Ecococoon have a beautifully illustrated range of stainless steel water bottles that come with a unique cocoooncap™.

The cap is unique in design, but works in a similar principle to the Camelbak sports bottles (the Podium range) in that they are spillproof when open. You can only get water out of the cap when you suck. There is a silicone valve that remains closed until it feels the pressure of you sucking through it, then the valve opens up. This makes them the perfect bottle for taking to a gym or pilates class (if you knock it over, water won't spill everywhere) and perfect for car trips with kids (no wet pants when they drop their bottle while you're driving).

The fun part though is to ensure that you keep the lid clean. If you don't, mould can grow in them.

Here's the official tips from ecococoon on how to keep your cap clean.

1) Put it in the top rack of your dishwasher (lid only, not the bottle)
2) Wash in hot soapy water, rinse and shake to remove excess water, then drip dry
3) Use sterilisation tablets

We would like to add some additions / amendments to this.

a) while the dishwasher would do a great job, we're not big fans of putting anything plastic in a dishwasher, whether you're using natural dishwasher powder or not. Plastic starts to break down at extremes of heat, whether you're freezing it or heating it
b) the hot soapy water is our preferred method. If you need to, you can also buy a sippy straw cleaner from us to get to any 'hard to reach' places.
c) sterilisation tablets should be fine, but the expense really isn't necessary if you wash & rinse on a regular basis.

Other bottle features

Like the Thermos range that we have in store (whether you're talking about a flask or a water bottle), the ecococoon bottles are all double wall stainless steel with vacuum insulation. They are suitable for cold drinks only (due to the lid) and do not sweat on the outside when they're full of ice-cold liquid, so they're suitable for school bags without wetting everything in your bag. They will keep your drink cool for up to 12 hours, and since you don't have to unscrew the lid to drink, they hold their insulation better than bottles where you need to remove the lid to drink.

Cleaning your ecococoon water bottle

These need to be washed by hand in warm soapy water. You can use a bottle brush if necessary. For any stubborn marks, use a stiff bottle brush and a solution of bicarb soda and a splash of cheap white vinegar from the supermarket. If you place these bottles in the dishwasher, the paint will start to come off. While it will not affect the performance of the bottle, it will affect the paint.

Accessories

You can buy neoprene pouches for these bottles. They come with a standard screw lid, a removable wrist strap and an ecococoon key ring. We also sell the sippy straw cleaners, larger bottle brush cleaners and replacement lids should you need any. To find these and any other accessories, visit our main water bottles category and use the REFINE SEARCH under PRODUCT TYPE to choose lid, cover etc. To find a natural dishwashing liquid or powder, jump to our natural cleaning products category and use the REFINE SEARCH and choose SPECIFIC USE to narrow your search.