Quote from timjohn

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I caved and picked up the 10oz mug 2, arrived yesterday, after having it 2 days now and testing it several ways and with different drinks, we'll be returning it. It came pretty beat up, the mug was fairly clean but obviously used, the accessories were clearly well used and horribly packed. I doubt it came from Ember this way, but who knows. If you look at the definition of woot's "factory refurbished" it can be anyone that Ember authorizes. The handle is very thin but it didn't bother either of us.

There are a few things we didn't like, perhaps a factory new unit would perform better, so there's that. It's hard to say what real testing/eval these refurbished units get so there could be a wide variety of performance issues that get by them.

1) It's smaller than you think, the 10oz is really 8oz if you want to carry it anywhere and less if you use a tea bag. Not really Ember's fault, but unless you only want 6-8 ounces of tea/coffee get the bigger version.

2) It's not well insulated. There's a huge difference between the liquid temp at the top 1/2" of the liquid in the mug and the bottom. With a digital thermometer coffee was indeed 140 degrees at the bottom but it was only 120 deg at the top 1/2". For me this means the coffee is too cold with a full mug, and almost too hot as you reach the bottom, in the middle it's about perfect. So you still don't get consistent drink temp start to finish at the same mug setting. The mug is clearly working because it's getting to set temp at the bottom, but it's so poorly insulated the liquid cools off way too much toward the top. A lid would help that issue probably, but you have to buy them separately. In theory the thermal convection should mix the liquid but it doesn't seem to. My guess is it's just losing too much heat between the thin mug sides and not having a lid to help hold heat in. A design like this in a yeti style insulated mug with a lid that can really hold heat well would be a game changer and significantly increase the runtime and consistency of the temperature.

3) It doesn't get very hot with a full mug of liquid. I'm the kind of guy who lets his coffee sit 15min and often hot food is too hot for etc.. However even for me I had to set the mug at 140 degrees to be hot enough for me. This also meant the battery did not last long, around 50 min. This was the biggest shocker I had, I honestly worried before getting it if even on a low setting it would be too hot for me, but I ended up having to put it at almost the max.

4) While not it's "purpose" one use we liked the idea of was keeping a mug of hot chocolate warm sitting outside in the fall/winter. It does NOT work well for cocoa. The reason is most cocoa's or mix drinks end up settling out some after they sit, this layer of cocoa/chocolate etc. on the bottom "fools" the mug into thinking it's much hotter than it is, so even on 145deg. the cocoa does not get hot, because it's just overheating the chocolate on the bottom that's settled out. We noticed the same thing with tea if you put honey in it, when the honey sinks it again fools the mug into thinking it's hot, but all it really did is heat the honey right at the bottom. So you have to be very diligent about stirring it.

5) The charge time of 2-3 hours is a long time, if you use it for 45min first cup in the morning, you basically can't use it again until the afternoon with a full charge. Again this is fine if you are mostly at your desk etc. and only wander away for short time periods, or only use it once a day, but it really doesn't last long enough or charge fast enough to be a solution for say 3-4 mugs during the day.

I don't have my mug yet but based on reviews, I've learned the following:

1 - The sizing issues well documented. Everyone says to skip the smaller sizes and go to the largest because of this.

2 - If you insulated the cup Yeti style, it could take hours for your hot drink to cool down to the right temperature. Or you would be fooling around with a lid which this isn't designed for at all.

3 - This mug is primarily designed for people who sit in a single spot and can leave it on the coaster or temporarily walk around the office or house to return to the coaster. If you're commuting, that's the travel mug which would solve this complaint entirely anyways.

4 - My primary drink is mochas. This sounds like you're using powder and not mixing it prior to adding milk. Personally I skip the powder entirely and use syrup nowadays due to the consistent mixture. I would not say this is a problem with this specific mug as almost all powders do this. I have never experienced this with honey settling at the bottom either, I mix the honey when the liquid is hot and never had a mouthful of honey at the bottom.

5 - See point 3

Ember Temperature Control Smart Mug (Factory Reconditioned): 10-Oz Mug 2

$49

$130

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