I’m sorry you had such a bad experience with an expensive coffee mug. I can understand those frustrations if you are really looking to utilize the BT functionality. I had issues with it early on, but once you send your desired temp to the mug (131F for me!) it retains that regardless of any connectivity. I decided early on this was just a really nice mug (with no plastic on it) for keeping my coffee at an ideal temp for prolonged periods of time. Almost a decade out the battery life isn’t that bad at all for doing what I want it to do and it does alert me with a red light when the battery is low. After about 6 years or so I had my charger pins go bad but bought a $6 replacement kit on ebay and repaired it. I’ve had plenty of paint-chipping issues with it, but micron scale over time - no paint chips floating in my coffee or anything like that. I’ve heard the ember 2 does a little bit better with BT connections, but I can’t even remember the last time I bothered to connect via the app anyway. The look and the larger size of the Nuwave are personally turn-offs for me.