Tahoe Trails 20 oz Stainless Steel Tumbler with Lid, Double Wall Vacuum Insulated Travel Cup, Great for Cold or Hot Drinks, Red Orange

I bought and compared three tumblers and am posting this review on each of them. This is long, but the bottom line is, I think, that the cups all perform about the same.There are dozens of brands/styles of “double wall vacuum insulated” cups and tumblers available with very little about their listings and reviews to distinguish one from another. I spent a couple of weeks with most of my spare time devoted to reading these specs and many of the reviews. My goal was to find a brand and style that I could order several of, preferably each in a different color, to have as the main daily use cups in my home. I wanted one big enough that I don’t have to refill my cup before being satisfied but I also wanted something that would fit on the smaller shelves in my dish cabinets. And I wanted something that could be run through the dishwasher on a semi-regular basis. Once I got looking at the specs I decided that the 20 ounce tumblers were the best size for fitting in the cabinets and would allow me to pour in a 16 ounce drink and still have room for a lid or some ice, though I didn’t rule out something a little smaller. A mock-up of a 22 ounce tumbler left me feeling it was taller than I wanted on my desk and also that it was skinny enough that I worried about its stability, that it would be too easy to knock over. The desire to be able to put it in the dishwasher led me to focus on ones that used powder coating for the color, as vinyl wraps seem to not do well in that harsh environment. And a travel lid would be nice but not necessary, so a tie-breaker but not a criterion.The price range for tumblers that matched my requirements ranged from about ten bucks each to as much as thirty-five. Even ignoring anything that ran more than twenty dollars, there were still too many to choose from. I looked for brands that also had a smaller tumbler, no more than 12 ounces, that would complement the larger cups while being good for spirits or wine. And I concentrated on brands that had at least 8 different colors. Then I narrowed the selection by rejecting tumblers that obnoxiously put a brand name or logo on the side.I decided to get one tumbler in each of three slightly different styles for subjective comparison and some shoot-out tests. The 20 ounce tumblers come in three main styles. The first are straight sided, slanted to a top larger than the base. The second are what I call contoured - where the top is larger than the base but the side has a curve - which I think is prettier. And the third has a rounded base - almost like the bottom of a sphere - many of which are described as a stemless wine glass.I purchased two different contoured tumblers, each 20 ounce, and one 16 ounce tumbler with the rounded base. I went with one from Meway, which has a relatively gentle contour, one from Tahoe Trails, with a more swooping contour, and for the 16 ouncer, one from Clear Water Home Goods. I ordered all three in purple so I could see how close the colors matched. For the record, the Meway was a solid purple but looks a little washed out next to the Tahoe Trails, and the Clear Water looks more dark blue unless you see it in a strong light.They all came boxed, each included a lid (though only the Tahoe Trails lid could be closed, the others have a permanently open sipping slot), and the Meway also threw in steel straws with a cleaning brush. To my not very practiced eyes, the inside dimensions and shape of the two 20 ounce cups look the same, so I measured the actual capacities. Both of the 20 ounce cups will hold 20 ounces if you fill all the way to the brim, but they will only hold 16 ounces if you fill to just below the space needed for the lid. The 16 ounce tumbler, on the other hand, will hold 16 ounces with the lid in place and 18 without. This makes the 16 ouncer much closer to the 20s and rather more desirable for its shorter height, though it is also a consideration that it doesn’t fit in my car’s cupholder while the other two easily do. The Tahoe Trails is 7 inches tall, the Meway is 6-3/4 inches tall and the Clear Water is 5-3/4 inches tall (but wider than the others at the base).There are no markings on either the Meway or the Tahoe Trails, but the bottom of the Clear Water has indented text that identifies the manufacturer as Polar Camel. If you search on “Polar Camel” you will find literally thousands of tumblers with engraved text or graphics. I paged through all those listings and the Clear Waters were the only ones I found that were not engraved. Polar Camel says (on the bottom of the cup) “hand wash only” but as it’s powder coated I chose to ignore that.Functionally they’re pretty much identical. The outside of the Tahoe Trails is noticeably (though not significantly) larger. I think that might mean the vacuum space is larger on the Tahoe Trails, but it didn’t seem to make a difference in performance. I filled them with crushed ice, put the lids on, and left them undisturbed on the dining room table for 24 hours, when the average temperature in the room was about 76F. For a control I used a 20 ounce glass mug. The ice in the glass mug was reduced to a few floating slivers after about 5 hours, the vacuum tumblers all had about a third of their ice after 24 hours. I then repeated the test (minus the control) with the lids off. Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate so the temperature in the room was about four degrees hotter. Not enough to invalidate the results but enough to skew them a bit. With the lids off, the ice in the 16 ounce cup was reduced to a few slivers in 21 hours and in the twenty ouncers there was only a tiny bit left at 24 hours. In general the ice seemed to be melting about twice as fast with the lids off.Having determined their functional parameters, the next thing to do was to get some data on their durability. To test this I used my dishwasher. There are two dangers in not hand washing these cups. The first is that the colored coating may become damaged, either cosmetically or physically. The second is that the temperature changes can cause the seal to lose integrity. If that happens you get reduced to the tumbler no longer keeping things cold or hot for significantly longer than a regular cup. Both of these reasons are why most manufacturers recommend hand washing only.Over the course of a a week or two I ran all three through the dishwasher whenever I had a load ready to go, so about five or six times. To better protect them I always put them on the top rack. The cups have all remained fully functional, continuing to keep things cold for as long as I needed, but I didn’t do any torture tests or any additional timed shoot-outs. The Tahoe Trails cup did develop some spotted discoloration but I can’t say if that was just an unlucky cup or if they might use a different composition of coating than the others. The reviews for these tumblers are filled with people that either machine wash them with no problem, or who have done so and had their cup ruined. My belief is that this is a potential problem but relatively rare; if it happens to me I’ll buy a replacement and not rail against the manufacturer. I’d rather take a small chance than have to treat my cups as sacred objects.Let’s also take a moment to talk about the most repeated complaint about the Tahoe Trails tumbler. The lid. The lid has a pivoting piece of plastic that locks into a down position to seal the cup completely against leaking (I didn’t test this). The complaint is that in its open position this bit of plastic sticks up, higher than the lip of the cup, making it push against your nose if you try to drink by tilting the tumbler instead of your head. This complaint is completely valid, but is also about the same as drinking directly from a soda can whose pull-tab is in place. You can decide if having to tilt your head back when you drink is a deal killer or not, but this could definitely be a problem if you plan to drink while driving. You can also consider buying a third party lid if you really like the look of the Tahoe Trails tumblers.So, as I said at the start, they all function about the same, have slightly differing aesthetics, and slightly different usability profiles. The technology seems to be mature, so it doesn’t much matter which brand you buy. Pay attention to the form factor if you intend to put it in a car’s cup holder. Get the stemless design if you don’t want to take it in the car and want it to not look huge. Get any color or design if you intend to hand wash only but probably stick to ones that are powder coated if you want to run them through your dishwasher.If you have any questions that I didn’t cover, comment on this review and I’ll try and check in to answer them.

I loved the quality and the look!Excellent product!

Just the right size. Easy to hold. Keeps drunks cold for 6-8 hours. Perfect to take on road trips.

It seems just great so far

The closure is in the way, touches my nose when drinking…

Keeps ice for extended periods and is priced very reasonable.

I have three reusable tumblers (because I frequently fill them all at the same time), all bought on Amazon: a 36-oz non-insulated Dfifan plastic NON-Leaking plastic bottle I use for water or iced tea (locking lid, carrying strap), which I really like; my favorite, a Contigo AUTOSEAL West Loop Vaccuum-Insulated Stainless Steel Travel Mug, 20 oz, Stainless Steel (it comes in other sizes and colors), has a double locking lid which absolutely doesn't leak, even with more than a year's use (and I've turned it upside down, sideways and even shaken it in those positions and never a drop); and this one (20 oz.) which I use for hot tea brewed using a tea bag (with an extremely skinny string attached that schmooshes flat)--that's why I wanted a push-in lid rather than a screw-on lid like the first two. This tumbler is fatter than the other two, even on the bottom 1/3 (and therefore, shorter). It does fit into my Subaru's cup holders, but I can see why some people have trouble with its diameter. Although I prefer the thinner circumference of my other two, this really isn't difficult to hold (I wear a 7.5 glove, which is pretty average for a woman). Someone with small hands might have a bit of difficulty, particularly since it is top heavy. It does keep my tea warm. My problem with this cup is it really does leak. Today, I put in my tea bag, filled it with hot water to where the shape changes at the top to accommodate the lid, pushed the top on firmly, snapped the drink-hole covering shut and wedged it carefully into my purse such that it couldn't fall over. An hour or so later, about 1/2 cup of liquid had gone from this cup into the bottom of my purse, saturating the relatively thick leather (about 75% of the bottom of the purse and two spots on the side, each about the size of a playing card. The lining is still soaked, along with my wallet and checkbook. Annoying! At least one woman said she turned the cup upside down and it didn't leak. I believe it. Initially, I thought it leaked from the sides, so that if it tilts a bit, the liquid comes out the sides--even with the lid on tightly, but further testing seems to indicate the flip-lid closure leaks (and even medium-sized noses bump into it when drinking). The first two tumblers have a locking mechanism (or two) that prevents the liquid from being accidentally released. I've had the first two tumblers for over a year with no problems. I've had this one less than a week. If my opinion changes, I will update.

I didn’t give this a ten because I bought two of these and after throwing away the packaging I found one of the lids had a broken flip open tab. So I could not return it. The one I use works for now but the flip tab is very vulnerable to breakage. I am using with care because I need to have a mug like this on a daily basis.