Customer Reviews

Corn-based Water Bottle with Built-in Filter

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

My family's been using them for several months and we like them quite a bit. They last about six weeks and then usually spring a leak, but the filter can still be used on another bottle for awhile if you wish. One note -- squeeze water through the filter to get rid of the carbon dust before the first time you use it.

Pros: I've been very pleased by how the water tastes. Our municipal water is pretty hard and chlorine-treated, but I think it tastes as good or better than purified alone when you use this bottle. Purified water tastes kind of flat next to it. It's great for places where you'll be near a drinking fountain, but don't like the taste of the water straight.

Cons: One bottle doesn't hold very much, so you're refilling it a lot. A bigger bottle would be nice. I live in the southwest and have to remember to not leave it in the car and end up with an $8 lump. Also, it's more work getting water out of it because of the filter, but that's really not much of a problem. The suction is a little noisy so don't plan to use it at a symphony concert.

I have read that the composting claims are a little stretched, since it takes a commercial composting setup to make it work (sustained high temperature), but that it is less polluting to produce these bottles, so I think the environmental scale leans toward the positive. (There's a Smithsonian article about it for more detail.) In our case, just the water saved by not drinking as much reverse osmosis water (which wastes a huge amount of water during production) seems good to me.

There's a lot in the news about the possibility of danger from Nalgene polycarbonate bottles. I haven't been able to find anything about whether chemicals can leach into your water from this bottle (just because it's corn-based doesn't mean it's not toxic), but it's sort of a water-on-demand system so water spends far less time in contact with the bottle this way. If you drink delivered bottled water, what you drink has often been in plastic for a week if not more. If you buy store-bought, that might be months.

All in all, an interesting solution both for the corn-based material and the in-bottle filter. Well worth a try if you're hooked on bottled water.

My husband and I carry around bottled water a lot to keep hydrated in our warm climate. Usually, we would refill the bottles with tap water to save money and not consume too many plastic bottles. (I know, you're not supposed to do that...) When I heard about these, it was an aha moment. I ordered them from Amazon marketplace and I haven't gone back to plastic bottles! We use them for a couple of months and then compost them and order new ones. It has been WONDERFUL because our tap water tastes really chlorinated, especially when it reaches room temperature, but the filter in these bottles takes that bad taste away. Even at room temperature, the water in the bottle takes like spring water. One note, if you live in a warm climate, don't leave your bottle in the car! It starts to shrink in extreme heat.

I ordered two of these and was really happy with the filter and the corn-based bottle. One of the bottles, however, leaked out between the threaded cap and the bottle, when the bottle was turned up or squeezed to drink. When I contacted customer service at the company, they were very helpful and sent me two replacement bottles at no cost. It's nice when a product is perfect to begin with, but no production process is perfect, so it's good to know that a company stands behind its product and will replace the occasional defective item.

I love the idea of this product, however, I am a bit unhappy with the amount of "squeeze" needed to push the water through the built-in filter. It makes a crinkle sound and therefore, makes it impractical to use at work during a meeting, for instance, as it is rather loud. I end up unscrewing the top (which is attached to the filter) and drinking right from the bottle, by-passing the filter.

We used these on a recent trip to Disney World to over come the FL water. They helped us save over $20/person because we did not buy bottled water.

These now (Aug. 2008) have a new design-- the ribbing and label are gone, they come as just a plain clear bottle with no ribbing and broader at the base than the top (i.e. slightly tapered). It seems like the filter size has changed slightly too-- the old kind of filters would work pretty well with a Dasani bottle in a pinch, but the new ones don't.

The advantage of the new design is that they don't seem to leak anymore. The disadvantage is that the plastic is quite thick and stiff and will, I think, get crinkled and possibly cracked before the 90 uses of the filter are up. We try not to squeeze too hard, to prevent this.

The packaging talks about all its eco-features but doesn't mention anything about not leaching like plastic. It does seem like there is evidence that this plastic is at least somewhat better in terms of personal health, but corn plastic is definitely not a cure-all from an environmental standpoint, and we should try to use these for their full life before basically thinking of them as non-recyclable trash. A search for "PLA corn plastic leach" turns up an interesting Smithsonian article on the subject if you want to know more.

This is a Level 1 filter, so it probably won't do as much as we would like in terms of filtering pesticides etc., but I haven't been able to find any higher-level filters that are made out of non-nasty plastics, which seems like defeating the purpose.

Overall, this is a decent product that I would recommend, for those times when you know you're going somewhere with bad-tasting water and your Sigg bottle won't do you much good once you've run out. But we have to look elsewhere for our eco-karma points!

This water bottle does make tap water taste like a bottled filtered water.
One disadvantage is it's size, as I wish it came in a one liter version.
It also comes out out the spout more slowly because of the filter and if you are really thirsty, it's a pain to have to suck the water from the bottle. If you squeeze the bottle to speed the flow, it can leak around the cap and all over you. But if you are a sipper, and want a small bottle to tote along with you, this is just right.

Why lug heavy cases of water or pay high prices for water? The water bottle with filter makes any tap water taste great. I keep one in my car for my trips. Be sure to flush the filter once or twice to get rid of loose charcoal in the filter. 8 fills pays for itself. Eco friendly

The idea of saving money and helping the enviorment seemed to be so alluring. I ordered four and they was delivered very fast. The problem is the bottle leaks. Each one has the same problem in that water leaks from the area where the cap screws onto the bottle. If I squeeze the bottle water comes out and drips all over the place. If I lay it on its side, I soon have a puddle of water. Great idea, poor execution.

We got several of these bottles to bring with us on a trip to Disney. We figure they paid for themselves after four fill-ups. Although you do have to squeeze to get the water out (as some have complained), it was such a non-issue that I wouldn't have thought about it except for the comments I had read. The water tasted great for the most part, although the water at The Magic Kingdom is incredibly foul--the bottle improved it significantly, but didn't make it taste like spring water. All other parks, and every other place we used them the water tasted great. We now keep them in the car and no longer get gouged buying bottled water. I like that they are biodegradable too!