Lifeventure has made the Lifeventure TiV tall and slim, so it packs very well into most packs. The stainless steel body has a lightly textured coating that adds a little extra grip when handling the flask, but it doesn’t bind to my rucksack contents when pulling it out or shoving it back in. The coating adds some protection too – the base edges are now very chipped on my test unit but the steel itself hasn’t been dented.
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Price: £23 | Weight: 432g (750ml) | Materials: stainless steel, silicone, plastic | Features: pouring stopper and insulated cup | Dimensions: 235x65mm (750ml tested) | Sizes: 500ml, 700ml, 1L | lifeventure.com
The same coating covers the twin-wall (steel outer, plastic inner) cup/lid so there’s a little extra grip there too. The narrower diameter also aids cup removal and replacement with both bare hands or gloves. The stopper is plastic with a silicone seal, which is easily removed for cleaning. It is narrower than it needs to be, given the width of the inside of the cup, and is quite smooth so I’ve struggled a few times to get the lid loosened with cold or wet hands.
A thick rubber band twisted around it fixed this for me, but it would be nice to see an update here. Two full turns are needed for a decent flow to fill the cup, which is splash-free but the stopper is almost completely out at this point so care has to be taken not to let it fall out.
Performance is very good with 87°C contents temperature recorded after three hours, 78°C after six hours and 72°C at nine hours. The price for this performance is excellent, and only the stopper keeps the TiV from scoring much higher.
