I love our Siggs! Or at least, I think I do…
My kids have used their Sigg bottles for about 4 years now, and they are still going strong. The paint around the bottom edges gets chipped and a couple of dents show up over time, but overall the durability is amazing! Siggs come in a huge variety of sizes and fun designs, and the sports top is easy even for toddlers use. They are a bit on the expensive side (about $16 and up), but they are cool and they last a long time. I pack ours Siggs daily in our kids lunchboxes with milk. With the small tops to these bottles, you do need a bottle brush to clean them out. I use a Sigg bottle brush that great and I occasionally stick it in the dishwasher.
So far, so good. Now, as for safety…. I had always felt that Sigg bottles are safe. However, in looking around there is a good deal of debate out there about the thin plastic liner that is inside of the Sigg bottles. The Sigg company won’t disclose what is in the liner and some speculate that it could contain Bisphenol A (BPA) that has been under much scrutiny as a hazard in some plastics. In a study cited at Treehugger.com both new and 2 year old Sigg bottles were shown to have no detectable leaching of BPA. Based on this and the longevity that Siggs have been on the market, I feel quite confident about our Siggs in terms of safety, and plan on continuing to use them. However, when I replace these I would consider switching to stainless steel, just to be overly sure of the safety.
For those of you unfamiliar with plastic safety issues, I found a great summary of different plastics and those that are considered safe or unsafe at Trusted.MD. The main plastic considered unsafe is polycarbonate which contains Bisphenol A. You can identify these plastics by the #7 recycling label found stamped usually on the bottom. If you have any of these plastics for food or drink storage (including older Nalgene bottles, many baby bottles of various brands, food storage containers, etc.) please get rid of them. Many stores offer store credit or recycling discounts for returning these products.
