We reported about LARQ’s self-cleaning water bottle about a year ago when it first hit the scene. Now LARQ is back with news and we have some first-hand experiences to share about using the bottle.
What’s new at LARQ?
LARQ identifies a rising trend for using multi-use bottles in comparison to bottles you only use once and then throw away. They now teamed up with the NBA player Draymond Green to launch the special 90s edition “DG23” in the Electro Blue style. Part of this special edition is the initiative to donate 1% of the proceedings to the NABU (Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union) initiative “CLEAN THE SEAS”. This special edition of the LARQ self-cleaning bottle is available for 109 EUR (converted to roughly 130 USD) and comes at a size to hold 500 ml.
Does the LARQ bottle work?
The bottle promises a self-cleaning water bottle and it delivers. You will need to do some manual scrubbing in some areas of the bottle, especially where your lips reach outside the automated cleaning area, once in a while but we are talking weeks and not days here. The “cleaning” is basically a frequently occurring UV-sterilisation inside of the bottle that “deactivates” bacteria. This makes your water cleaner and no bad odor can develop inside of the bottle. That’s a good one.
So how to use it? A fairly simple and lovely user experience comes with the LARQ bottles. You unbox your bottle, plug the Micro-B USB power cable into the top part which holds the electronic parts, charge up, unplug, fill it with water, close it, hit the button on top, and finally, you do the “water dance”, which is the lovely LARQ way of saying that you have to move or shake it a bit to optimize the UV exposure inside the unit. Though not a requirement, I have been water-dancing ever since.
Any downsides to this?
The light animation during the charging process is actually very pleasing, this is why it’s almost a little bit disappointing that thus far I have only charged the bottle up a single time and it’s going fine for months already now. Next to the manual cleaning runs, the bottle also does automated cleaning every two hours on its own, to make sure no bacteria would develop, even if you forgot to do it yourself. But we can’t really call this a downside, right?
Okay, what else? The haptics of the LARQ bottle in the DG23 edition is really nice, but what’s not so nice is the weight of the bottle even when empty. The spec sheet says the bottle weighs 13.5 oz (0.38 kg) in the 500 ml option but it feels heavier than that. This makes me think about it twice whether or not I want to carry it with me while going out or going for sports. On the other hand, this sort of weight has made the bottle a good companion for the home office, standing there next to my laptop rather firm, with less risk of being kicked over.
Also interesting: LifeStraw Go Bottle Clears Any Water from 99.9999% of Bacteria
The only real downside is the pricing of the product, which lies way north of what most would pay for a water bottle. I understand that, but I can now also confirm that the technology works and is sophisticated enough to justify the price. They solve a problem and anyone who is looking for a solution like that will find the LARQ bottle to be a useful investment.
Even more news at LARQ
We haven’t tried it out ourselves yet, but LARQ is working on a filter pitcher with self-cleaning features as well. Our tests with the bottle as well have shown that a potentially contaminated water pitcher, meant to filter limescale, might be a source of bacteria. This is why a pitcher like this could go a long way for home use, preparing your favorite coffee, tea, or just enjoying pure clean water. While intriguing and desirable, this product has not yet been released but can be pre-ordered on Indiegogo for currently 74 EUR (88 USD). The plan to ship these, starting in June 2021. If we can get our hands on a unit, we will write a dedicated review then for you.
Stay Hydrated!
YouTube: Introducing the LARQ Pitcher – Pure Water Beyond Filtration
Photo credit: All material shown has been provided to us for press usage and is owned by LARQ.
Editorial notice: We received a test sample of this product. The author has tested the product for more than two months prior to writing this review article. The long-term testing was relevant to check if and how bacteria would develop in comparison to regular water bottles. Update: March-15 2021, we incorrectly stated that the bottle would be charged with a USB-C plug, which was not correct. We updated the article now to reflect the actual specifications.
