Thursday, March 13, 2008

It's true...maybe I'm not quite so crazy as I originally thought...

A couple of posts ago, I asked if anyone else had noticed that Klean Kanteen had switched from stainless steel (with a little bit of plastic) caps to all polypropylene (fancy plastic) caps...although no one responded in the affirmative at that time, I e-mailed the company to inquire about it.

Guess what? I wasn't crazy nor was I making up stories...it's true. I received a reply from the company today. Here it is:

Thank You for your email and your support of Klean Kanteen!

This all polypropylene cap change was made on Jan. 1st for 3 different reasons:

1) The continual rising costs of stainless steel, and our desire to keep our bottle prices at the current price levels. This change keeps our cap prices down and allows us to do this.
2) The stainless on stainless threading of our bottles and caps. Many customers have voiced concern that over time small amounts of stainless residue are getting into their drinks from the screwing and unscrewing of these caps.
3) The noise that is made from the screwing and unscrewing of the stainless caps. This is not a big concern of ours, but customers do complain about it.

If you have any further questions please contact me via the info below.

Chris Carlson
Awareness Representative

One planet, one you!

So...in pondering point #2 from the letter above...has anyone else encountered this? Does anyone have knowledge of stainless steel that could address this theory? I had already guessed prior to receiving the response that financial reasons were coming into play here... The noise of the lid never really bothered me... But I find the whole "small amounts of stainless steel residue" to be very curious...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I got worried for a minute thinking that they weren't offering the stainless caps anymore. But they are. And as far as I know, the price is the same. I'm pretty sure I paid $5.95 for my stainless cap, but like I said, in the store where I bought it, the bottles and caps were all sold separately.

I don't know anything about stainless leaching into water. That's weird. But I have heard complaints about noise. A friend of mine purposely left hers home during a meditation retreat because she didn't want to bother others with the noise. I had mine with me at the same retreat and did find myself being really, really careful opening and closing it. I can see that people would have an issue with the noise, although to me it's a minor inconvenience compared to having plastic in contact with my water.