Even This $70 Smart Water Bottle Still Couldn’t Get Me to Hydrate

When my coworker told maine astir the Water.io Smart Water Bottle that makes definite you’re drinking capable water, I knew I couldn’t beryllium a amended campaigner to trial it out. It’s incredibly hard for maine to enactment hydrated; often, I’d recognize astatine nighttime that I hadn’t had immoderate h2o each day. Even a dehydration-induced two-month-long kidney illness successful the summertime of 2012 couldn’t get maine to alteration my habits. I was hoping the Water.io Smart Water Bottle could bash that. But it couldn’t.

How it works

You commencement by downloading the bottle’s companion app connected your telephone and introducing yourself to it by answering a mates of speedy questions astir your age, sex, height, weight, etc. The app utilizes that intel to store and pass you astir your recommended regular h2o intake.

The vessel sends you regular hydration reminders passim the time by having its headdress vibrate and airy up successful a colour of your choice. The headdress besides embeds dual monitoring sensors that way the magnitude (down to the milliliter) of h2o you portion passim the day. Your figures are updated connected the app arsenic soon arsenic you’re done drinking and putting the vessel down connected a level surface.

You tin tilt the vessel to cheque if you’re connected way astatine immoderate constituent during the day. The LED ringing connected the headdress volition flash greenish if you are and orangish if you’re not. To reappraisal your advancement truthful far, caput to the app. If you successfully conscionable your extremity for the day, the headdress volition airy up successful rainbow colors arsenic a congratulatory gesture.

Where it failed

For immoderate reason, the app utilized my answers to its hydration quiz to acceptable a beauteous debased h2o intake extremity for me. Online h2o intake calculators person ever recommended determination betwixt 1.6 and 2.6 liters, but the Smart Water Bottle suggested that my full regular hydration magnitude beryllium 1.3 liters. I manually adjusted the extremity connected the app and raised it to 1.6 liters.

During the ten-day reappraisal period, I complied with the vessel reminders and was hydrated whenever asked, isolated from my regular request to portion h2o whenever I genuinely felt thirsty. I’d cheque the green/orange on-track/off-track presumption often passim the time and mostly find it connected green.

After a fewer days of obediently complying with each hydration reminder and ever having the headdress airy up successful green, I was confused astir wherefore my efforts hadn’t been celebrated with a rainbow yet. When I navigated to the calendar enactment connected the app to look astatine my advancement rings for the past week, I learned that I hadn’t met my extremity adjacent once.

Left: Progress circles connected the in-app calendar. Right: Exact h2o intake with clip stamps connected a peculiar day. Photo: Dua Rashid / Gizmodo

This bottle’s biggest flaw is that it doesn’t pass you however acold down connected your extremity you are. For that information, you person to caput to the app, which is not thing you’ll apt beryllium doing aggregate times a day, nor is the constituent of this bottle. There are escaped hydration-tracking apps for that.

The lone mode the vessel keeps you updated connected your extremity is by flashing greenish oregon orange, which translates to being connected oregon off-track. And this circumstantial metric is truthful lenient that it doesn’t payment anyone. It flashed greenish for maine connected days erstwhile I couldn’t conscionable adjacent fractional of my full goal. The lone clip it would flash orangish was erstwhile I’d travel location to the vessel aft a agelong time of not utilizing it. But I noticed rapidly that taking a fewer sips would marque it greenish again, which was deceiving. It doesn’t merit a greenish airy if I’ve conscionable started my regular h2o intake.

Left: You person to navigate to the app for the advancement tracker. Right: Helpful in-app features. Photo: Dua Rashid / Gizmodo

It would person been a acold amended thought to person the LED ringing connected the bottle’s headdress enactment arsenic a advancement tracker, with the perimeter arsenic the full h2o intake goal. The ellipse would dilatory capable up arsenic you’d travel person to gathering it, conscionable arsenic it works connected the app. This would’ve worked overmuch amended successful conveying a much precise overview of astir however overmuch much you request to portion for the remainder of the day. Coupled with the overly lenient and outright deceptive on-track/off-track metric, it made maine highly misinformed astir my intake goals.

It’s shameful, I know, but 1 time retired of the 10 days I reviewed this bottle, I got a rainbow. It was truthful discreet that I would’ve easy missed it if I hadn’t already happened to person the vessel successful manus arsenic I refilled it.

Unlike the large hydration reminders and request attention, the celebratory rainbow shows up for an highly little moment, lone erstwhile you tilt the vessel to 1 side, without vibration, and highly quietly. I was beauteous underwhelmed aft looking guardant to it for days. With a solemnisation truthful invisible that it’d easy spell unnoticed, it’s not precise encouraging. Interestingly, I didn’t precisely conscionable my extremity connected adjacent this day. I conjecture it awards you adjacent erstwhile you’re close.

If you’re going up with this bottle, retrieve that it’s 1 other instrumentality to adhd to the ever-growing database of devices that request to beryllium charged. It took an hr to deed 100%, and it lasted 10 days until the headdress started flashing reddish to bespeak a debased battery. Ten days is simply a bully capable artillery beingness connected a instrumentality if it’s offering capable value, though.

But with magnetic charging connected this bottle, you’d request its circumstantial proprietary cable. That’s 1 other cablegram to deliberation astir and attraction for, which instantly puts maine disconnected looking astatine however we’re yet getting person to having a universal charging standard. Also, if you suffer the cable, you’d request to ammunition retired $7 to bargain it connected the site.

Where it passed

The Water.io Smart Water Bottle is simply a vessel I’d bargain anyway, based connected its design, adjacent if it didn’t connection immoderate astute features. It features a sleek, robust assemblage and an highly lightweight build. My reappraisal portion included the $10 grip (sold separately) that I recovered beauteous useful.

Photo: Dua Rashid / Gizmodo

The companion app has a somewhat janky interface and is prone to crashing. But if you tin get past its low-quality UI, it’s packed with features and rewards. It lets you manually adhd immoderate carnal activities you did during the time and set your extremity based connected those. You tin manually adhd hydration extracurricular the bottle, specified arsenic coffee, wine, etc.

There are dozens of badges to assistance motivate you and a leaderboard to observe the astir businesslike h2o drinkers. I was happier than I’d similar to admit erstwhile I received my archetypal (and only) badge.

Badges and leaderboard. Photo: Dua Rashid / Gizmodo

Is it worthy it?

Water.io’s Smart Water Bottle desperately needs a advancement tracker connected the vessel itself. Its on-track/off-track presumption updates besides request to beryllium acold smarter. Throughout my reappraisal period, the vessel hardly tried to get maine to hydrate due to the fact that it was ever greenish and had a affirmative status, adjacent erstwhile I was highly down connected my goal.

Apart from the precise adjuvant reminders, the tendency to spot implicit advancement circles connected the in-app calendar, gain badges, and unlock rewards greatly encouraged maine to hydrate. Water.io gamifies hydration for you, and it’s admittedly enjoyable. However, online hydration trackers and apps tin bash the aforesaid without spending $70. The vessel auto-inputs your h2o intake via the sensors, which is intolerable connected a hydration app. The Water.io Smart Water Bottle is amended for tracking hydration than pushing you towards it.