I bought two of these cups for my girls (ages 3 yrs and 2 yrs). Let me say I will never use another cup for my toddlers and I have bought and used MANY!
These truly are my “end all be all”. I really just use these for juice and water but they would be great for milk and smoothies also (just have to wash more frequently/ after each individual use as opposed to a couple times a week if it only had water).
Drinks really do stay cold ALL DAY and ice will last over night (and we live in Texas!) and they really are leakproof!
These cups do come completely apart for thorough cleaning which I am very happy about. The straw inside the cup is metal and gets inserted into the silicone leakproof part of the straw. To clean it, you just gently pull the metal straw part out, and gently push out the protruding cork like part of the silicone straw top out of the top to wash. I’m happy I figured that out because if you don’t completely take them apart to wash they could get moldy and gross due to the nooks and crannies of the leakproof design. Please note I do NOT consider this a design flaw in ANY way because of the awesomeness of the cup being leakproof, it’s just something to keep in mind of for cleanliness purposes.
While all of the parts are completely dishwasher safe, I personally choose to hand wash because in the past some of my girls other silicone items have retained a soapy taste after going through the dishwasher, so I just hand wash them now with a PH neutral dish soap but yes, they absolutely CAN go in the dishwasher!
With that being said, due to the leakproof design, there are a lot of nooks and crannies and I would LOVE to see Mermaid straw come out with a cleaning brush designed to fit into those nooks and crannies for a good, solid, thorough deep cleaning to keep the mold at bay. I would snatch up two or three in a heartbeat! One for home, one for travel / diaper bag and one for grandma’s house! Also, a “maximum fill line” inside the cup would be nice so you know it won’t overflow after putting the lid on, but you also know your maximizing liquid capacity for less frequent refills.
All of that being said, these are FANTASTIC cups for kids. They DO fit in both my daughters cup holders and they are easy for my daughters to hold. They may be a bit heavy for an 18 mo old or younger to hold but my two year old Carrie’s her just fine. Thank you for such awesome cups! 100% recommend!