I Hate How Much I Love This Hydration Tracker Water Bottle

Whenever I felt tired growing up, one of the first questions my mother would ask me was, “Have you been drink enough water“On top of that, I’ve been a wellness writer for a decade, which has further solidified my knowledge on the importance of maintaining adequate hydration every day. However, I had never really measured the amount of water I drank. I thought my body would tell me when it was thirsty and drinking water would be enough then.

I was wrong. When I started testing hydration tracking LARQ PureVis 2 Bottle for CNET best list of self-cleaning water bottlesI realized that my old method of hydrating wasn’t enough. Now that I have a water bottle to track my water intake, it’s clear that I probably wasn’t drinking enough water before and it was negatively affecting my health.

What I like about my water bottle with hydration tracking

The LARQ PureVis 2 was primarily designed to keep your water disinfected using UV-C LED technology to eliminate 99.999% of salmonella and 99.99% of E. coli. It also comes with a filtered straw that removes pharmaceuticals, chlorine, PFOS, and PFOA. The latter two are laboratory-made chemicals that can cause harmful health effects.

However, my favorite feature is that it connects to the LARQ app, which allows you to track your water consumption.

To determine how much water you should drink each day, LARQ asks your date of birth, gender, height, weight and activity level. You can also adjust this amount yourself.

Several visuals of water intake

On the main screen of the LARQ app, there is a percentage, fraction, and line graph showing how much you have drunk today. Depending on the time of day, a curved status bar also indicates whether you’ve drunk enough water at a rate that will allow you to meet your daily goal. In the app you can set your waking and sleeping times so it knows your timeline.

I like that this bottle offers several visual indicators to show how much water you’ve drunk, so I can easily tell at a glance if I need to take more sips. You can also set up hydration reminders that will make the top of the water bottle glow during the hours you’re awake, prompting you to drink more water. This glow is surprisingly bright, so you won’t miss it.

In the middle of the two tabs at the bottom of the app is a plus sign that you can click to add drinks that don’t come from your water bottle. Of course, sometimes I forget to do it. Six options are included: water, coffee, tea, soda, juice and milk – for which you can add the number of ounces and the time you drank the beverage.

Dive into your hydration history

At the top, it displays the days of the week, each surrounded by a curved status bar, so you can check how much water you’ve drunk. If I’ve been feeling down or low on energy for a few days, I often think back to that schedule and realize that I didn’t drink enough water because dehydration can cause fatigue.

Below the line graph is a “Streak” section that displays the number of consecutive days you reached 100% of your hydration goal and your personal best. At the very bottom is “History”, where you can see each time you have drunk water from the bottle and how much you have drunk.

Environmentally friendly analyzes

When you click on the “Devices” tab in the bottom bar, you can see your device, its battery level, the last time it was purified with a UV-C LED, and information about your straw’s filter, if you choose to use it. If you click on the filter, you can see its age, filtered volume, depletion percentage, and the option to order a three-pack of new filters ($30 and up).

At the top right there is an analysis button that displays some of my favorite data. A bar graph displays the amount of gallons of water you drank in the last week, month, or six months. Below, you can see your environmental and financial impact: how much money you saved on bottled water, your reduced carbon footprint and reduced plastic waste.

Long battery life

A full charge with the included USB-C cable lasts two to three weeks. Usually mine lasts about three weeks, but I don’t use the “adventure mode”, which requires more power and takes 3 minutes to self-clean the bottle with the UV-C LED. It is best used with less reliable water sources in the backcountry, such as when hiking.

Instead, I let my bottle clean itself automatically in normal mode, which activates every 2 hours for 10 seconds. Sometimes I also press the top button once (triggers adventure mode twice) to activate normal mode for 1 minute.

What I don’t like about this water bottle

Price: As for why I hate how much I love this water bottle, it’s all about the price. The 23-ounce version costs $129, while the 34-ounce bottle (the one I have) costs $139. It’s expensive for a bottle of water. A less expensive alternative would be a bottle with time and ounce markersbut you will have to track the daily total yourself. This one also has motivational phrases.

Manual cleaning: Another disadvantage is that you still have to clean the bottle by hand. Even though it is “self-cleaning,” this only applies to water and parts of the bottle that UV-C LED technology can reach. So, LARQ always recommends rinsing the bottle – and especially the cap where buildup can occur – a warm, soapy rinse every now and then.

The straw: Tired of cleaning the straw, and having trouble keeping it in place in the mouth of the bottle, I decided to remove it. I already fill the bottle with filtered water and avoid using it with less reliable sources, like running water on hikes, so I don’t feel the need to keep the straw.

Size: Finally, the only other downside I can think of is that the 34 ounce bottle doesn’t fit in my car’s cup holder, so I have to slide it into the door compartment of my car or put it on the passenger seat. However, it fits in the side bottle pocket of my backpack when I travel. It fell out of the pocket once and survived the fall with only a small dent on the stainless steel bottle and a small scratch on the BPA-free plastic cap.

The final verdict

Even with the cons I mentioned, I still like this bottle of water. The hydration tracking feature has helped me make sure I’m drinking enough water every day, which supports my health and, in particular, my energy. I also like that it gives me data on how much plastic waste I avoided by drinking this product reusable bottle.

Essentially, it has become my water bottle of emotional support. I’m grateful that it gives me one less thing to worry about during the day, even though it’s one of the most important: my hydration.