I really like these bottles. So much so I wanted several to rotate them through the dishwasher (or at least the lids). I started with two of the stainless body, licorice (black/gray) lids. They’re great, and similarly to the Contigo hot/cold mug I have, the mechanism flips open so it can more easily and thoroughly be cleaned (by hand or just better flow in the dishwasher). I’d seen some reviews and pictures showing a different style and complaining about mold. That style had a fixed mechanism and unlike the style that flips open, while in the dishwasher it will stay tightly closed. The flip open mechanism basically means it’s in the “open” position and water can flow through it while it’s being washed. I ordered a few more — one of the two packs was on a great price. I assumed this non-flip style from some reviews was just the older style and the flip one is the new one, but the new light blue “iced aqua” ones I got were the old style. They have the old models mixed in with the new. Looking more closely now at the pictures on Amazon, it does accurately show that it’s the older style if you know what to look for. In addition to what seems to me to be a clearly inferior and more mold prone mechanism, the old style doesn’t have a button lock. You can see in the pictures that some of them don’t. The lid that you can flip over the spout to keep dirt away from it also is a bit smaller. As of this writing, blue corn, dragon fruit, juniper, licorice, pink lemonade, and spirulina are listed and have the new style lid. These colors are also shown on Contigo’s website as colors offered, whereas the other colors listed here on Amazon are not shown on their current product list for “Cortland Chill 2.0.” There is also a Merlot and Lavender color for the new version on Contigo’s site that I don’t yet see on Amazon. Stick with those and avoid the older style. Beyond that, the new style is great. I used to use plastic water cups throughout the day, but my cats would get into it and I'd have to switch to a new one. Or they'd tip it over. With this, I can flip the little dirt cover lid over the spout to keep them from licking it, and while they can still tip it over and it'll make quite a thunk, it seems to seal solid and not leak. Of course it keeps things far colder than a plastic cup too, which is awesome. 24 oz holds a nice amount of water. I'd used my 20 oz Contigo hot/cold mug for water sometimes and it seemed like with ice in it, there wasn't much left for water and I'd have to refill pretty often. The lip is wide enough that I can get ice into it from my through-the-door ice maker. I have quite a few stainless water bottles I got as freebies from conferences with a lid so narrow I have to manually put cubes in one at a time, and even then some cubes are too big. I switched to these to replace those styles, and it's well worth the money just to not need to deal with that annoyance. With my LG through-the-door water, I do have to hold the bottle out a little bit and press the paddle trigger myself -- it's not quite wide enough to align with the water spout if I press the trigger with the bottle. But that's not really hard to do, even one handed, by just sticking one of your fingers out a bit. So far I'm sticking with the plain stainless body, as they say it can go through the dishwasher. I haven't tried that yet, but it's also very easy to wash by hand with a bottle brush. I may just stick with that, but the unpainted stainless probably will hold up better anyway. I do put the lid through the dishwasher, flipped open, as I think that will clean it better than I could manually. All varieties have dishwasher safe lids. The painted bodies are not recommended to go through the dishwasher, but their lids still can.
