OXO Good Grips LiquiSeal Travel Mug, Stainless Steel
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of OXO Good Grips LiquiSeal Travel Mug, Stainless Steel
Customer Review: Hard to clean top prevents it from becoming my favorite mug
Summary: 3 Stars
I received this recently at one of our 'secret Santa' Christmas get-togethers. Up until then, I've been using the Thermos Nissan 18-Ounce Stainless-Steel Insulated Travel Tumbler almost exclusively for the past several months. I am pleased with the Thermos but I welcomed having two good-quality coffee mugs so I didn't have to wash the mug every morning before filling it up - with 2 I would do it every other morning, I thought. I will not do a comparison between the two, I only wanted to note that we do have choices when it comes to quality travel mugs these days and some are better than others.
I will enumerate some of the OXO features and my verdict will follow:
+ 14 oz. mug with a grooved plastic lid that closes tight
+ the body is double-walled steel with vacuum so it keeps a beverage close to the initial temperature for a reasonable amount of time
= fits nicely in my car's cup holder but, being as tall as it is, it may not be too stable in some of the shallower ones
- a sealing mechanism with several moving and hidden parts of which the on-off clicking button is visible at the top can not be cleaned easily and, if your coffee has milk-cream some very unpleasant deposits can accumulate inside
- the junction between the plastic upper ring and the steel bottom makes cleaning the inside difficult as well - the top plastic band is narrower than the steel lower body, meaning that there is an interior 'ledge' that had to be carefully cleaned or residue will accumulate
The big negative on this mug is what was supposed to distinguish it from 'the rest' - the top with its on/off seal button assembly. This makes the OXO not my 'first pick' whenever I have a choice of mugs. The only time I pick the OXO is when I forget to clean the Thermos the previous night (and the Thermos is very easy to clean) but, knowing what COULD reside under that on/off button seems to subtract from my coffee-drinking enjoyment.
If I was going to buy myself a third coffee mug, it would not be an OXO. I understand that it is POSSIBLE to clean the OXO very thoroughly but the cleaning is difficult and, for as long as there are better alternatives, most of us are likely to pick the better alternatives.
The OXO loses 2 stars because of the cleaning inconvenience, it keeps 3 because it does not spill and it keeps the coffee warm for a reasonably long time.
Customer Review: Good but not great
Summary: 3 Stars
first i want to say that this is my first review and if you're reading it then, please, WRITE YOUR OWN next time you have the chance. every time i buy anything from coffee mugs to clothing steamers, i find myself perusing amazon to see what everyone else said about it. this is an invaluable FREE resource unlike some other websites (ahem, consumerreportsucks, ahem excuse me!) which let you use it for, like, 3 days and then start charging your credit card on a monthly basis which effectively bleeds dry anyone who's ever just wanted to look up the damn list of good vaccum cleaners. phew.
sorry. ok, now that i'm done with that: the-oxo-best-mug-ever-good-grips-
they-really-should-come-up-with-a-better-name-or-catchphrase-if-they-want-
it-to-sell-coffee-mug.
there was no 3.5 stars option or i would have chosen it. this mug is good but not great. the advantages are as follows:
1. easy to clean: unlike other high quality mugs, this mug is relatively easy to clean. no, i don't think you're supposed to put it in the dishwasher, but there aren't a bunch of little parts, nor is the device complicated or labrinyth like. i wish i could spell labrynth. some other mugs seem to collect coffee grime to no end and if you're a liiiiittle bit anal like me, then you don't want last weeks half-and-half residue in monday morning's coffee. so this is a really nice quality.
2. usability: i don't really drive much so i can't comment. keeps me happy on my drive to school every morning. the little button-ma-dealy is more convenient than most mugs, now that i think about it. yeah, the design is good.
3. handle: i never really understood why this matters. doesn't make a difference to me.
4. airtight: never seen it leak, not even the tiniest little bit. and i've tested it.
5. thermal: this is my only problem with the mug. it really only keeps my coffee @ a reasonable drinking temperature for about 45 min-1 hour. i used to have a mug that kept it drinkable for 3-4 hours and i know that's not uncommon.
since the thermal aspect is a primary reason for spending $20 on a mug, that's why i only gave it three stars. it doesn't do a good job of that. everything else is perfect, as far as i'm concerned.
hope this was helpful to you in your coffee mug search. don't forget to write your own next time. you don't have to buy it from amazon to write a review on amazon. so don't forget!
Customer Review: Leaks after a week and impossible to clean.
Summary: 1 Stars
I've owned this mug for over a year. I always liked how it didn't have a handle and had a nifty click-button-to-open top and with the rubber grip it feels good in your hand. However, these nice design features are overshadowed by 2 MAJOR flaws.
The first, it leaks. After owning it for about a week the seal would not keep my coffee from spilling should the mug tip over, and several books were ruined in my pack as a result. It's so bad that even after I drank all the coffee I could out of it, I was unable to throw it in my bag afterward because the remnants would drip all over my stuff.
The second major flaw is it's inability to be cleaned. Like I said, I've had this mug for a long time and have tried everything to keep it from acquiring build up. The dish washer was never able to clean the inside of the lid due to the pop-down stopper, which only allows a 1/4 inch opening to the inner chamber of the top, and is not removable without breaking it. I've tried soaking this in a tub of soap water and bleach regularly but still build-up would acquire. The only way to remove it was to use a q-tip or paper towel folded over a knife to get in the chamber and attempt to remove the gunk, and even then, I was unable to remove it all.
I switched to a contigo mug a few months ago, because it actually seals well and is easier to clean, yet still not perfect, until it got lost. So with no other choice I pulled out my old oxo and used that for several weeks just as I had before. Then I noticed something when cleaning it yesterday. A small black mass of gunk had become dislodged from the top of the chamber and fell to the slit. I finally ripped off the pop-down stopper and much to my disgust there was a ring of built up gunk along the inner portion of the chamber and under the button which I would never have been able to clean even with my best efforts of mechanical or detergent removal. I'll spare you the description of the "gunk" but trust me, I've never thrown something in the garbage so fast as that mug. So back to amazon for another contigo.
If you buy this mug, be sure never to trust its ability to seal itself and never leave a beverage in it for more than a few hours before rinsing it out thoroughly with soap and hot water. Maybe if you do this religiously you'll enjoy this product, otherwise you'll end up like me...disgusted.
Customer Review: This one is a real road warrior
Summary: 5 Stars
I've had this Oxo travel mug for almost 4 years now, and it has yet to disappoint me - unlike the many contenders I've also tried over the years. It has logged at least 200,000 miles in flight, not to mention countless miles in cars, luggage and most other forms of transportation, survived severe temperature changes, several drops onto concrete and piping hot tea all day long, day after day.
Some of its key advantage may be obvious just by looking at it, but others only become apparent after thorough use or by comparison to less-inspiring products:
1. It is very robust; stainless steel beats plastic any day.
2. Excellent insulation properties, especially for hot drinks.
3. Truly leak-proof (as long as you don't build up too much pressure inside)
4. Easy to hold and "operate" with a single-hand without accidental mishaps, which is indispensable in turbulence or moving vehicles especially when you are behind the wheel.
5. Absence of protruding handle adds to its compactness, which allows for placement in tight spaces, pockets, holders, etc. The neutral color and shape make it an appropriate fixture in most business and casual environments.
6. Easy to clean and disinfect - yet another advantage of stainless steel over plastic. I noticed a number of reviews commenting on how difficult it is to clean over time, but boiling water has kept mine in shape for years: just pop it in the "open" position and generously pour boiling water right over the mug so that it seeps inside. It works for surgical tools, and it will work for you. On a few occasions, my mother submerged it in a chlorine bleach solution (without my approval), which helped remove stains, but generally not the best idea for rubber gastkets, etc. The fact that this mug has kept functioning in spite of chlorine and boiling water is another testament to its quality.
If I sound like an Oxo rep, it's only because this mug has been one of my most reliable travel companions all over the world and has undoubtedly helped keep me healthy. I recently bought another one just in case Oxo makes the mistake to discontinue it...
Customer Review: Still drips a little.
Summary: 3 Stars
Holds a good amount of coffee to last me all morning and stays hot/warm. The lid could be a little shorter but needed to accomodate the clicker button that seals in the coffee. Instructions say, to prevent dripping, let coffee drip back in for a few seconds before closing/sealing the cup but be careful because a few drops will still leak out. If your hands are full with other stuff, don't carry this under your arm with your white dress shirt on. Once those couple of drops come out though, it does seal well. I can't do that with any of my other coffee mugs. It feels very sturdy and of good quality.
Updating review 12-25-2009. Although it took a long time for me to notice, I finally see what people are talking about when they say that this mug is impossible to completely clean. I drank coffee in it daily for months and never noticed any gunk accumulating. It seemed to stay clean after hand washing. However, when I started drinking hot chocolate and other milk and corn starch based mexican hot drinks, things changed quickly. It was really gross when i started having little chunks of brown stuff falling out from the lid and accumulating around the stopper in the lid. I washed and washed the lid but couldn't get all of the gunk out. I tried submerging the lid in boiling water but that trapped water in the lid forever. I've left it out to dry, shook the lid like crazy but the water that snuck inside just will not come out and I still see gunk trapped inside the lid. So, needless to say, I can no longer drink out of this mug. I can't stop thinking of the old gunk trapped inside. This is a major failure with this mug. I wish they would have made the lid in a way that you could take it apart completely to clean. I will no longer be using this mug and will replace with another that unfortunately does not seal as well as this one did.