Travel Mug Showdown: 1977 Ronco vs 2019 Contigo

This is the groovy new Ronco Auto Cupbrand-new in 1977.

And this is a Contigo Autoseal travel mug purchased brand new in 2019.

Which one is better? Mine is! Today we take a trip back to the 1970swith the Ronco Auto Cup.

And this is a factory sealed model never removed frombox.

I'm gonna crack this thing open and compare it to a modern travel mug byContigo which they both have similar features.

They both have a push buttonhandle.

They're supposed to be leak proof.

Let's crack these open and put them tothe test.

Now if you're gonna be unboxing a 1977travel mug you definitely have to take your time with it.

I almost don't want to dobecause it's been shrink-wrapped for over 40 years.

I've gotta do it though, right?Got to do it.

Oh it almost feels wrong opening this up.

Aw man.

We have 70s air coming through here.

“A portable no-spill insulated cup.

Keeps drinks hot or cold.

Carrying strapincluded.

” They show it being used for skiing, in a boat, at the golf course.

Overhere they got in the car, they got it in a bicycle.

They got it in a truck.

here we go Minimal packaging.

Oh wow.

Oh this is my.

.

.

this is my strap.

It's a piece of plastic.

That's not a very impressive strap now is it? It seems like it's discolored overtime.

On the box it shows it as white.

What is that like a salmon color almost?And it also seems a little bit smaller in person than it looks on the box.

They got the instructions rubber band onto the unit itself.

Now thecommercial shows the guy just laying his drink down, nothing spills out.

Press the button.

You've got the spring right here.

It's spring-loaded.

What do we got inside?Not very much.

It doesn't hold that much.

I thought was gonna hold more than that.

It does say it's insulated though.

I like how the instructions are typed in allcaps like they're yelling at you.

I tried sending in my warranty card for one of my other Ronco products I opened.

It came back undeliverable so I guess I won't send this warranty in but it did have a one-year limited warranty.

So we've got these instructions here.

I think I'm gonna.

.

.

I don't know if I'mgoing to use this strap or not.

Should I use this strap? It says, “When drinking, raise the cupto lips then press the trigger.

” So they're saying to put it to your lips andthen press.

“When finished drinking, release the trigger and drink the lastdrop before you set the cup down.

” “Make sure that your tongue scoops up any leftover liquid caught in the roof of the cup.

” “This will prevent any liquidresidue from damaging any fabrics.

” It literally says that: use your tongue toscoop.

Biking, trucking, skiing, boating, fishing, golfing, and so on.

It even says, “and so on.

” It says to wash it with hot water but do not put it in the automaticdishwasher.

Now let's take a quick look as this Contigo here.

This is a 20 ouncemodel.

Just got this off Amazon.

By the way, I think this was sold originally for $4.

99 and then up to $5.

88.

If you convert that to 2019 dollars, it's actually over $20, so this would actually be cheaper.

I think I paid $16 for this so technically in2019 dollars, this is the cheaper of the two.

Contigo has some instructions inside here.

This is stainless steel.

This says it can actually be on the top rack of thedishwasher.

Once again you've got a spring-loaded trigger here.

And thetechnology is called Autoseal.

“It knows when to close.

” Now the instructions on this one say to prior to drinking and make sure the lid's properly threaded.

It says always press the button when it's in upright position away from your faceto release pressure.

And then when it's pressed, you drink, release the button to seal.

They're really kind of similar in some ways.

I can't wait to wash theseand get started when I leave town tomorrow morning.

Do you think the 1977 Ronco will perform as well as the modern Contigo?We're going to find out.

Alright I am in Baker, California and I'vegot my two travel mugs with me.

The 1977 and the modern Contigo.

I putcoffee in these exactly four hours ago.

It's 4:00 p.

m.

I put it in there at noon.

Here's a flashback to how that went and what the temperature was.

So what I'm gonna do is open these up and take a little sip and see what the temperature is and I'm gonna seehow spill-proof they really are.

First up, Ronco.

Oh I heard a little bitof pressure being released.

Now let's see how well it does after four hours.

It's not cold.

It's not warm, either.

It's kind of lukewarm.

Let's try this one next.

That's hot coffee! There's a significant difference between the two of these.

Huge! But don't take my word for it.

Let's get a couple thermometers andcheck it out.

Let's see how spill proof they are first though.

Oh nothing.

The modern Contigo setting ahigh bar here.

Hot coffee and no spilling.

Pretty nice actually for about $16-$17.

Now with Ronco I wasn't too impressedwith the the temperature but let's see the spill proof quality here.

Oh Ronco!Ronco is coming through with the spill-proof cup.

Alright so maybe it doesn'tkeep it as insulated but it does keep it from spilling.

Let's check thetemperature of these now.

Ronco.

.

.

93 degrees.

It's not much cooler than thatoutside.

A different thermometer to make sure I'm not affecting it.

Oh look at this.

Look at the Contigo.

130.

That's in four hours.

As far as being spill proof goes, it's a tie but as far as temperature goes Contigo destroys the Ronco.

Contigo wins hands down as far as keeping it warm goes.

But as far asdrinking goes let's see here.

The trigger on the Ronco it's not that difficult tosqueeze.

It's pretty easy.

Mmm, lukewarm coffee.

The only thing about the Ronco is you get .

.

.

you tend to get coffee in there, see that? And theinstructions say to use your tongue to get it out.

I don't think peoplewant to do that.

No instruction should be telling you to use your tongue to clean outa cup.

I don't.

.

.

Sorry Ronco, you're great for a lot ofthings but not that.

Contigo does not have that problem.

Press the button.

I heard pressure being released again.

Press the a button before put into yourmouth, by the way.

Because the pressure could blow hot coffee into your mouth.

You don't want that.

You know not long ago I actually tested out a Roncochopper from the 50s against some modern choppers and found it was about asgood as the old ones and probably since it's so old I gave it the edge.

I'm notso sure about this one this time.

This just seems far superior.

I mean yes the fact that this one holds more liquid.

I don't know if you can buy a 12-ounceauto cup anymore.

It holds less, you get liquid in in the lip area here, and it doesn't keep it as warm as this one did.

So I have another test on my back.

We'll do that one and then see what happens.

That's a totally invalid test man.

Who's gonna wait for hours to drink a cup of coffee? I know I wouldn't.

Next up, let's try some cold water with these.

Now it's not an exact comparison because this one has more liquid butit's a general idea of how the old 70s Ronco Auto Cup will compare to something modern.

Let's try it out.

Alright I filled them up with ice.

Contigo.

.

.

It's around 40 degrees different Different thermometer.

Auto Cup, 40 degrees.

What Idid was I filled them all the way up with ice as far as they would go andtopped it off with water.

Now they have different volumes so the resultsshouldn't be exactly the same but if they're significantly different thenwe'll know there's something up and I have a feeling that based on my hotcoffee test this one will probably be a lot colder than this one.

It's 10:41 a.

m.

I've got a lot to do I'll come back tomorrow morning and see how they're holding up.

Let's see how they look.

There's actually still ice in there.

It's kind of formed one big block in the bottom if you can see that.

And it's.

.

.

that's probably in the ice.

It's pretty cold.

Pretty impressive.

Now for the 1970s.

Come on disco era.

Oh.

It's basically room temperature.

Well maybe.

.

.

yeah it's room temperature.

Ronco.

.

.

and the Contigo there's still abunch of ice in the bottom there.

It formed one big block.

Hitting the ice there.

Very impressive.

Impressive.

Not so impressive.

I think the 70's lost this one again.

Hey that's not a fair test man.

You guys are using 2019 ice cubes in a 1977 cup.

Get some 1977 ice cubes and make this ascientific test.

Besides my tests I've shown here, I've actually been using this for a couple of weeks now.

I actually took it on a road trip all upto Fresno to perform on stage up there.

I actually had on the stage with me atour acoustic show.

All right so even though the 1977 RoncoAuto Cup can't really hang with a modern travel mug.

.

.

Hey man there you go again.

It was kind of ahead of its time.

There you go.

And it has a lot of the features that themodern cups still have like being spill proof, having this trigger, beinginsulated, although the insulation doesn't work nearly as well as the Contigodoes, I think they kind of set the standard for later auto mugs to comedown the road.

And if I haven't said it already I lovelove love love love love love love love Ronco products, so I can never really betoo hard on these because Ron Popeil come on the guy was a pioneer.

I'm gonnaproudly display this among some of my other vintage Ronco items because it's so cool, even though it's not perfect.

I think the biggest flaw on this was the fact thatyou have to use your tongue to get the collected liquid out of there.

Kind of gross.

Otherwise you know for 1977 it's pretty good.

For 2019, not so great.

So I hope youguys enjoyed this trip back to the 1970s and I'll catch you next time.

All right man I have to admit your newfangled Auto Cup is actually not too bad but weinvented it first.

Don't forget that.

And hey we've still got disco which I'm sure is still around in 2019, but we invented that too.

.