New Klean Kanteen in hand
June 20th, 2008 • environmentalism
I got my new 27oz. Klean Kanteen two days ago from reusablebags.com. I got the blue one so I could differentiate mine from my girlfriend’s, it’s a splendidly nice color. I had to order it from a 3rd party because the team at Klean Kanteen never returned my email about when the kolor ones were going to be released for sale and I sent it probably 2 weeks ago. Still waiting, guys!
They changed up the design on the loop cap versus the older bottles. It’s now made of PP #5 and has a smaller profile. It’s also now hollow whereas before the top was a solid piece of plastic top to bottom, they simply bored out the middle to save on weight and plastic. They also removed the outer nubs on the external base of the top — which was the only thing providing grip — and replaced them with the words ‘klean kanteen’. I can’t blame them for putting their name all over their product but it’s made opening the new top more difficult since there’s little to no traction on the recessed lettering. Lack of usable traction surface is my only gripe with the new top, I like the smaller design a lot more. Since I have two other bottles, I just swapped out the more usable older loop cap onto the new bottle and put the older one in my hurricane emergency kit.
My one real big complaint is that the blue paint, and I’m sure this applies to all of the new colors, is friggin’ smooth! It’s got a light sheen and is very vibrant but it poses one simple problem: it’s too smooth. I picked it up to take a drink a minute ago and since it’s covered in condensation, I could hardly get the thing open without the bottle turning. The older non-painted stainless bottles were smooth to the touch but were not completely slick unlike this one. Some powder coating or something would really make these colors so much better…besides a hot pink color for my girlfriend. Next redesign guys, add in some texturing for grip. I know this won’t be a problem for everyone but it’s always humid here in Florida and I literally take this thing everywhere, I may have to rough up this pretty paint job.
I also ordered some ChicoBags to give to my family. One was ripped on the side and I’ve got to return it for an exchange. I got the mango ones which are really more orange than mango but very easy to see, almost like a dayglow orange. We’re sticking one in my girlfriend’s purse for that rare occasion when we forget our other reusable bags. My only worry is since they’re nylon, you can’t exactly recycle these things like you can the Green Bags many retailers are using now (which are NWPP #5). Luckily ChicoBag has a recycling plan in place to repurpose their bags and any others for low income families.
Now I just need to order a sport cap for my Klean Kanteen when I’m out on my bike and I’ll be good to go.