My FREE Cup Holder Mod

After being fed up with those stupid rubber cup holders being just a bit to small for my Contigo mugs, I finally tried something that I've been thinking of doing for awhile and I haven't seen it done here so I thought I'd share.

I've tried twisting the mug when pulling it out, and drilling a hole in the side at the bottom and nothing has worked for me, so below was my fix.

Here is the short version:
Basically what I did was drill the side at the bottom, stretch it out over something with a bigger diameter, heat it up, let it cool back down, and now I can stop cussing the lil' bastard every I grab my coffee mug. LOL.

Here is the detailed version of how I did it:
I have an old fire extinguisher that was the same diameter as my Contigo mug and so I wrapped the bottom of it several times with some aluminum tape that is 4" wide that I had laying around to make it a bigger diameter. I then took the cup holder and forced it over the end of the taped end of the extinguisher stretching it out. I think the hole I had drilled earlier helped with this as it allowed the trapped air to escape as I pulled it onto the extinguisher. I then heated up the rubber cup holder (do in a well ventilated area since it stinks and probably isn't good to breath) with a heat gun for a few minutes to the point it was really soft and pliable but not burning. I then let it cool to room temp and then removed it from the extinguisher.

On both cup holders it did distort the top part (I'll call it the flanged end) some, but it still fits in the center console just fine and didn't do anything cosmetically to it. You'd never know by looking at it. It just fits tighter in the center console now, but that's probably a good thing too. Now I can remove my Contigo mug without taking the cup holder with it!

 

We'd love to see it!

 

I thought you might ask. I had to reenact the mod since I didn't take pics as I was doing it, but here you go.

4" Tape used to increase diameter.


Tape added roughly a 1/4" total diameter.


Make sure the cup holder is all the slid down before heating it up with a heat gun. Notice the hole I drilled. Keep in mind this pic was taken after I had heated it up and the hole became bigger. Originally I drilled with a smaller drill bit than what the hole would indicate. I can't remember what size bit I used.

 

How much coffee does tha mug hold? My 12ox Contigo mugs fit fine.

 

I feel like I'd f that up. Plus those cup holders are super expensive from what I remember to replace.

 

I have 3 Contigo Mugs that are all 20 oz. 3" diameter X 8" tall. 1 of the three fit before this mod, but the other 2 were just a bit to big. The 1 that fits has a slightly different angled bottom than the other 2.

Piece of cake. You can do it. I didn't know they were expensive. I was just about to throw them in the trash if I could have found something else to replace them with. I'm glad I gave this a try. Figured I wasn't out anything really if I screwed them up so what the heck!?!? Real easy to do and well worth it IMHO.

 

looks very good! And solves the annoying issue! Good work!