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Reviews > Cook and Food Storage Gear > Cooking Accessories > Klean Kanteen Insulated Food Canister > Test Report by Andrea MurlandKlean Kanteen
Insulated Food Canister 8oz Tester Information
I began hiking frequently in 2006 and have since hiked in Western Canada, Australia, and spent two months backpacking in the Alps. I spend most weekends either day-hiking or on 2-3 day backpacking trips, with some longer trips when I can manage them. I also snowshoe and ski in the winter, but don’t have a lot of experience with winter in the backcountry yet. Elevation is typically 500-3,000 m (1,600-10,000 ft), in the Canadian Rockies and the Selkirk, Purcell, and Monashee ranges. I try for a light pack, but I don’t consider myself a lightweight backpacker. Initial Report – September 19, 2016 Product Information
Description & Initial Impressions
The canister has a brushed stainless steel exterior on the lid and most of the canister body. The bottom section of the canister is polished stainless steel, and on the very bottom of the canister are the logo and some information about the materials, item, and volume. Also on the bottom is some information about care of the canister: do not freeze, do not microwave, hand washing recommended. The lid has the Klean Kanteen logo in two places, and on the top of the lid is an indented section labelled as “ID”, which I presume is where I should label it as mine. The underside of the lid is black polypropylene and is threaded. The inside of the canister is electropolished stainless steel. The opening of the canister measures 3.9 in (79 mm), as specified by the manufacturer. Inside the canister was a small pamphlet which contained some other information about the canister. Among the information were some useful bits, such as that the lid is top-rack dishwasher safe (though handwashing is still recommended), not to freeze the canister, to allow boiling liquids to cool for 4 minute before putting on the lid, and not to carry Kanteens containing liquid in bags to prevent accidental opening. I’ll probably be ignoring the last one… Trying It Out I filled up the canister with water and measured it, and it came out to about 8.5 oz (250 mL). I may have had the canister slightly overfilled though, we’ll have to see how full I can fill it during the test. The lid easily screws on and comes off. Turning the canister upside down with water in it and shaking didn’t produce and leakage.Summary I’m looking forward to getting this canister in the field and seeing if it can keep my lunch warm over the next few months! Everything looks good so far.Long Term Report – February 10, 2017 Field Conditions Over the past four months, I have used the Insulated Food Canister on a number of day trips under a variety of conditions in the Canadian Rockies, summarized below. In all cases I was trying to keep food hot.Test 1 – Hiking. Filled with boiling soup at 1300 m (4265 ft) elevation after heating the canister with boiling water. I waited about two minutes before putting on the lid. I then drove to the trailhead before starting to hike in temperatures of about 5 C (41 F). By the time I ate lunch the temperature was around 15 C (59 F). The elapsed time between filling and eating from the canister was about 5 hours, and the soup was on the cooler side of warm. Test 2 – Three days at a rope rescue course. Filled with boiling soup at 850 m (2790 ft) elevation after heating the canister with hot tap water. I put on the lid immediately. I was indoors for the mornings of these three days at a temperature of about 20 C (68 F), and ate lunch about five hours after filling the canister. The soup was consistently lukewarm. Test 3 – Backcountry skiing day trip. Filled with boiling soup at 1300 m (4265 ft) elevation after heating the canister with boiling water. I put the lid on immediately. I then drove to the trailhead before starting to tour in temperatures of about -5 C (23 F). The elapsed time between filling and eating from the canister was about 6 hours, and the soup was a bit chilly. Test 4 - Backcountry skiing day trip. Filled with boiling soup at 1300 m (4265 ft) elevation after heating the canister with boiling water. I put the lid on immediately. I then drove to the trailhead before starting to tour in temperatures of about -10 C (14 F). I ate my soup as a first snack, but it had still been almost 5 hours since I filled the canister. The soup was lukewarm. Test 5 - Backcountry skiing day trip from a hut. Filled with boiling soup at 1750 m (5740 ft) elevation after heating the canister with boiling water. I put the lid on immediately. I took the soup out on a short ski tour at about -5 C (23 F) and ended up eating it back at the hut about 3 hours later. The soup was a bit warmer than lukewarm, but not hot. I cleaned the canister after each use with soap and hot water. I also washed it once on the top rack of my dishwasher.
Observations In general, I did not find that the canister met my needs for hiking. I always have a desire to keep food warm, and have never tried to keep anything cold on the trail. Given that this test was conducted in autumn and winter, I certainly didn’t want cold drinks at lunch!I noticed over the course of this test that even when heading out on a day hike close to my home, it’s consistently at least five hours before I’m eating lunch. As this is at the upper end of the advertised time that the canister can keep food hot, I perhaps shouldn’t have been surprised that my food wasn’t piping hot still. However, even in autumn when temperatures were still quite warm, my lunch was no better than lukewarm. As temperatures dropped with the arrival of winter, the temperature of my lunch also dropped, and I found myself trying to eat the soup as more of a morning snack than at lunch, so that it would be slightly warm. At no point did my soup every produce steam at lunch, unfortunately. I was consistently ignoring the instructions to wait four minutes to put on the lid after putting in boiling soup, in an effort to trap as much heat as possible, but it didn’t seem to help. Although the canister was nice and small to carry, it doesn’t hold very much. The first time I used it I overfilled the canister and made a mess as soup squished out around the lid as I tried to screw it on. After that I started measuring the amount of soup to put in and transferring the soup to another container for heating. The amount of food that the canister contains isn’t really enough for a full lunch for me in the backcountry, so I still had to carry parts of a lunch in addition to the usual snacks. I found that the soup was more of an addition to my lunch than a replacement. Overall, the canister was easy to use. On a couple of occasions I found it a bit difficult to get the lid of the canister off at lunch. The smooth surface of the canister and lid were hard to grab with enough friction to get the lid to turn, especially with gloves on. I always eventually managed it (sometimes by taking my gloves off), but it was a bit of an annoyance. The canister never leaked. The canister was easy to clean by hand. A simple rinse was sufficient to do most of the cleaning. The canister still looks as good as new. It has no scratches on the outside, just a few fingerprints. Summary The Klean Kanteen Insulated Food Canister was a hopeful addition to my pack for the cool months, but unfortunately I found that it didn’t work for me. For the extra bulk and pack weight of carrying it, having chilly soup just isn’t worth it for me.Thumbs Up: Didn’t Leak Easy to clean Thumbs Down: Not very large capacity Didn’t keep food hot until lunch A bit hard to grip to get the lid offs Thanks to Klean Kanteen and BackpackGearTest.org for the chance to test this food canister. Read more reviews of Klean Kanteen gear Read more gear reviews by Andrea Murland Reviews > Cook and Food Storage Gear > Cooking Accessories > Klean Kanteen Insulated Food Canister > Test Report by Andrea Murland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
