THERMOS Stainless King Vacuum-Insulated Travel Tumbler, 16 Ounce, Midnight Blue

The need:Many mugs are hard to clean. This one is not. It is worth every penny for a good travel mug because it's crazy how few mugs are truly leak-proof. I use this on my morning commute in a small truck without cup holders, and occasionally in a side pocket of my bag while riding a bike on campus. Never leaks a bit.The competition:The other mug possibility I found when researching looked promising, but after reading reviews, it seemed to have problems with disgusting old coffee gunk in the lid. This mug has none of those problems because of clever design. Comes apart for easy cleaning, but completely leak proof. I shake it after putting the lid on to mix up my milk and sugar. It's that good.The (not really that) bad:The only way it could be better would be if there was more metal parts instead of plastic in the lid, but that would make cost go way up, so it is a fine trade off. The plastic doesn't seem to "absorb" too much coffee flavor but I always soak the parts loose inside the mug overnight in hot water just so the coffee flavor can leach back out of the plastic and silicone bits.The machanism:Also, on that note, it is easy to put back together. Granted I'm an engineering student, but anybody should be able to put this back together after cleaning without trouble. Reviewers who say otherwise are either completely incompetent or should get a new mug, since theirs may be defective. To be honest, I wasn't too impressed with how tightly the moving plastic disc presses against the silicone seal, but it has never leaked, so I guess it is deceiving. Its a bit hard to see, because there is actually a double seal, so the inside one may be tighter than the outside one. Another thought is that perhaps if it was too tight the plastic mechanism would wear out or warp due to unnecessary pressure. The plastic in this mug is very hard, dense stuff though so that is good, makes me think it will not absorb old coffee flavor as much as cheaper more porous stuff.Conclusion:No paint peeling so far...and finally, it does, in fact, keep liquids warm for a long time. I typically leave the lid in the open position once I'm at my desk just to allow it to cool faster to a comfortable temperature.In conclusion, this beast of a mug is exactly what I wanted after enduring one too many spills in my lap from a crappy leaky plastic "travel" mug.

I purchased 2 Thermos Kings (midnight blue) in 2010. These tumblers keep our coffee piping hot for at least 2 hours and reasonably drinkable for another 2-3 hours. They have never leaked in 14 years. The blue paint did start to chip after some time (I can't remember exactly when) but this did not impact the their usability and I continued to use them regularly. Earlier this week I started to look for relacements because the paint job was really starting to look uninviting. Before I bought new ones I decided to see if I could remove the blue paint and strip them down to the natural stainless steel. I soaked the tumblers in boiling water and 2/3 a cup of baking soda for 15 minutes and scrubbed off the remaining paint with steel wool (wear rubber gloves). It was an easy job and took about half an hour. The tumblers look new again in their native stainless steel. I actually prefer the natural stainless over the original blue color. These are well designed tumblers that just work. As long as you regularly clean the gaskets (a 2-3 minute job once a week) there is no reason why these tumblers will not last another few years. FYI, if they ever do develop a leak, you can buy replacement gaskets here on Amazon for about $10 (for a set of two). These are tremendous tumblers that work well and will last a very long time. I highly recommend them.PS: I've read a lot of complaints and some low ratings because the "open" and "close" signs on the lid are difficult to read. Here's a trick you can do in the dark...turn the knob to the first click, hold tumbler to your mouth, if coffee doesn't come out, it's in the closed position, TURN the dial one more time, the lid is open. Come on folks, this is not rocket science.

I got my Thermos four days ago and I absolutely love it. Granted, I've only used it four days, so I can't attest for its durability over time. I can, however, attest to the fact that it does what it claims in the advertising.Pros:-It keeps my coffee hot, even with the sip lever turned to 'open'. I sleep in on the weekends, so I woke up on Saturday and put coffee in around 11 in the morning. I drank probably half of it within the first hour and then went out to run errands and cleaned house. I basically forgot about the mug. When I sat down at my computer to check e-mail at 9pm that night, I wanted to see how cold the coffee had gotten so I picked up the mug. Mind you, I had left it on 'open' so it wasn't closed down. The coffee was so warm it was just shy of hot. That's TEN HOURS LATER! The coffee would have been piping hot, I think, had I left it on 'closed'.-It fits in the cup holder of my car easily so I can travel with it, as I did on Friday.-It doesn't pour out hot liquid too fast. If you tip it right you can sip very hot liquid without burning yourself. I had to learn to do this, though, because the first time I drank from it I tipped the mug too high and dumped scalding hot coffee on my tongue. This made my tongue feel furry for hours LOL. That was my fault, though, not Thermos's fault.-I had some cold soda in the mug and it kept it just as cold as it keeps the coffee hot. You can get a satisfying drink the higher you tip the mug when drinking. I also love that there's no way to gauge what temperature the contents of the mug are by holding it. Hot or cold, the mug feels room temperature in your hand.-It's easy to clean. I am not a mechanical person, so I do have difficulty with the plastic ring that seals it, but I still manage to get it after a couple of tries.-It really is leak proof. You can shake this mug, turn it upside down, everything, and it doesn't leak.Cons-There really aren't any cons that I can think of for this mug besides two very slight problems that I have experienced. This first one I think is mostly my fault, and I stated above. The plastic ring is something that gives me a little difficulty in getting it back in place after I've cleaned it.-This is a bigger issue that others may have. I have a very difficult time opening this mug to clean it. I have small hands, and I'm not the strongest woman in the world, but it is a serious struggle to get this mug to open when I'm finished with it. It was even difficult when I handed it to a man to open. I have to twist and turn on it quite a bit before I can force it open. If you don't have strong hands you may find it difficult to get this mug opened to clean it. All things considered, these minor annoyances are not worth passing up this mug.My overall rating is 5 stars. This is the best insulated mug I've ever seen, and believe me, I've seen a lot of them over time.