Edelrid Vacuum Bottle Flask Review

Quick review on the Edelrid Vacuum Bottle / Flask...

I've got a couple of Thermos basic vacuum 0.5 litre flasks and these are great for Summer use and short days out. What I wanted was something a bit more substantial and larger for those winter days (from experience!)

Sat by Ullswater having come down from a snowy Helvellyn. Flapjack and tea - mmmmm...

Trail mag did a review of a bunch of flasks and the Edelrid seemed the best all-round value for money flask for me at least!

Find the Trail mag review here - which says the bottle only lost 4 degrees C in 2 hours and only lost 14 degrees C over 8 hours. The disadvantage to them at least was the 'cup' and the possibility of cross-threaded the screw on part (e.g. not putting the cup on properly).

Personally I haven't seen any disadvantage like this at all. At worst it's occasionally a bit fiddly, but very rarely.

The flask is white and quickly looks scruffy, which may not suit some. The outside of the flask is textured which is great and makes it very easy to handle without it slipping out of your hand - important with a white flask, especially in the son! With the lid off, the top is a simple press down to open and press down to lock affair and the cup easily threads on to the top of the flask.

The only downside that I found was after doing my Mountain Leader Training - that I managed to 'flavour' the removable silicon seal. Having said that, my guess is that this would happen on any flask with plastic parts. The lesson is: don't boil up energy drinks in your flask! The disadvantage was that having contacted Edelrid, I was amazed that they don't do spare parts, although a year or so later, at least that taste has now gone.

Having said that the flask works very well and keeps things warm for those days when you need a bit more in your flask for a bit longer! It's certainly much better than the basic Thermos flasks when you're outdoors and in winter but if you're out all day, don't expect miracles! Of course you may get slightly better 'performance' with the 0.5L version as in you'll finish drinking more quickly.

Weight is slightly high I'd say - the 0.75l one is 510g (and feels weighty). As a comparison, the Thermos Ultimate Mk II for example weighs 399g for the 900ml, with the previous incarnation of 800ml weighing apparently  just 382g (Thermos seem to neglect letting anyone know the weight of anything...)

UPDATE October, November 2015 - Three more thoughts / things for Edelrid to improve...

1. I find that the silicon on the 'seal' part of the flask sometimes slips down, which can cause leakage when you take the lid off the flask.

2. Even when the silicon is tight and working, I have found that after pouring a drink, I then have to click the seal to close the flask and then pour the whole flask downwards to allow any excess drink inside the seal mechanism to drain off. If I don't do this, when I next open the flask, it leaks. It doesn't leak much but it's enough to be a frustration!

3. You can't wash the stopper part properly (you can remove the silicon seal but that's it). Therefore, I've struggled to clean the inner of this and this results in little bits of old tea in the flask, even after you've used bicarbonate of soda to clean the inside of the flask - a great tip for any flask (never use washing powder like I once did!)! The Thermos Ultimate flask is very easy to clean, by contrast, but you pay a premium price for that.

So having given the flask a kind of 8/10, I'm downgrading it to 7/10 - improvements needed in spare parts and the cleaning / working mechanism issues.

But still a great flask.