Life Goggles: SIGG Aluminum Water Bottle Product Review
Editor’s note: We’re big fans of SIGG water bottles here at GO… I even bought them for the whole family for stocking stuffers last Christmas. Joel at Life Goggles provided some great details about these eco-friendly bottles last week. This post was originally published on Thursday, February 21, 2008. (Disclosure: SIGG has advertised on the GO Media network)
The reduction in the use of plastic bottles in our lives is an aim I think most of us share. It’s all too easy to pick up a new plastic bottle of water rather than carrying your own, over 100m in the US alone are ending up in landfills every day. There are a few schools of thought, using aluminum bottles, steel bottles or corn based biodegradable plastic bottles (with or without a water filter). This review looks at one of those choices, a SIGG aluminum water bottle.
It’s an aluminum bottle. That’s pretty much it, it carries about 1 litre of liquid and does a fine job of it. At about 22.5cm (9 inches) in height, not including the cap (more about them in a minute) it’s a decent size to use on a walk, picnic, or gym, and just about fits in an average car cup holder. The bottles are fully recyclable at the end of their, probably long, life.
Who are SIGG? SIGG Switzerland dates back to 1908 when metal processing specialist Ferdinand Sigg established an aluminum product factory about 30 kilometers outside of Zurich. Still manufactured in Switzerland, they’ve been called the world’s toughest water bottles. Available in 144 designs with 22 bottle lids, some of the bottles are also displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. SIGG is also a member of 1% For The Planet - donating 1% of all sales to helping to preserve our environment.
What about leaching? Steel bottles do not usually leach, that is they don’t make the liquid inside taste of metal. Aluminum bottles do, so therefore need a lining, with SIGG’s being a water-based, non-toxic coating that is baked into the interior walls and remains flexible and crack resistant for the life of the bottle. The lining is taste neutral and resistant to fruit acids and energy drinks, and though it is FDA approved, it would be nice to know generally what it’s made out of.
How is the bottle? I’ve had the bottle for a couple of weeks and found no problems with it at all. I like the fact it’s tough and I can throw it if I need to without worry. While using a dishwasher is not recommended as due to the small opening it wouldn’t get clean effectively, it seemed fine to me. The paint might eventually wear off though. There are a variety of caps that can be used: the default screw cap isn’t especially friendly, unless you need to attach the bottle to something, the sports caps are much more convenient for day-to-day use. After refrigerating the bottle can be too cold to hold (being metal and all), though they do sell sleeves and rubber handle grips to help.
An extremely quick video is embedded below. Frankly after the written review I wasn’t sure what benefits and features I could show you, so I’ll be honest and say it’s not fascinating, but is short!
Starting at $16.99 to $24.99, SIGG bottles are available from from Amazon and through SIGG themselves. For more eco product reviews, please take a look at our Eco Reviews page.
UPDATE: SIGG is also celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, and they’ve built a website just for the occasion.
For reference: SIGG also makes full stainless steel flasks that hold .7 liters, perfect size for toting around if you ask me. So yes, do avoid the ones with the lining, but if you still like the company and their designs go for the SS oval flask. They even have one that comes with its own SS cup too! A much cooler looking alternative to the Klean Kanteen.
A little fact check on Sigg and BPA
“On March 9th, it was brought to my attention that a website sponsored by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) made mention that SIGG bottles contain plastic liners with bisphenol A (BPA).
I can assure you that SIGG bottles are absolutely not made with a plastic liner and are in fact lined with a proprietary non-toxic, water-based resin which has been refined over decades of study and is completely safe & stable.
Based on the confidence we have in our product backed by numerous laboratory studies, we questioned the EWG and requested that they provide us with the testing they have conducted on SIGG – or alternatively to remove the “SIGG” mention from their website if they have not tested SIGG. Within 24 hours of this request, the EWG removed SIGG’s name from their report. Here is the link to the page reflecting this change: http://ewg.org/reports/bisphenola/consumertips.php
Unfortunately, in the meantime this message was picked up by a few other websites, one of those being The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) and their newsletter Organic Bytes. When we questioned the OCA on their mention of SIGG, this is the emailed response we received:
“We made a mistake. Sigg bottles do not contain BPAs… it was read wrong and there was confusion. Apologies about this.” - Member Services, OCA
As you may know, the BPA issues surrounding Lexan plastic bottles (polycarbonate #7) involve the migration of chemicals from the plastic into the contents of the bottles. On the other hand, SIGG bottles have been thoroughly tested in Europe to ensure 0% leaching of any substance - no trace of BPA, BPB or any phthalates.
“According to the results of our evaluation, use of a SIGG bottle does not add to the beverage any particles and/or components which are innocuous to human health.” – Dr. Ulrich Nehring, European Institute Nehring
We understand the controversy and concern surrounding BPA leaching from plastic water bottles and can assure you that SIGG bottles are leach-free and 100% safe. We are upset about the misinformation which has circulated and are working feverishly to clear the good name of SIGG.”
- Steve Wasik, President, SIGG, USA
Posted by:
Merideth McNally
True North Public Relations for SIGG
Merid
Above the quote from Dr. Nehring: I think he means “dangerous”, not innocuous….
Funny that that’s his direct quote, though.
Look, for the safety of consumers I honestly hope I am wrong but all the PR in the world will not dispute the fact that Sigg does not test for quantities small enough, period.
Steve Wasik came from Chanel. It is clear that he knows how to make a product sexy. He has no idea about product safety and his response makes that very clear.
I challenge Steve Wasik to let Dr. Fredrick vom Saal of University of Missouri choose a Sigg bottle and then test for leaching BPA the right way.
CONTACT INFO:
Frederick vom Saal
Professor
Division of Biological Sciences
College of Arts & Science
Rutgers University,
Ph.D., 1976
Office
105 Lefevre Hall
phone 573-882-4367
fax 573-882-5020
Mailing Address
University of Missouri-Columbia
Division of Biological Sciences
105 Lefevre Hall
Columbia, MO 65211
Ive had my sigg bottle which i bought in switzerland and its basically ondistructible. Ive had it for a year and take it to school and since i am very clumsy it has lots of dents but the water quality is still the same. I cant wait to buy this years collection since it is their 100th anniversary
I have two kids and a mortgage to worry about, so if I can eliminate 95 - 97% of their BPA intake by going with a Sigg versus polycarbonate that’s good enough for my family.
If others want to obsess over “secret coatings” or corporate obfuscation god I wish I had that kind of time. Gotta go, kids are screaming…