Zwilling Thermo Flask Review – Budget Hiking Flask Field Tested

Zwilling thermo flask review, testing the 1ltr leakproof flask from Zwilling and putting it through its paces in the Spanish mountains.

Tea or coffee? I am a hard core coffee drinker, so much so I’ve had to go to the dark side and start drinking de-caf to help keep the blood pressure down. Gayle on the other hand is a tea drinker, she loves the stuff and the tea bags are ordered by the hundreds and sometimes thousands… Running out is a disaster that can’t even be described.

When it comes to being outdoors and especially hiking we’d take one flask between us because one flask is all we had so the debate was always tea or coffee? So it was time for a flask each, I got stuck with the old stainless steel flask which was purchased from TESCO back in the 90’s [yeah, literally!] and Gayle scored the shiny new Zwilling for Christmas.

Description

The ZWILLING Thermo Vacuum Bottle is simply a must to have along with you on your next trip. The minimalistic, slender design of the thermo bottle conceals a filling capacity of 1000 ml. Hot drinks such as fresh coffee or your favourite tea stay hot in the vacuum bottle for up to 18 hours.

– Zwilling

Straight out the box the Zwilling thermo flask looks smart, the black gives it a tactical look though this is not intentional, the other colour option is white. As far as performance goes we have not had the opportunity to test the flask to its claimed potential but for 4 hours [our standard hike in the winter] the coffee [or tea] is kept piping hot.

It’s worth noting that temperatures fall well below freezing and we carry our flasks on the outside of our packs therefore any flask we use does have to perform.

Specs:

What we like

We like the fact that this flask is a good performer for it’s price point of €30,00 although it is worth keeping your eye out for a deal like we did and snap one up for just under €20,00. The Zwilling thermo flask feels sturdy and it has a circular rubber pad on the base to help it stop sliding on smooth surfaces.

At first glance at the generic product images you may think that the handle on the cup is a weak point but this is not the case, in fact the cup is very well made, thick and feels like it will last.

What we don’t like

There really is only one gripe with this flask and that is the finish, we love the black but there are two issues:

The black finish attracts smears and finger prints, not a deal breaker but something to be aware of. The second is that after our second hike we noticed that the black finish was prone to chipping. We like to look after our gear but it does need to be tough given the terrain we generally hike over [think rocks/mountains etc], the Zwilling does tend to mark and after a year I can see see this chipped and covered in scratches.

Will this affect performance? Absolutely not and for lighter use this would not be a problem anyway.

Overall we like this flask a lot, it’s a good piece of kit for its price, looks good and performs well. The flask fits on the outside of both our packs [Osprey Skimmer 28/ Direct Action Ghost] and does what it says on the tin. Would we recommend it? Yes, for a budget flask that does the job you can’t really go wrong with the Zwilling thermo.