Self-Cleaning water bottles of 2020, so that you can have tastiest tap water on the go
Yes, you read it right Self-Cleaning water bottles and these are completely different than your normal filtered water bottles which use various kinds of sediment and pathogen capture mechanisms. These self-cleaning water bottles use UV technology which will kill almost all of the microbes in your water.
Typically, a reusable water bottle is designed in such a way that it becomes extremely difficult to clean them. Your normal kitchen washer cannot hold them and nor you can clean it with your hand and a sponge. The only way to clean such reusable bottle is to buy a special bottle brush, but with self-cleaning bottles you are saved from all of these hassles.
The only place where filtered water bottles shine over self-cleaning water bottles is when it comes to removing dirt and sediments. The filtered bottles can effectively remove dirt and any sediments but self-cleaning bottles are better at killing the viruses, bacterial and microbes. Which is lot better than your conventional water dispenser or any regular disposable plastic bottle.
Mechanism of self-cleaning water bottles
The Self-Cleaning water bottles use ultra violet light to kill different viruses, bacteria and microbes found in the water. This ultra violet light sterilizes both the water and the inner surface of the bottle.
Ultra violet light makes it convenient to keep your reusable water bottles clean without any need of abrasive cleaning agents or soaps. Also, majority of the cleaning water bottles and the one mentioned here come up with features to keep you hot water hot and cold-water cold. Additionally, these bottles are highly durable and long lasting.
Testing the self-cleaning water bottles
Here 3 UV powered self-cleaning water bottles are tested: Larq bottle, CrazyCap bottle and Mahaton bottle. These bottles are tested with tap water from the sink and each bottle is used for three days in normal routine.
CrazyCap
CrazyCap bottle comes with two water purification modes: normal mode which kills up to 99.99% of microbes and then there is “crazy mode” which kills up to 99.9996% of microbes. CrazyCap states that normal mode should be used for “low to medium contamination,” such as from public fountains and taps. Whereas for “medium to high contamination”, like for water from lakes and rivers, crazy mode is the one to use.
The purification cycle in normal mode is one minute and for crazy mode it is two and a half minutes. This bottle also has an auto-clean feature which automatically activates 6 times within a day and each cycle of auto-clean is 20 seconds long.
According to CrazyCap, periodical exposure to UV light prevents any growth of microorganism and odor. On testing of the bottle for three days, the claims made by company are true. Any kind of odor or films was completely absent from the bottle. Also, the water sterilized by the bottle tasted better than the tap water.
CrazyCap bottle is the sleekest on this list and it easily fits in the car cup holders and any cup holders on the backpack. If you have a bottle which can fit the cap of CrazyCap then you can just by the cap and according to the website, the cap fits on many different bottles.
CrazyCap will last for up to 2 months before it needs recharging. The claim is made for the auto-clean cycle only, for manual cycles the company makes no claims as manually starting the purification cycle depletes the battery.
Larq
As like CrazyCap, Larq bottle has two cleaning modes. The first mode is normal mode, which cleans up to 99.99% microbes in the time of 1 minute. The second mode is adventure mode, which cleans up to 99.9999% of the microbes in the time of 3 minutes. The difference of 0.0099% may not seem big but, it can greatly affect the quality of water.
By pressing a button on top of the bottle you can manually activate the cleaning cycle. If not, the bottle will activate a 10 seconds cleaning cycle after every 2 hours.
Even this bottle did not have any odor or films after three days testing. The taste of the water did not improve significantly and water tasted just like normal tap water but cleaner. On a blind taste it will be difficult to distinguish between tap water and sterilized water from Larq.
Larq bottle has vacuum- insulated stainless steel and it will keep you water cold for up to 24 hours. The bottle is slim and aesthetically pleasing but, it lacks groove or curve to fit the bottle in hand.
Charge in Larq bottle will last for two months before it needs recharging with 3 to 4 normal cleaning cycles in a day. On adventure mode, the charge will last for 12 days before it needs recharging.
Mahaton
Mahaton water bottle has only one cleaning mode which will eliminate 99.99% of microbes. This is step down from the other two bottles mentioned above which comes with additional mode to remove more microbes. Due to this reason, this bottle is recommended to be used with sources like tap, fountains and water dispensers.
The bottle had no films or odor after constant use of three days.
Mahaton bottle’s design is slim with tapering at the top which makes it easier to hold. The bottle is made up of double-walled stainless steel and it is durable. Water in this will be cold even after hours.
The bottle has a very small size which makes carrying it around easy as it will fit in almost every bottle compartment of your bag. The only downfall is that it can hold only 12ozs of water, so you may find yourself frequently refilling the bottle.
Mahatons’ battery will last for up to 3 weeks on single charge with 4 cleaning cycles in a day.
