Customer Reviews

Bobble BPA Free Water Bottle, 18.5 Ounce

5 star:		(73)
4 star:		(54)
3 star:		(27)
2 star:		(24)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

This water bottle is great!! It is environmentally-friendly, budget-friendly and it looks good!

PROS:
Good for the environment!! Get one of these instead of buying cases of bottled water and you end up reducing your carbon footprint on the environment!!

It is great for those people, like me, who are wary of public drinking sources!! Great portable water bottle to bring to airports, parks, beaches, etc.!! Instead of paying the ridiculous mark-up on bottled waters at the airport, use this bottle at the water fountain!!

In getting a bobble, you save money!! Lets assume you can get a 24-pack of 0.5L Poland Spring bottled water for $5 and that you drink two to three bottles a day. Each bobble filter has to be replaced after 150L. That is comparative to 12.5 cases of water bottles or $62.50!!! With the $9.95 cost of a bobble, you save about $50 every two to three months!!

Looks stylish in a very simple way and it comes in so many different colors!


CONS:
Makes a pretty audible whooshing noise upon drinking from the bottle. Would not take this bottle anywhere where quiet and silence is appreciated.

The water stream is too thin. If you're thirsty and direly in need of water, the bobble doesn't provide you with satisfactory gulping due to its sports cap. Great for use at home and at the office but not necessarily for the gym.

Length:: 1:33 Mins

I love my Bobble. This is a video review I did for Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools.

Great concept, but this little guy is noisy. When it "inhales" it makes a distinctive "whooshing" sound. I would not bring this into a movie theater, office meeting, library, etc - it's too distracting. So I'm using mine around the house, running errands, or in the car. Water tastes great, and I've stopped buying plastic water bottles by the case, but they should work on fixing the noise. It's the only thing keeping me from buying them for everyone I know.

Pros:

- Tastes good. The water around me isn't very good, and this definitely removes the metallic edge taste in my tap water.
- Very good filters. No occasional charcoal particles like I get in my Brita pitcher filter. Great quality for a $6-7 personal filter.

Middling:

- Moderate water flow. I don't find that the Bobble farely different from any other sport-capped bottle. It's not difficult to squeeze and certainly gives enough water.
- Sound it makes isn't nearly as bad as I expected. There is a quiet woosh which I thought would distract people around me, but I was pleasantly surprised when I got it.

Cons:

- Small and the last third of the water is harder to get out. Once the water level dips below the length of the filter, less and less water starts coming out. I generally find myself refilling it when it's 20-25% full.
- Bottle seems flimsy. The filter seems high quality, but the bottle itself needs to be squeezed and is thus rather cheap feeling. It's inexpensive enough to be disposable though, so if it's beat up every year or so, I wouldn't mind replacing it.

Edit 7/10/11:

I just bought my second (34 or so ounce) Bobble. I LOVE these bottles and can't imagine carrying around anything else now. I was worried about the build quality of the bottle itself, but it has held up for about a year now. The bigger sized bottle fixes the problem with not being able to get out the last bit of water (by simply having more water). Excellent water bottle, changing my review to 5 stars.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS PRODUCT TO ANYONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN TASTY, PORTABLE WATER, SAVING MONEY OR BEING MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS. IT IS A GREAT, HIGH-QUALITY PRODUCT.

Let me start by saying that I am currently using my FIFTH Bobble filter and have yet to discover a down-side. Here's why:

1. Bobble makes the water taste great! - I do not doubt the cleanliness of tap water. However, the tap water in LA tastes unbearably like the piping it travels in, to the point that I would rather suffer the time it takes to walk to a store to buy bottled water than drink from the tap. Bobble alleviates that problem, because I can simply refill and enjoy.

2. Bobble makes great tasting, portable water easy and affordable. - I have always heard it said that you should drink plenty of water throughout the day to stay healthy. Unfortunately, carrying around a normal water bottle didn't always make that easy for me, because very often, there was not an available tasty source to refill from. Bobble allows me to refill at any available drinking fountain for free, and the small and medium size bottles fit comfortably inside my purse so I can carry them everywhere with me. This came in very handy on my latest trip to Disneyland, during which I refilled my Bobble at least four times (It was a hot day.) from the drinking fountains. A bottle of water of the same size as my Bobble costs four dollars at Disneyland.

3. It is still possible to drink cold water with the use of a Bobble. - The neck of the Bobble is slightly larger than your average water bottle, which means it is just big enough for the ice cubes from many ice makers to fit through in the event you have not refrigerated your bobble. Yay for cold water! Also, you don't have that plastic flavor you sometimes get from ice cubes in your water because the Bobble filters that out.

To address the concerns that the bobble is loud, cannot support guzzling, has too much "black stuff" or doesn't always have a cap:

I, too, was concerned about the noise factor caused by air rushing back into the Bobble after a drink, because I work in a very quiet office environment. After using the Bobble for a week on end, I asked my co-workers if the noise was bothering them and were simply too polite to say anything. They hadn't even noticed the noise. I have also used it in a movie theatre many times and could barely hear it myself (if at all) over the sound of the movie.

While you will not be able to guzzle water from a Bobble like you would a normal squeeze bottle, this is to be expected. The bottle would not be able to filter properly if you could squeeze water through as quickly as a normal bottle. HOWEVER, during moments of incredible thirst, I have had no trouble downing an entire 18.5 oz. Bobble over the span of about 5 minutes.

The "black stuff" is carbon, which is part of what our bodies are made of. While it is not prudent or tasty to drink, it will not harm you. Simply follow the instructions that come with your Bobble about squeezing a bottle-full of water through the filter before using it the first time, and you will be fine.

As for the occasional missing caps that I have heard complaints about . . . Bobble will send you a replacement cap if you send them an e-mail through their website, WaterBobble.com.

I really hope this review has been helpful, if not long winded, because I love this product and would like it to be around for a long time! If you have any questions about Bobble that I might be able to answer in a follow up review, I will do my best to respond.

Length:: 0:09 Mins

Water at my work place is not tasting good lately so I decided to give this one a try. Read most of the reviews and sure enough it works. Water tastes much better and I have to say to those that complaint about noise, unless you are a navy seal working on a stealth mission, common!!! This bottle makes as much noise as any other water bottle with a sip valve. Air comes in and make a tiny noise. I've uploaded a video so you can see and hear from yourself. Definitely a buy.

Update AUG-15-2011
I have to admit the bottle now makes a distinct noise. Much louder then when i first started to use it. Also I highly recommend to flush the filter a couple of times before drinking. I saw a lot of carbon deposit on the water as tiny black dots, and (as someone else said here) I was getting a dry mouth when I began drinking from this filtered bottle. But i still love it, and don't mind the noise.

I was very disappointed with my 13 oz blue bobble...

1. The picture shows that the bobble comes with a cap... but mine did not!!!

2. I knew from previous reviews that the water doesn't come out easily unless you suck on it.. and yeah it's damn annoying and embarrassing in public! You also have to squeeze the bottle when the water is half full...!

3. While squeezing the bottle, my bottle bent..............like are you kidding me?!?! So.. I have a crease in my bobble! It's ...not so awesome...

If you can deal with what I've been dealing with so far with my bobble, go ahead and get it.. but if not, forget about it...
I mean, a lot of people found it really cute, but I didn't recommend it to them.

I bought this guy a few months ago and I'm hooked. The filters last a long time and they really make the water taste better. The bottle itself, while very flexible, is pretty durable. I've dropped it on blacktop several times and it has yet to crack. Bobble's customer support is wonderful as well. The first filter I used developed a crack after a couple weeks, causing it to leak all over the place. I contacted Bobble and they replaced it quickly with no questions asked.

This product has been a very smart choice for me. I just bought it on July 17, 2010 from the Container Store. It was 9.99 and 10.81 after tax. The best things about this bottle: water tastes clean, no plastic taste, made in USA, squeezable, clear so you can see how much water you have left, I don't have to buy anymore bottled water, filter can be used for 2 months or 40 gallons. It is cute shape and style and the blue is a nice color. The water tastes even better when cold! I just feel like I am making a healthy choice!

I'm really liking that I don't have to buy bottled water and that this bottle will pay for it self basically. I can use this for 2 months and drink unlimited amounts of water while saving my money, my back, and the environment. Buying bottled water as a college student gets rough especially carrying it from the parking lot to the apartment. I only wish I had this freshman year. Also the filters are 6.95 and they come in green, black, blue, fuchsia, red, and yellow. The filter is connected to the spout so when the filter gets old you can get a brand new color.

Don't: The package says don't use where water is micro-biologically unsafe. This is only meant for tap/municipal water.
Do: For first time use: fill the bottle with water and squeeze all the water through the filter to get out the carbon dust from the filter. You can drink right after that but if you want to feel safer you can boil filter(haven't tried it yet), or wash with hot soapy water (I have tried this). Just make sure the soap is out before you drink and it washes well.

I love my bobble. I actually looked for a filtering water bottle for a good few weeks before I found the bobble online. Of course, a few days after I got mine in the mail, they started selling them in American Apparel and other stores. I was actually pretty pissed when I found that out, really could have saved me the trouble.

Anyway, the bobble is great. Sure, there's a noise problem, and sure, you don't get alot of flow from the bottle but I found a way to fix that:

The bobble filter twists on pretty tight. So what I do is before drinking, I untwist it just a little, enough so that it's still on the bottle, but not enough that water will leak out. This lets the air out when you drink, so not only is there less suckage noise, but there is also a better flow when you drink.

The CON about bobble is that I found it difficult to clean. They come with directions to clean the filter, but cleaning the bottle itself was hard. Luckily the inside of it doesn't require too much maintenance since the only thing that should be put in it is water. Still, it's something that I thought about.

I also had this problem with two bobble filters where after a few months, the filters themselves cracked. This may or may not be because they've gone through some rough handling (I'm a 'throw it in the purse, maybe I'll find it later' girl), but it was just a pain and disappoint to have happen, since I used it so often.

On that note, MAKE SURE TO CHANGE THE FILTER!!!! Very important! It is after all, still immersed in water most of the time, and the filter WILL GROW MOLD and BACTERIA if not changed as often as it should. A little bit of common sense, but just in case. I would hate for there to be anyone hurt because they didn't change the filter as they should. Don't forget that the filter and bobble bottle can be recycled! The bottle can be recycled locally and normally, but the filter should be sent back to the Bobble recycling program. I think the address should be on the packaging or on their website.

The bobble is great: cute, variable, affordable, safe, convenient. I love the online bobble store and their website, and the fact that they just came out with a fun kids' filter line (that can still be used for any bobble) is something I squeal at. I wish that the shipping charges were more affordable (shipping through their online site is $14.40) but since so many stores are starting to sell it, I guess that's a pretty minor inconvenience. Plus, having it be so easy to carry around and fit in any purse or bag I have with me means that it's easier for me to remember to drink water and stay hydrated throughout the day. As someone who refuses to drink straight from the tap or from any water fountains, this was perfect for me.

I love the bobble. I wish that it had stayed a bit more of a secret from the rest of the world for a little bit longer (selfish, I know, but I hate it when I suddenly became that person who was "following trend" when I WASN'T), but if more people knowing about it means that more people will buy the product and the company will not have to shut down because demand is too strong, I think I can deal with it.