Zojirushi SL-JBE14BZ Mr. Bento Stainless Lunch Jar 41 Oz Carbon Black

I ordered the Mr. Bento lunch jar because I was tired of eating out for lunch at work, or worse yet, hitting up the vending machines. My Bento jar arrived quickly, and in perfect condition. Unlike some previous purchasers, I did get an English translation of the instructions with my Bento jar, although it's a pretty foolproof product as long as you know not to microwave the lids or treat it too harshly. When I use my Mr. Bento jar, I pack and stack it the night before and then set it in my refrigerator for the whole thing to chill. It won't fit into the refrigerator at work (too tall) so it sits on my desk at the office until I am ready to eat. Because I have access to a microwave, I don't need to keep my food hot. However, I have found that my Mr. Bento does do an excellent job of keeping my food nice and cool, although not ice cold. Others have done an excellent job of reviewing how Mr. Bento keeps the food cold (i.e. while not being a full-on thermos, it's got plenty of insulation between the bowls, their lids, and the metal outer shell). The carrying bag is fashioned out of a nice stiff canvas with a zipper and a pull enclosure. I love the spork and spork cover that comes with the jar as well. As I eat my food during the workday, I wash out each bowl at the sink in our office kitchen and take it back to my desk. At the end of the day I go home, put it on the counter, and pack it and chill it before going to bed. My goal with this product was to eat healthier and more regularly during the day. My typical Bento jar has the following: - Top (smallest uninsulated) bowl: a handful of pretzels and a few lowfat animal crackers - Second (larger uninsulated) bowl: carrot sticks and hummus (hummus in a silicon cupcake cup) - Third (main, insulated) bowl: 1/2C of cooked rice with chicken or black beans or some other veggies/meat. - Fourth (bottom, insulated) soup bowl: A homemade soup, this week it's been corn chowder My intention was to eat regularly throughout the day, every couple of hours, to keep my blood sugar levels steady and hopefully lose weight, control cravings etc. That was my intention. The only problem? There's just too much food! I have to really work to eat my way through all of the food that fits into my Mr. Bento, and I rarely can. Usually either the soup or the main bowl ends up in the refrigerator at the office, while I take home the other 3 bowls and refill them for the next day. I'm a 5'6" woman, medium build, with a pretty good appetite, but it's just too much food for me. On the plus side, my husband loves my Mr. Bento. In fact, he's eyeing it jealously. So I have splurged yet again and bought the Ms. Bento (3 bowls) for myself. As soon as it arrives, my husband will inherit my Mr. Bento for his lunches. The beauty of the Bento jars, and "bento" in general, is that it's great for people like me who want more creative lunches, and who are sick of sandwiches and potato chips and what have you. The product is great, and while it's a little expensive, the money I save from not raiding the snack machine ($5 a week, at least) alone will pay for the Bento jar in just a couple of months. Highly recommended, but if you don't have a big appetite, you might want to consider a Ms. Bento instead of this jar.

I bought this for my daughter towards the end of her kindergarten days (2013) and it's still going strong. I have repeatedly recommended this lunch box to family, friends, colleagues, and strangers on the internet. My daughter likes some of the school lunches but not all of them, so sometimes I would make her lunch to take to school. At first this was disappointing; there are only so many brown bag sandwiches that she'll happily eat during the week and I didn't like her having cold lunches at school. She doesn't have access to a refrigerator or microwave oven at school so that limited our options. For awhile I improvised using small Thermos-type containers to give her hot foods but this limited the types of hot foods I was able to give her since all those Thermos-type containers are vertical cylinders, not exactly conducive to things like spaghetti or hot sandwiches. Plus, her lunch bag got bulky with a collection of different sized containers, and everything had to be hand-washed because things like GladWare containers shouldn't be put in the dishwasher. So I went looking for something better and I found this, and I can only say that I wish I found it earlier. The product description here on Amazon tells all of the gritty details so I won't waste time with that. Here's what you really want to know: YES, IT DEFINITELY KEEPS HOT FOODS HOT FOR HOURS AT A TIME! I make my daughter's lunch at 8am and she eats it at around 12:30pm and she has never once complained that her lunch wasn't hot enough. I learned that if I fill the main body (the "jar") with hot water while I prepare her lunch, it keeps her food hotter for a longer period of time. When all the food prep is complete and packaged I just empty the jar, dry it out, and load it up. Other things about this box that I adore... • Yes, the lid is INTENDED to be a serving bowl! If you don't like eating from the containers or if you have to mix something before eating it then by all means flip the lid over and use it as a bowl. • The carrying bag is sturdy and well constructed, and large enough to carry not only the lunch jar but a juice pack, juice box, or milk box fits nicely on top (along with a napkin or two). Slide the lariat closed and it stays nicely in place, safe and easily transportable with the rest of your lunch. • It comes with a stainless steel spork, which was really nice. Unfortunately my daughter accidentally threw hers away when she was younger, but I found a nice titanium spork to take its place and she loves using that. The spork fits in a little "pouch" that's sewn inside of the carrying bag. • It's pretty durable. My daughter's lunch box has a bunch of dents and such where she's tossed it around in her back pack, but the vacuum seal is still intact and it holds its temperature as good as it ever did. • The lid and latching mechanism is especially durable. Because it's plastic I expected the latches to be the first things to fail, but after five years they still latch as tightly and positively as ever. Never once has the latch accidentally released, even after being dropped. • It's dishwasher safe. Simply remove the soft seal and ventilation plug from the bottom-most container, and all of the pieces (containers, lids, jar lid, and spork) can go in the dishwasher. The container itself shouldn't be dishwashed lest the high temperature of the dishwasher disrupt the vacuum seal, but it's also easy enough to hand wash so it's not a big deal at all. The soft seals can be easily washed with a sponge and left to air dry, and they pop back into the lid with no effort. (And replacement seals are available, should yours get lost or damaged.) Even the carrying bag can go in the laundry! • The carrying bag can be slung over a shoulder, carried upright by a handle, or packed in a school backpack. • With four containers I can provide a nice assortment of the hot and cool foods my daughter loves. She often tells me that her friends are always offering to trade lunches with her because her lunches are so much nicer than the school lunches. :-) We've established a system where the top container always has a dessert (cookies, brownie bites, etc), one down has a fruit (apples, peaches, grapes, strawberries, etc) and a vegetable (string beans, peas, cucumbers, pickles, etc), and the remaining two have the main entree (protein) and starch (rice, pasta, potatoes). Her favorite lunch is broiled salmon (lower-most container) with rice pilaf (one up), snap peas and strawberries (one up), and chocolate cupcake (top-most container), with a Capri Sun to drink. Willing trade-offs and caveats... • It's heavier than a "traditional" lunch box owing to its stainless steel construction. My daughter willingly accepts the trade-off, however; she's more than happy to deal with the bit of extra weight in exchange for having a tasty hot lunch at school. • The containers can't be rearranged; they must go in a specific order. This creates certain logistical issues. If you wanted to (for example) use only the large container for something hot and have cool things everywhere else, you can't. Whatever is under the large container will also be hot (or warm) and you can't put the large container on the bottom of the jar because the lid won't fit. (Unless you also remove one of the other containers; that would work.) I would totally buy this again and again without hesitation. I love it, my daughter loves it, her teachers have bought them for themselves, and some of her friends and schoolmates have gotten them as well. This may be the perfect student lunch box.

It’s very nice product. 12 hours lapsed and the soup still hot! Omg!

Have been using this at work. Good sized containers for a 5'4" female, size of containers would not suffice for a male. Soup bowl is leak proof. Good sturdy material, have accidentally dropped the lid on tiles and it did not crack. All in all, happy with the purchase. Keeps the food warm as per described.

I already purchased one of these awhile ago (in bright red) for my boyfriend to take nice lunches to work. I will be going back to university this fall and decided to purchase one for myself as well. These are seriously the Rolls Royce of lunchboxes. I've already reviewed this lunchbox in the cherry red, but I really can't say enough good things about this. (Hence why I splurged and purchased one for myself too). With a little planning and effort, these make wonderful packed lunches, with enough space for lots of variety and snacks. Everything I have purchased from Zojirushi has been excellent quality so far - all the components of these lunchboxes are good quality and are holding up well to daily commutes, temperature changes, and washes with no current wear in the materials. These really are expensive for lunch boxes, but in this case you really get what you pay for (not like my bulky, leaky, staining Tupperware with ill-fitting lids that cost a fortune but never delivered on the quality) If you get into a habit of using these every day they more than pay for themselves in a short time, both from a monetary value (not eating lunch out) and from a health standpoint (multiple stacking containers make it easy to create balanced and nutritious meals) Would I go back to a regular Western-style lunchbox? Nope! With a little creativity and finesse, I've gotten used to preparing and packing foods into these containers, and the design allows for excellent portion controls for your proteins, carbs, and veg. The vertical stacking design makes it easy to organize food and to access individual parts (say a snack of a slice of cheese and some grapes) without having to expose any other food to air or a dirty environment (like a high traffic university commons or the communal lunch room in the office) I have recommended these to everyone I know. These containers, the Zojirushi *excellent* coffee thermoses that stay hot and don't leak, and my versatile sous-chef equivalent induction rice cooker are all great quality products from this company. I hope Zojirushi continues to design, manufacture, and quality test all of their products like they do now. Their stuff does have a higher price tag, but the functionality and quality of their goods seems well worth it in the long run.

Excellent product.

Comprei pra minha filha levar almoço pra escola ! Achei ótimo! Segundo ela mantém a comida aquecida até a hora do almoço dela lá . Fácil de lavar e boas divisórias .