Well that certainly clears things up. Personally though, I just use a glass.

"This is a voluntary exchange program (not a recall as the bottles you have are still safe). Therefore, we are asking people who wish to exchange the bottles to pay the postage for sending them in and we pay the postage for sending them to you. I think this is fair."

Even though we advertised them as being BPA free, and you bought them beleiving that, they actually are not BPA free, but since we still beleive we did nothing wrong, please pay the postage for returning an item that was falsely advertised.

Got it.

They can give all their BPA lined bottles to me, I'll use them and I'll take the risk. After the "Great BPA Scare" my employer had bottles made that were BPA free with the company logo on them and handed them out to thousands of employees. They break easily and they melt IN HOT WATER. I don't need one more thing to be scared of. It's just another manipulation of the economy in order to stimulate another sector for it's own sake and I'm a little tired of it. Nalgene type bottles are bad for the manufacturers because they last forever, and we can't have that now, can we.

@Persistence: Siggs aren't like Nalgene bottles. They're stainless steel on the outside.

I will keep saying this until I am blue in the face: Camelbak BPA free water bottle --> [www.ems.com]

@Blueskylaw: Didn't he just say they were never advertised as BPA free? Now, now. You wouldn't be calling Mister CEO a liar, would you?

"To my knowledge, we at SIGG have never advertised our old liner bottles as being BPA free."

I had a feeling that was the case when I read the previous (misleading) article.

@Blueskylaw:
"To my knowledge, we at SIGG have never advertised our old liner bottles as being BPA free."

@Persistence:
You crossed the line into the lunatic fringe when you suggested that the BPA scare is just another manipulation of the economy.

@Persistence: I got a plastic BPA-free water bottle as swag at a trade show, used it a couple of times, and then put it in the dishwasher to give it a good clean. Imagine my surprise when I pulled it out, and it had shrunk down to about 1/4 of its original size! It wasn't really usable anymore since the bottom had bowed out a bit, and the cap didn't fit anymore, but I still had a good laugh.

Klean Kanteen, everyone should replace their SIGGs with them. Avoid the liners and go with with Stainless Steel, then you wont have any future issues.

I may have missed this in the last post about the SIGGS, but is there a way to tell if a bottle has the BPA-free liner or not? I'd like to exchange mine if it doesn't, but am not sure (can't quite remember when I bought it, either).

@formergr: Duh, look at the picture in the post. All you have to do is take your bottle to a band saw, cut it in half, and see if it has a copper colored liner or a creamy colored liner.

I got that exact same form letter. If they are indeed charging for shipping on the exchange, then I think I'm just going to get a Kleen Kanteen bottle. Looking at the shipping costs for SIGG orders, I might as well spend that money on a company that didn't mislead the customers and act like they did nothing wrong.

@Persistence: The BPA scare isn't just another manipulation of the economy. It is, however, a prime example of how sensationalized and scared our culture has become. Did you know that children under 4'9" must use BOOSTER seats in cars? There are adults shorter than that! When I was five, we wrestled in the back of a speeding pickup truck! Well, not really, but close.
The BPA scare is a lot like the vaccine scare - pseudo science trumpeted by a few fools into a nationwide pariah.

@Cant_stop_the_rock: correct. I have all of the inserts from our circa-2007 bottles, and nowhere in them does it state the bottles are BPA-free. This was an assumption on the part of the public (i.e., aluminum = no BPA).

@vortec42: OK, your response totally confused me, and I stared at the picture a good 15 seconds before I realized that it was showing the concave inside of the bottles as a cross-section. At first glance, with the lighting the way it is in the shot, it actually looks somewhat convex, and I thought it was just two different colored bottles.

Anyway, I can see without cutting it open (luckily) that I have a copper liner, so exchanged it will be.

Looks like Steve (steve.wasig@sigg.com) is not accepting any more emails from the public. Two returned emails.

@Graciela: your bottles don't weigh hardly anything. Send them USPS Parcel Post and stop being a weenie.

@Graciela: But I think we only have to pay to ship the bottle *to* them, and they will pay to ship it back. Given how light they are, I'm thinking $4 and change for priority mail, or a bit less for regular parcel post.

@toolverine: They are aluminum actually, which is why they need to be coated on the inside. If they were stainless steel they would not need to be coated.

Ha ha, hippies got served for spending 30 bucks on a water bottle.

@itiswhatitis: www.moosejaw.com beats ems simply because they have a sense of humor.

But hey, maybe you don't like places with a sense of humor.

@rhpot1991: At least until we find out that excess amounts of steel in our systems leads to scurvy or HIV or (insert next crazy thing to be scared of that is somehow associated with water bottles).

Although I agree that certain recalls are definitely needed, especially if there is a health concern or new scientific discovery of a potential health concern, but sometimes we get a little too sensationalistic (is that a word?) is this country.

@Graciela: As others in comments have said, they never misled anyone. They have never been marketed as BPA free, people assumed them to be BPA free because they weren't plastic.

The other response is right. You only ship to the company and they ship you a brand new bottle free of charge.

@mazzic1083: Stainless Steel is food safe, so unless its made with some impurity you should be ok. That being said I wouldn't be at all surprised about a Stainless Steel from *insert random company here* contains Lead recall.

I do have to say this, when I first contacted Nalgene about my BPA bottles they told me to get lost, that it wasn't a health risk and I could buy newer Nalgene bottles if I didn't want any BPA with my iced tea. At least SIGG is offering to do something here.

Everyone needs to get off SIGG right now. As other people have said, they never have been advertised as BPA free. People assumed since they were metal they were BPA free. The company has done nothing wrong and they have made a serious effort to make everyone happy.

I have 3 of the larger bottles. They are dented, scratched and otherwise beat up from only 1 season of use. These retail for 25-35 dollars each. I'm going to spend 4-9 bucks on postage to get 3 brand new bottles.

Again, if you feel cheated by SIGG it's really self-rage at your assumption that all metal bottles were BPA free. Everyone saying the company should have come out saying the bottles had BPA is full of sh*t. They were already (from 2006) spending a million bucks to update the bottles AND create a new factory. They come out saying "Oh, we're fixing it, BUUUUUUUT it's got the stuff you're scared of RIGHT NOW!" and the company tanks, overnight. They are making it right by taking back everything they did sell even though there is such a slight risk it's microscopic.

Get over yourselves. The BPA scare is just that, a scare. SIGG is doing more then they have to in this situation.

@sicknick: Wasn't the whole point of their product that it wasn't plastic? Because I don't see the advantage of an essentially plastic bottle that dents.

Ah, this explains the memory loss and weight gain whenever I take my Sigg bottle hiking.

@itiswhatitis: You are probably blue in the face because of all the BPA.

@chauncy that billups: And so far this year 8 people have died because they choose to ignore the lifejacket rules on the river behind my house. A lot of these laws are to protect idiots from themselves.

Whether that is a good idea in the long run though???

@The_Red_Monkey: Hippies never paid $30 for a water bottle...they use those goat skin bags or whatever

@djsyndrome: This whole "We never advertised" loophole begins to stink to high heaven for one giant reason (bless you, Treehugger!):

A year and a half ago we asked Are Sigg Aluminum Bottles BPA Free? and our answer was inconclusive. SIGG bottles consistently tested with no detectable levels of Bisphenol A (BPA), but when we asked if their liner was made with BPA, CEO Steve Wasik told us that the liner chemistry was proprietary, and "as there are many copy-cat manufacturers in the market (most based in China) that would like to get their hands on this formula, our supplier has an agreement with SIGG to keep his formula confidential."

Now SIGG has gone public with an announcement that all of their bottles are completely BPA free, thanks to their new "EcoCare" powder-based, co-polyester coating.

But Steve Wasik now admits that bottles made previous to August, 2008 were lined with a water-based epoxy liner which contained trace amounts of BPA. Was I misled last year?

[www.treehugger.com]

Bottom line is that the CEO claimed 'proprietary formula' so they could hide any ingredients disclosure they wished, cower behind the highly suspect FDA's "strictly speaking" skirts, and still proclaim he did nothing wrong; all the while fully knowing that his product contained trace amounts of BPA, that the public wanted to know and that he knowingly withheld the information until, "the conversation changed."

Steve, like the majority of dishonest politicians out there, plays the semantics/legalese game. Doesn't make me want to buy his product or take his word.

@TinkishDelight: I'm pretty sure if I put a glass of water in my purse or backpack that it wouldn't successfully reach my destination without completely soaking the rest of my bag. Maybe you have a secret you'd like to share with the rest of us.

no, its not the bottle... Its the Big Bud you take on those hiking "trips" ;P

I wish there was a way for them to just send us a replacement without having to exchange it. I have a special Radiohead tour SIGG bottle that I got last year and I definitely don't want to have to give it up. Oh well.

@morlo: Taste. Plastic tends to keep scents/flavors from strong things. My SIGGs clean out easily with a long brush and some water. No smell, no lingering flavor. Plus, you're never supposed to put booze in the plastic ones, even if they are BPA-free.

And, to be fair, the dent came from it being tossed drunkenly from canoe to canoe while filled with Jim Beam and I was trying (unsuccefully) to get it back from the thrower and the throwee wasn't seeing straight.

@sicknick: Definitly agree. I have a SIGG bottle but after about 5 minutes worth of research online knew that the lining BPA but test had shown that leaching was a none issue unlike bottle from Nalgene and other companies that had larger leaching issues.

I think this should be an above and beyond story in SIGG's favor not that something people should be bashing.

My only question is how do we know in a year there isn't going to be something in the Eco-Liner that is actually 10x more dangerous than BPA. lol

I disagree that they have never said that their bottles don't contain BPA, see this info from last year and a quote from Mr. Wasig on Treehugger

See this article - [www.treehugger.com]

The following is copied from the article -

CEO, Steve Wasik. He says that SIGG uses a proprietary liner formula from a Swiss supplier with "an impeccable reputation for quality" but that"as there are many copy-cat manufacturers in the market (most based in China) that would like to get their hands on this formula, our supplier has an agreement with SIGG to keep his formula confidential." Wasik continues: "Very thorough migration testing in laboratories around the world is conducted regularly and has consistently shown SIGG aluminum bottles to have no presence of lead, phthalates, Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA), Bysphenol A (BPA), Bysphenol B (BPB) or any other chemicals which scientists have deemed as potentially harmful."

The average person reading this would leave with the impression that the chemicals used in the liners are confidential, so they won't release them, but that they've tested the bottles themselves and that they contain no BPA (note they don't say that no BPA is leached, but that the bottles themselves contain no BPA).

what the heck is an EcoCare liner? It sounds like marketing BS.

@sicknick: I'm sorry, but their reply is disingenious at best and the whole thing is very shady.

They were specifically asked whether there was BPA in the bottles numerous times and they refused to answer that question, claiming the information was proprietary.

Now that they've changed the formula, they've finally admitted what people have long suspected because of their shady actions.

No, they didn't outright lie, they chose to mislead through omission- colour me unimpressed.

@Cant_stop_the_rock: No, they never used the words BPA free. Instead they used words that misled the average user into thinking that they were BPA free. (by focusing on the fact that no BPA leached into the liquid)

They refused to answer the BPA question when asked and avoided it until the whole thing kind of blew over-which is when they changed the bottles.

They purposely misled customers and refused to answer repeated questions about the formulation of their bottles.

@Persistence: I have a water bottle made by Camelbak that is BPA free and I put it through my dishwasher all the time. The bottle hasn't changed in the 2 years I have owned it. BPA free doesn't automatically mean inferior.

oops. I just bought one of the ones with the new liner because it's purdier than the one I had already. Nice to know I can send in my beat up ones for new ones to sell on Craigslist.

However, the new liner has been peeling off at the opening threads. Got a little of it in my mouth, but most of it peeled off clean. why must they even waste energy on liners?

I recall their liners being an issue, and they were all super secretive about it. I trusted them because they're Swiss and my friend told me the water tasted better out of her Sigg. oh well.

Serves them right. I had one that started chipping paint less than 2 months after I bought it (out of 4 I rotate throughout the week) and they claimed it was due to abuse - even though it got treated gently like the other 3. Then they tried to justify by telling me that "many Sigg owners proudly display the dents and damage to their bottles at 'battle scars'".

Yeah...and it's good when your new car's engine dies because "many people believe that your car's engine contributed to gorebal warming"

@Samby: You have been coloured.

If people suspected that, they didn't buy the products. Now, those people get brand new bottles for the few dollars. Since the company had no leaching problems, and the only issue anyone has with BPA is when it leaches, there is no issue.

Basically, you're simply angry the company didn't put forth information that the scare-happy public would have run from without looking at all the facts. There was no threat, so all they would have done was lost income AND possibly ruined the entire company while taking the time and money to update the entire product line with a liner that didn't have the BPA in it simply because they knew the public was scare happy.

do I think it was slightly shady? Yup. Do I think it was a smart business decision that put nobody at risk? Yup. Are they replacing a bunch of my bottles with brand new ones for less then it cost me to buy lunch today? Yup.

If we were talking about ecoli in meat or something, that would be different, but since there was no risk it's just sour grapes at this point.

@sicknick: I'm not even going to bother mailing mine in, I have three of them.

I humbly expose myself to ridicule since I now need to ask the obvious: should I return the SIGG bottle I just got at Whole Foods this past weekend because it has a liner with BPA in it? Can I return the one I bought a year ago as I should assume it has a liner with BPA in it as well? Sorry I sound ignorant but the bottle(s) in question involve my child and not myself.