My girlfriend is not what you would call a recyclist (apparently, thats not a word, well it should be) and also likes to drink water from bottles. She is from a small town in the U.S. where they don't have a recycling program. I'm from Montreal and since I was born, I was instilled with the socialist blue box recycling program. Every municipality should have a recycling program of some sort. Paper, plastic, glass, and aluminium gets thrown into the bin.
The only problem is that my girlfriend drinks bottled water and has no concept of recycling. Bottled water is terrible for the environment in general and on top, how many people really recycle those bottles. Its not like they sell 100% recycled plastic bottles anyways so reducing the demand is better than recycling.
I don't mind drinking tap water since Montreal's water is very clean. Plus it tastes better than bottled water for me. My parents buy the Nestles bottled water because you can get about 40-60 bottles for under 4$. That stuff tastes terrible. I don't know if its because its source is crap or the plastic leeches into the water. When I can, I drink from tap since I don't mind it. Plus, the majority of bottled water come from water treatment plants so they're basically the equivalent to tap water.
My girlfriend on the other hand drinks only certain brands of bottled water for its taste. Its annoying plus expensive in Montreal. The state's bottled water is cheaper but still, the amount of waste created is enormous.
I wanted to find a solution for her that tastes good and is better for the environment so everyone wins! Tap water isn't great for her because she doesn't like the taste of it that much. When its cold, she doesn't mind but still doesn't like it. There are Brita (activated charcoal) filtered water but the problem is that it takes time for the filter to do its job. So while it can clean the water, it doesn't meet the needs for this generation people with 30 second attention spans.
I don't remember how I found out about Water Bobble but am glad I did. It is a reusable water bottle that has an activated charcoal filter in the spout. This solves my problem of providing the idea of clean and good tasting water without needing to wait for the filter to clean the water.
Price
So I had to buy it to see if it will get my girlfriend off her addiction with bottled water. The problem is that its a startup company and they don't sell them everywhere. I live in Canada and my girlfriend is from a small town so we had to ship ours in. I got my friends to purchase some as well and made an order of 12 ( luckily, I got a 2 for 1 discount for Earth Day).
Each bottle is about 10$ and the shipping was 20$ for 12 bottles (I bought directly from them). With my discount, my friends and I only paid 8$ a bottle in total.
The filters themselves are 7$ each and you only need to buy them every 2 months or so. I much rather spend 7$ every 2 months for a filter than spend 7$ a week on bottled water.
Also note, I don't like how we use currently use plastics for disposable goods since plastics can last forever. The point of plastic was to create low cost, long life products so throwing them away is hurting the environment since its never going to go away in a life time. I'm looking forward to the new bio plastics that have shorter life spans but really, we should move away from plastics for disposable usage.
Design
The bottle itself is made of clear recycled plastic thats been FDA approved for human consumption. It doesn't have that new scary BPA chemical too. The bottle holds just above half a liter of water.
Its a nice curvaceous design that will look pretty sitting on a table. It fits in the standard automotive cup holder so its car friendly. I took it out with me driving and saw no problem with it.
It does come with a clear spout protector but theres a good chance I will lose it soon. Its useful for transporting in your bag and keeping the spout clean. Hopefully I won't lose it but then, I have a habit of doing that with little trinkets.
I also noticed that the spout won't fit on other bottles but thats mostly because it needs to accommodate the filter. Would be useful if you have a water bottle that you like already and want to use the filter on it. I think most water bottles have bigger spouts to begin with so maybe the filter will fit on some.
Update: Most people who received the bobbles say that the plastic doesn't feel high end. I don't think this is a big issue since thinner plastic means less is used. Plus, its only 10$ and I'm assuming the plastic they used isn't cheap since its been FDA approved. The plastic is also a bit fragile. Since you need to squeeze to get the water out, some of my friends are squeezing too hard and are permanently deforming the bottles. I think its a habit from bottled water since you don't care about the bottle itself. So you squeeze it until the sides meet. It breaks on those too but no one cares since you just throw it out.
Taste Test
The moment of truth. Does it work? Yes, it does. Taste testing with the water here, I can taste a difference. It seems less harsh and more smooth than the tap water here. I have to try it when I get back to Montreal since I'm currently in Vermont.
My girlfriend is the ultimate test and she doesn't mind it at all. The point was to see if she would move to this instead of bottled water. It worked so it passed the ultimate test for me.
Conclusion
The water Bobble is low cost solution to making sure the water you drink is clean and potable. There is nothing wrong with tap water but for those with anxiety or just don't like the taste of tap water, this is a good solution.
Pictures
6 comments:
Hey, thanks for posting this.
I just got my bobble today, and i was curious about the hygiene levels, so i tested a couple different types of water with a water-toxins/bacteria-tester (basically, it came with the built-in filter in our sink, and its legit).
The number that shows up on filtered water is about 14, and the number on tap water is about 161 (the lower the better).
When i filter the filtered water with the bobble the water becomes 18, then 25 the next time i filter the same water, and keeps going up the more i filter it until about 40, when it doesnt increase any more. (oh, and i did run about 5 bottles of water before that to clear out the carbon).
when i filter the tap water with the bobble, it decreases to 157, and keeps decreasing by a margin of about 5 every time i filter it.
so if i use the bobble for clean water, it makes it worse, and if i use the bobble to filter relatively dirty water, it barely purifies it.
Im just pointing this out to you since you may want to know.
Also, i am from toronto, and i recently visited montreal, and i have to say, its a pretty cool place. haha, have you ever thought about how your name is like "j'aime you"?
Hi Sophia, Firstly thank you for purchasing bobble however we must comment on your posting...
Are the results you are reporting in mg/l, ppm, grains, or some other established benchmark for analysis of water quality? We ask because we have never heard of a “water-toxins/bacteria-tester” let alone a portable household unit. The results you report do not seem to correspond to results associated with the bobble product. Bobble has certified test results performed by NSF ( the acknowledged leader in filter testing) plus other independent certified laboratories which clearly determine the effectiveness of bobble in removing contaminants from water. The results are documented, widely available for inspection, and reported in accordance with well established guidelines that are universally accepted throughout the water industry. So we hope this puts this matter to rest. We are very proud of our product and thanks Jaime for the great review
I just purchased a bobble in a JC penney store, and when I got home, I followed the instructions to clean the filter, but squeezing it made stress marks in the plastic. I am very disappointed in this product.
I would be incredibly interested in this product if I knew the plastic was a stronger material. At the same time, buying a water bottle every couple months is better than buying a water bottle every day. Additionally, having a larger bottle option as well as more threads to hold the filter in the bottle are both desirable.
Anonymous person 2- if you visit www.waterbobble.com they have small, medium, and 1 Liter options now, you can also find $1 off codes if you google it. I just bought one and i'm not disappointed with it so far, its better than city water with loads of chlorine and who knows what else that passes through the filtration plants with our government standards.
Just an FYI to everyone. To prevent the bottle from denting or splitting, don't squeeze the bottle but suck on the spout. I know, I'm not trying to sound "sexual" but if you do that it's less strain on the plastic.
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