The first thing to know, before anything else, is this product Sterilizes Clear Water Only. It Doesn’t filter or purify water nor do they claim that it does. Water must be clear and sediment free for the product to work correctly per instructions. The product is designed to be used primarily with water but you may use other drinks. However, the UV-C sterilization may not work or work properly. Manual cleaning is recommended for any contents other than water. DO Not put it in the dishwasher or microwave oven.
I think the concept for this product is pretty cool and well implemented using UV-C to sterilize water, provided it’s clear. The self cleaning feature is an innovation as well. However, it excludes the bottle mouth and other areas where the UV light cannot reach. That still requires manual cleaning.
Here’s where I think it excels. Thermal performance to keep your beverage cold is above average compared to similar water bottles I tested it against. See photos with a thermal camera. Their claim of 24 hours of keeping a liquid cold with little temperature rise is pretty accurate from my tests using ice water. However, instructions recommend not using or exposing product to temperatures below freezing (32F). The ice was around 19F but the water never froze. Freezing would likely crack the inner shall. The 1 ⅜ inch mouth makes adding ice is easy.
The product overview also mentions keeping contents hot. However, the instructions state “Do not expose the product to temperatures above 90F”. Really?? After reading over the instructions and safety sheet / legal disclaimer, those were the only temperature specs I could find. Looked on their website and didn’t do any better.
This is directly off of their website:
“The LARQ Bottle will keep cold water chilled for up to 24 hours or hot for up to 12 hours.
The LARQ Bottle Movement is a lighter, single-walled bottle that will not keep beverages cold or hot, however, it can accommodate cold water and even be refrigerated. DO NOT put hot water into this bottle.”
So “Hot” is 90F…. I’m guessing this is because of the lithium ion battery in the cap and legal liability if it blows up or catches fire.
The cap uses RGB LEDs to show color to indicate system status. See instructions. This is where the 90F rating gets interesting. If the contents of the bottle are too hot the cap will pulsate orange. I filled it with water at 100F. No warning. Then in increments of ten degrees up to 160F letting it set for an hour each time. I Never got a warning even after leaving it at 160F overnight to see what it dropped to the next morning, which was 125F in about 12 hours. The cap still worked fine and the plastic was Not melted or deformed. Bad temperature sensor?
There are some areas that could stand improvement. Even though it has a lightly textured outer surface it still can be a bit slippery when wet and full. A silicone base would be nice too. Fill line inside of the bottle is very hard to see without very good lighting and even then it is still difficult to see. Specs state 25 ounces. I filled it with that exact amount 3 times to be sure and it put the water about 1 1/8th inch from the rim. Inserting the cap would displace water every time. The fill line is approximately 24 ounces. I know this all may sound picky but isn’t that what a review is for?
Operation:
Normal mode, one button press, for a one minute of UV to kill cooties. “Adventure Mode” will give 3 minutes of UV sterilization for, say, river water that they show on the website. The UV-C LED will cycle on automatically at 2 hour intervals for 10 seconds to keep the bottle sterilized. See instructions for more info.
Charging is pretty straight forward. Plug the included micro USB cord to a standard phone charger then into the port on the cap and when it's steady green it's fully charged. See instructions for other color meanings.
As for taste, My wife or I couldn’t taste any difference whether we used tap water or tap water that passed through a 3M Filtrete water filter I installed and reviewed for BB a few months ago. Same for using bottled water with it. Even though the website shows it being used in a clear mountain river we didn’t try that. I doubt I would anyways unless I absolutely had to.
Here’s a link to LARQ support for this product that explains some things and answers some questions.
https://www.livelarq.com/support
But beware of a lot of marketing speak and hype that can be repetitious at times. Some things I talked about earlier, like How hot is hot, are never answered beyond the 90F spec which is a bit ridiculous. Who was the third party that verified the specs for them?
Pros
Verifiable Above average thermal performance See photos with a thermal camera
Website informative but lots of hype and can be sluggish in the Q & A sections
UV-C with 2 sterilization modes
Appears to be very well made
No chemicals needed
Includes Micro USB cable to recharge it
Cons
Without a microscope and other test equipment, and I’m not a biologist and I cannot verify how well or if it sterilizes water. Customers must take their word for it.
Keeps beverages hot but recommends not to use hot water. “Do not expose product to temperatures above 90F” according to instructions. This conflicts with what is advertised.
Primarily for water and not other types of drinks. But you can use them
Cannot sterilize the mouth part or anywhere the UV light cannot reach
Textured but still can be slippery. Especially when full and wet
Expensive
Notes
Can be used to help keep fruit infused water fresh longer after fruit is removed.
You can use the cap to sterilize other metal bottles if it fits the mouth, whether screws in and seals or not. LARQ, of course, doesn't recommend this per instructions.
Crazy-Cap is a competitor that does just what I said in the previous sentence and fits popular metal thermos bottles.
Conclusion: A bit pricey, lots of marketing speak and then there’s the hot water mystery subjective spec. I think it does what it says it will do to sterilize the water provided you follow the rules. Thermal performance I feel I verified. I will probably use mine with Propel drinks I like and use the UV to keep them drinkable longer since I don’t always drink an entire one at once.
Is it worth it? That’s up to you.