So I ordered this lunchbox not thinking that Amazon carried it (silly me!). I then saw it did and was dismayed by the product review. I contacted the company, and within the hour, they responded:
"Thank you for your email.
We have been made aware of the issues experienced by some of our Lunch Box customers in regards to the clips. The designers have reviewed the product and I am pleased to let you know that we have a new lid design which is currently being manufactured.
>From the feedback we have had and tests we have made, it was concluded that this issue was mostly linked to the handles design and partly due to the utilisation of the boxes. The handles were not meant to be opened over a 45 degree angle. Some customers have been pulling on the handles over that which actually creates a leverage effect, pushing out and breaking the lid edges. The same happened when the lid was placed on the box while the rubber seal was not correctly aligned or pushed into the lid before trying to close the box.
To resolve this, the handles have been redesigned to allow the customer to open the handles over the 45 degree angle without creating the leverage effect. We have also added a breathing valve to stop the lid from being too tight when the customers are trying to open the box after storing hot food. The new lids also have slight change on the inside of the lid, to make sure that the customers can feel better when the lid is correctly aligned with the box and they can push to close the box. Finally, the latest change which is on the lids being currently manufactured, we are using a much softer material for the handles, which will mean that they will pop out if too much pressure is applied, but without breaking the lid. The customer will then be able to easily put back the handles in place. All the Black+Blum staff are trying these lids at the moment and we have not had any breakages.
Should you for any reason find that the new design still does not fulfill your expectations then please do not hesitate to contact me again.
We thank you once again for your feedback and we appreciate your support.
Kind regards,
Rachael P****
US Sales Administrator"
What more could I want? So, kudos to them for correcting what users have noted as a problem.
Update: 9/9/2011: So I finished lunch, put the lid back on, and closed the handles. Snap. Pop. one of the handles' connection with the lid broke off at the stem. And yes, top shelf dishwasher, no heat drying cycle, no forcing. I currently have a call into the company. I truly hope they can make good...
It's been in use for four months and failed. Not so good. But I do love the overall design and the product.
Bought my Box Appetit barely 2 months ago and up until now I've enjoyed using my Box Appetit.
Unfortunately, the lid on the triangle compartment no longer fits. I think it must've warped along with the triangle compartment itself, even though I followed the instructions to not heat the container beyond 2mins under medium power. Also one of the two snap fasteners on the lid broke off. And securing the lid to the container usually takes me at least 3 tries to get it to snap in.
I'm disappointed that this product barely lasted me 2 months.
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The latch on the main lid broke the 1st time I used it. Soon after, the lids on the smaller compartments would no longer snap shut. Very poor construction.
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Do not buy this ill-designed piece of junk. I received one as a gift, and within weeks the delicate post for the handle snapped off, making the lid unusable. Perhaps a fluke? I bought another, _with_ the purportedly new and improved lid. Don't let them snow you with this idea that everything's better now that they've redesigned the lid. In my case, one of the posts for the lid handles again broke off, literally by itself while it was sitting closed on my desk. Snap! And twenty-five bucks wasted again, which is why I'm taking time to write this review. The designers would like you to think, given their responses to this issue, that this is due to people mishandling or forcing the lid down. Rubbish. Knowing the post was delicate, I treated my box with an almost religious-like care, hovering over the handles with a feather touch whenever I approached them. And it broke again. For those of you in my boat, wanting it to keep working somehow after wasting your money, you can drill a small hole where the post snapped off and glue in a short piece of coat hanger wire, which works fairly well. But... this is a terribly designed item, and the fact that they are still selling it is shameful. Avoid! Avoid!
UPDATE: I contacted the company after hearing about a lid-replacement offer, which would if true have solved things. I entered all my data after speaking with the US representative via email, and awaited my three replacement lids. They never came. After a good long while I contacted the rep again, and she insisted that all three had been sent. So three packages from the same company disappear? Of course not. When I responded with skepticism, she brushed me off with the line, "if you aren't going to believe us, there's nothing more I can do for you." Indeed.
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So my box appetite just broke. I bought it three months ago and have been using it off and on since then whenever I pack a lunch. I love it so much, I repaired it.
The Good:
People love this little box. I get a lot of complements and a lot of calculating expressions from other lunch carriers whenever I pull my box appetite out of its lime green carrier bag. I've already found several different ways of packing it that all work really well for me. Two handy tricks are 1: you can fit a couple of slices of olive or walnut bread in the space above the large triangle and under the clear lid. The second handy trick is that on the newer version you can use the hollow middle the green rubber tab to store the fork, instead of storing it inside the box (check out the pictures of the bento box) so you can keep bread in the fork space and still have the fork handy.
My favorite lunch Recipes:
SNACK PACK
Option 1: I often use it as a snack pack, filling the big triangle with hummus, the little triangle with chocolate covered raisins, and the space between with celery and carrot sticks. Plus, there's just enough room under the big triangle with the clear lid closed to fit in a couple slices of olive bread -this snack can keep me happy on a 9-5 when I don't have time for a lunch break. This is an adult-sized, snack-happy woman's best friend. It's a lot of food.
SALAD AND DESERT
Option 2: cottage cheese and apple sauce (or canned pears) in the big triangle (the lid on the big triangle seals in thick foods without any leaks) and your choice of dressed salad (Easy nicoise: boiled red onions (quartered), flash boiled frozen haricorts verts (young green beans) in small sections, chunks of tuna or crab sticks, quartered cherry or roma tomatoes, toss in olive oil, drizzle with a lots of tart lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste [your friends will be jealous]. Or pasta salad, chicken salad, etc) in the rest of the box with no little triangle -again, bread fits over the big triangle (so long as you don't mind a little of the salad dressing touching the bread during transit. Yum!)
DESKTOP SMOKED SALMON WRAPS
Option 3: (for when you don't mind what your lunch box smells like to other people) capers and diced red onions in the small triangle, several smoked salmon roses (like, little roles of sliced smoked salmon), a generous dollop of chevre goat cheese or cream cheese, and a couple lemon wedges in the big triangle, a green salad, torn up romaine lettuce, or crisp butter lettuce or romaine leave sections to use for salmon wraps in the space between the two triangles. Bread on top. Use the lemon to season the lettuce and salmon, and then spread capers, onions, chevre or cream cheese, and smoked salmon on the bread, make lettuce wraps, or eat it with a fork. Again, this is a LOT of food.
Neutral observations:
I wouldn't suggest that a buyer choose this box for storing sliced-bread sandwiches -it's just not the right shape for that and there are plenty of alternatives that will stop your sliced bread sandwich from getting squished. This box is more for loose or amorphous foods that you want to keep tidy and appetizing. It looks nice to eat out of and it's no trick to pack it so it still looks nice after being stored vertically in your purse on a ten minute walk and 20 minute bus ride.
I've also never used this box for foods that need reheating. Frankly, I like it too much and I've read the reviews that say that microwaving the box damages it. I don't want to damage my awesome lunch box. So I've simply decided to keep my box a "cold and room temperature foods only" box.
The bad:
And this is why I can only give my awesome lunch box 3 stars. The stupid plastic knob that holds the clip broke, just like it did for everyone else! I thought they'd fixed this!
I'm not a patient person. I am a handy one. This is easy to fix with a 1/8 inch drill bit and a bit of stiff wire (or the end of the metal wire off a heavy duty binder clip). Use some wire snips to clip off a small section of wire, about 5/8ths inch. Apply drill to the little indentation where the plastic nub used to be drilling down about a quarter of an inch, and insert the small section of the heavy duty wire into the hole you just carefully drilled out. Replace clip.
It shouldn't have broken in the first place, but to me it's worth fixing while I wait for a replacement.
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When this came in it was a perfect size. Lots of room for everything. My friend I bought it for had a knife set of 16 Wusthof's and it fit in this perfectly.
