As summer is quickly approaching, people either spend their days basting in the sun or retreat into their air conditioned homes. But something similar that everyone does in the summer is staying hydrated and drinking tons of fluid. A recent trend has been stainless steel cups that claim to keep your drink cold or hot for longer periods of time. Since summer is right around the corner I wanted to figure out which company’s cup actually keeps your drink the coldest.
I tested four of the most popular stainless steel cups: Yeti, Ozark Trail, RTIC, and SIC. Each cup was a 30 oz tumbler cup. I put 20 ice cubes and roughly 16 oz of water in each cup, and let them sit overnight from 6:00 pm – 6:00 am.
Even though all these cups have the same stainless steel body, double-wall vacuum insulation, and the no sweat design, they vary from each other in each of their own ways. The Yeti cup started this trend of stainless steel cups and every other brand molded their cups off this brand. The Yeti is shorter compared to the RITC and SIC, and about the same size as the Ozark Trail cup. The opening of the Yeti lid is smaller compared to the RITC and the same size as the Ozark Trail. All of their lids stay open, so you have to be careful when you have these cups not to knock them over so your drink doesn’t spill out. The only one that has a different lid is the SIC. For their lid, they have a sliding top to be able to open/close the part where you drink from. This is a great aspect to include on a cup because it differentiates itself from its competitors.
After letting the cups sit overnight for 12 hours, I was shocked to see the results. The cup that had the most ice in it after the 12 hours was RTIC. Since this cup is the one of the cheapest cups ($9.99) and the lid did’t close all the way, I thought for sure the ice would have melted the fastest. But I was wrong. Out of the 20 ice cubes, about 12-13 of them were still floating around in the cup. The cups that came in second and third place were SIC and Yeti. I was so surprised that the Yeti cup didn’t hold the ice for the longest sine it’s the brand that started the stainless steel cup movement. And the cup that came in last place was Ozark Trail, having only about 2-3 out of the 20 ice cubes.
The cup that is the most worth it to me is the SIC brand cup. Even though the cup came in second place, it was really close to first since it had about 10-11 ice cubes and also because you’re able to close the lid. Whichever one you decide to get, hopefully your drink will stay cold through the whole day!
