What's lurking inside your water bottle?
I drink a lot of water and take a stainless-steel Swell-like bottle with me every time I leave the house. (I’m going to emphasize ‘Swell-like’ because I would never pay $40 for one, and instead buy them in bulk at Five Below.) My son has one for school as well, and my husband uses a Yeti—even while hanging out at home. (At least he saves me the chore of washing extra glasses.) The main reason we operate like this is because we try to avoid drinking bottled water unless absolutely necessary in an effort to minimize our consumption of single-use plastics.
This has been going on for quite some time, but I’ll be honest… I’ve been convincing myself that washing them with soap and hot water every few days was enough to ensure they were as clean as could be. Then one day, I noticed a buildup of I-don’t-know-what at the bottom of my bottle, and promptly ordered a cleaning brush from Amazon (and totally had flashbacks to 10+ years ago when my kitchen counter was overrun with baby bottles). This new daily chore isn’t all that big of a deal, but sometimes I wish our water bottles were maintenance-free.
As if the universe were listening, I then got a PR email about LARQ—an actual self-cleaning water bottle, and it’s pretty f-ing cool. This smart bottle automatically gives the inside of the bottle (and the water in it) a burst of germ-busting UV-C light every two hours. There’s also “Adventure mode” that lets you purify your bottle on-demand at the push of a button if you’re unsure of the quality or don’t like the taste of your last refill. The bottle itself is rechargeable via USB cable (you should get about one month out of a full charge), and, of course, the double-insulated bottle keeps water cool for up to 24 hours or hot for up to 12—although you should be drinking more than 17 ounces within that time frame.
For those of us who are really thirsty, LARQ just launched a larger 25-ounce bottle that features all the same revolutionary technology that lets us save the time it takes to wash our water bottles. Available in navy, white, green and black, you’ll love the illuminated cap that tells you it’s eliminating 99.9999% of bacteria and viruses—which makes this sound like a pretty good investment with cold season approaching. Prices start at $95, but the LARQ bottle essentially pays for itself in no time if you kick the (plastic) bottled water habit.
