Klean Kanteen Insulated TKWide

Klean Kanteen's Insulated TKWide stands out among the plethora of vacuum insulated bottles on the market. It's non-leaking (with Café Cap or other leakproof options) and keeps drinks hot or cold for long hours. Made from stainless steel it's easy to keep clean and comes in a range of sizes and colors.

In a world overflowing with water bottle options, the Insulated TKWide stands out as a good-looking, well made, everyday bottle for anyone on-the-go to work, school, errands, sports (if you're able to go anywhere), or for keeping drinks hot or cold while working or hanging at home.

I actually assigned this 16-fluid-ounce bottle to my middle-school-age daughter to test. Middle schoolers are really into water bottles (no joke). She already has a large 64-ounce Hydro Flask she loves, but despite our extensive home collection of bottles has wanted a smaller bottle with the cafe style cap for years. So this review is from both of us.

The Bottle (What's so special about another water bottle?)

I often think "not another water bottle!" when I hear about yet another water bottle on the market. I mean, how many do we need? 

Well, Klean Kanteen's Insulated TKWide stands out in an over-saturated market. It's sleek, well made, insulated, and with the Café Cap does not leak. Amidst all the water bottles in our home, the Insulated TKWide stays in regular rotation.

Need I say more? Probably not, but here goes.

Sizes: The Insulated TKWide is available in five sizes, from the adorable 12-fluid-ouncer up to the hefty 64-fluid-ounce option (plus 16oz, 20oz, and 32oz). We have the 16-fluid-ounce size.

Materials: It's BPA-free, made from 18/8 food grade stainless steel, and doesn't retain any taste or stains. It's easy to clean by hand (recommended) or in the dishwasher. We've done both.

Colors: Each size comes in several vibrant colors (shiny and matte) with a chip-resistant Klean Coat powder coat finish. Bottles in brushed stainless have no coating. Ours (melon punch) looks great after months of use, even without a Trailspace sticker!

Features: How many features can a water bottle have?

• Insulated—The Insulated TKWide keeps drinks hot or cold for many hours (how many depends on the size of the bottle, air temperature, and what you put inside, see below). The 16-oz size claims hot up to 14 hours or iced up to 47 hours.
• Wide opening—All sizes have a wide 2.6-inch (66 mm) opening. This makes the bottle easy to fill and to add full-size ice cubes, as well as keep clean.
• TK Closure—The internal thread designs lets you switch between several TKWide caps (see below).
• Cap with swivel loop—Our bottle came with the leak-proof Café Cap with Swing Away Loop. There are other TKWide caps you can buy separately or with a bottle. The loop makes it easier to carry and folds away. It also gives extra oomph to tighten the lid closed. I'd like it on more bottles.

Vacuum Insulation (Does the Insulated TKWide keep drinks hot? cold?)

Yes, assuming you have reasonable expectations.

Klean Kanteen claims the following for the Insulated TKWide bottles:

• 12oz: 11 hours hot / 38 hours iced
• 16oz: 14 hours hot / 47 hours iced
• 20oz: 17 hours hot / 58 hours iced
• 32oz: 22 hours hot / 75 hours iced
• 64oz: 38 hours hot / 135 hours ice

Obviously, the temperature of the liquid you add, the exterior air temperature, and how often and how much you drink out of the bottle all will affect these times. In our experience, the claims are realistic for best-case scenarios, as long as you're not pushing the limits. 

We've filled our 16-ounce bottle with water and ice cubes in summer and it's stayed cold all day long and still had ice in it the next day and still been cool the following day. My daughter likes that the water is always cold when she goes to drink it, even a day or more later.

For hot drinks, it has kept hot cocoa warm all day in the car in cold (10°F) conditions. I've also left a full bottle filled with hot water (I boiled water and let it cool slightly before adding it to the bottle) outside overnight in temps in the 20s (F) in Maine. At 14 hours the next day, after checking it several times, it was still slightly warm.

Since you're unlikely to leave this bottle outside, unprotected for 14 hours and are more likely to use it on-the-go during your day, I think its insulation is more than satisfactory.

If you plan to drink out of this bottle often in very hot or cold temperatures and expect your drink to stay just as cold or hot, you'll be disappointed. But, that's not the fault of the bottle, that's physics. The Insulated TKWide performs as well as I'd expect compared to other insulated vacuum bottles I've used, and we've been happy with its insulating performance, especially for ice water.

Leak-Proof Caps (Will the Insulated TKWide bottle leak on me?)

This is the most important criteria for a water bottle.

Our bottle came with Klean Kanteen's TKWide Café Cap. I admit, any cap with a hole to drink out of makes me worried about leaking. However, my daughter has told me for years that she likes this cap style. She thinks they are easier to drink out of since you don't have to unscrew the lid every time. Just turn the lid open or closed. So, we ended up with this Café Cap. 

And, it is leak proof! Thank goodness.

The only time we had a spill was due to (my) user error when I "helpfully" filled the bottle, shoved it into the side pocket of her backpack she was wearing, she bent over, and it spilled on her on the way to the bus. Ooops. That was my fault for not closing the cap first (I swear, I know how to use a water bottle). It hasn't happened again.

The sign of a trustworthy water bottle is one that I'm willing to put in a pack, bag, car, etc. And this one succeeds. I've tested it by holding it upside down (in the closed position) and shaking it and never had a drop come out of it. We don't leave the bottle inverted though, as that just seems like a bad idea.

For all-day outdoor use, I still go with a screw-top like a plastic Nalgene or stainless steel Klean Kanteen or Hydro Flask. But that's a personal preference. For on-the-go use, especially for coffee or tea drinkers, the Insulated TKWide is an excellent option.

Each Insulated TKWide bottle comes with one of the following caps, but you also can buy a second one:

• TKWide Café Cap (leakproof)
• TKWide Chug Cap (leakproof)
• TKWide Straw Cap (NOT leakproof)
• TKWide Insulated Wide Loop Cap (leakproof)
• TKWide Twist Cap (leakproof)

Note: Klean Kanteen designates whether a specific cap is leakproof or not and whether it's intended for use with hot drinks. Just be sure it's compatible with TKWide bottles.

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Use (What's the Insulated TKWide bottle best for?)

The bottle size (12 to 64 fluid ounces) and the cap style you choose will dictate what each Insulated TKWide bottle is best suited for—Small bottle with coffee to go? Large bottle with ice cold water for summer sports? It's a versatile bottle with lots of options.

My daughter primarily uses this as an everyday bottle—at home, in the car, on her way to practices, etc. With this COVID year she has not brought it to school as often, simply because with no drinking fountains available she needs more capacity to carry water all day than a 16-ounce bottle (so her existing 64-ounce Hydro Flask goes). But, the Insulated TKWide is also available in sizes up to 64-ounces.

For shorter trips and outings this is a top choice, especially for iced water. She uses it around the house for drinking iced water and has used it for hot cocoa in the car during ski breaks (since there is no base lodge access this year). The 16-ounce size also fits neatly in a cup holder or the side pocket of a backpack.

Durable (How well made is the Insulated TKWide bottle?)

The colored Insulated TKWide bottles have a chip-resistant Klean Coat powder coat finish. After about six months of use, our bottle shows no scratches or signs of wear. I'm very pleased with its durability and construction.

Our bottle has a shiny finish, which gives it a sleek look. I haven't had any issues with it feeling overly slippery when wet, or having trouble screwing or unscrewing the cap on a wet bottle. But, you can avoid the slick look with a matte finish if you prefer.

Care and Cleaning (How do I clean the Insulated TKWide bottle?)

Our bottle mainly holds ice water, but has had Gatorade, juice, and hot cocoa in it. No one at our house drinks coffee or tea. Made from stainless steel, the bottle has no residual taste. The wide opening makes it easy to add ice cubes, which may be my favorite feature on summer days.

The best way to clean a vacuum insulated bottle and cap has been a source of discussion among fellow Review Corps members. Plus, a quality bottle is not inexpensive. So, I asked Jeremy Cashman, Director of Brand and Marketing at Klean Kanteen, for more info.

Wash the Bottle—Klean Kanteen recommends hand washing any bottle that has graphics in order to preserve the artwork. However, all of its solid color bottles are dishwasher safe, and they have not found any issues with insulating performance after dishwashing, says Cashman.

So, feel free to put yours in the dishwasher (we do sometimes), if you're not worried about ruining any exterior designs. The wide opening also makes hand-washing easy, especially with a bottle brush.

Wash the Cap—The TKWide Café Cap is also dishwasher safe. We've washed ours by hand and on the top rack of our dishwasher with no issues. It also comes apart for cleaning, and if you're drinking anything other than water you should be doing this regularly to keep it sanitary.

Klean Kanteen recommends disassembling the cap's five pieces and washing them by hand or in the dishwasher to ensure each part gets properly and thoroughly cleaned. Cashman says they purposely made the cap easy to take apart and reassemble so each piece can be thoroughly cleaned to avoid retaining odors and flavors.

It's fairly easy, and worth the little bit of extra time if you want a truly leak-proof cap.

Don't freeze your bottle—There's a warning not to freeze your bottle, so I wondered what would happen if a vacuum insulated bottle was frozen. I asked Klean Kanteen for more info. Cashman said, "we don’t recommend freezing bottles as this can cause structural damage to the welds when a beverage expands from a liquid to a solid. Single wall bottles are likely to freeze more quickly, but insulated bottles can also freeze given the right conditions for a long period of time."

So, avoid freezing yours (but please tell us about it if you accidentally freeze one).

Conclusion (Do you recommend the Insulated TKWide bottle?)

Yes!

I often think "not another water bottle!" when I hear about yet another water bottle. But Klean Kanteen's Insulated TKWide stands out and is an excellent and versatile bottle for everyday use, for travel, for sports, or to give as a gift.

It comes in numerous cheery colors and does everything you want an insulated vacuum bottle to do without cause to worry about leaks. You can choose the size (12 up to 64 fluid ounces) that works for your use, the color you prefer, and the cap(s) that fit your needs. With shelves of bottles at our house to choose from, the Insulated TKWide gets used regularly and comes with the full recommendation of me and my daughter.

Background

My daughter and I have numerous water bottles, ranging from plastic sports ones to stainless steel insulated and uninsulated ones. We both drink out of water bottles nearly every day, whether running, hiking, skiing, working (or going to school), doing errands, or whatnot. My kids' first water bottles were 12-ounce Classic Klean Kanteens. The Insulated TKWide is a keeper.