here is an Amazon (affiliate) link to the Contigo autospout version, or my current favorite, the autoseal version (without the straw). I found the autoseal is easier to clean over time.

To Pin!