Larq bottle review – purifying water bottle

At the start of this year, one of my resolutions was to try to travel more sustainably – carbon offsetting with Ecologi and other easy changes like cutting down on plastic. Which brings me to my Larq bottle review.

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Admittedly, my carbon footprint dropped a lot further than I’d anticipated when I set the goals in January 2020, and I’ve only been able to test out my new resuable water bottle on staycations rather than an exotic long-haul escape, but how better to begin than with everyday changes at home?

Reusable water bottles are nothing new, of course, I’ve been using my faithful Chilly’s bottle for a while, and my daughter has a variety from the Ion8 range. But the Larq bottle does a whole lot more than cutting out single-use plastic by cleaning your water for you.

What is the Larq bottle?

Let’s start with the science… The bottle uses PureVis™ UV-C LED technology to clean the water – as science was never my strongest suit at school, the gist for the less scientifically-minded of us is that it uses no chemicals, no mercury, no ozone but kills off 99.9999% of bacteria (tested on e.coli).

If you use Adventure Mode, which is a longer, more intense clean, it also kills 99.99% of viruses (obviously no claims about the new virus that’s on all our minds, but no-one needs any other germs to worry about this year)

Instead the UV-C light – which is used to sterilise surfaces in hospitals – breaks down the chemical bonds in the DNA of the bacteria or virus, killing it off. Which is why it won’t filter out physical impurities.

There’s more about the technology here if you want to see some of the details of the tests, as well as a video to terrify you about how grubby water bottles usually are…

The short verdict is that disinfecting with UV light is effective, safe and environmentally-friendly, plus it’s been independently tested.

As a bonus, the lithium battery which powers it should last for around a month if it’s used 3-4 times a day, you don’t need replacement filters, it’s BPA and plastic-free. 

And there’s a choice of Larq bottles which both come in two different sizes, and all use the same technology – the Larq Bottle Movement is lighter and comes with a silicone sleeve to protect it, the Larq Bottle is insulated to keep water hot (for 12 hours) or cold (for 24 hours) but is correspondingly heavier and more expensive.

Larq bottle review: how does it work?

One thing I’ve found with clever products is that they’ve also got to be simple – with the best intentions, once life and To Do lists take over, anything fiddly finds itself languishing in a drawer very quickly.

Fortunately the Larq bottle designers have people like me in mind.

There’s a helpful instruction booklet with diagrams to tell you the quick first steps to unlock and set the bottle, the various lights which you might see flashing around the top and what they mean.

But then there are only a few steps to take before having a drink – first charging the bottle with the USB cable that comes with the bottle.

Then you fill the bottle so it’s almost full (there’s a diagram to show where to stop) and you press the button on top – once for Normal mode, twice for Adventure mode if you want a more intensive clean.

You’ll see a blue light (different depending on the setting) to show it’s working. Then you can gently swish the water to help the cleaning cycle along, but otherwise basically don’t touch anything or try to unscrew it!

And that’s it.

There is a self-cleaning mode as well, so the bottle will activate itself every two hours for a 10-second clean. If you’re travelling and don’t want it doing this, you can set the travel lock by holding the button for five seconds.

As a bonus, the USB is waterproof in case you’re hiking through rainforests or there’s a chance you’ll drop it in the sea as you’re paddling, plus a 12-month warranty.

Don’t put it in the dishwasher though.

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Larq bottle review: my verdict

So what’s the Larq self-cleaning bottle like in reality? I was sent the 500ml Larq bottle in Seaside mint, two cool blue tones although there are deeper blue, black, white and pink shades available and a simple but sleek design.

The super-simple set-up was as simple as it promised and there was one added bonus that I hadn’t expected; the water tasted better too.

Whenever I drink tap water, I can taste a slight chemical aftertaste – my husband and daughter, drinking from the same tap, can’t taste it and I know the UK’s water is already well purified so I’ve never worked out why this is.

But drinking from the Larq bottle, that odd taste had gone. I’ve no explanation as to why, but I certainly wasn’t complaining.

My bottle is also the insulated version, which I chose with travel in mind – when temperatures are soaring and I’m exploring, tepid water never seems as refreshing as a lovely cold drink. 

For now, I can’t head off to a South East Asian temple as I’d been visualising, but thanks to a few mini heatwaves in the UK over the summer, it certainly kept water cool for a few hours – at least as well as my alternative options.

The 500ml bottle weighs the same as my previous Chilly’s 500ml insulated bottle too at 0.38kg (although oddly it felt heavier). If you aren’t bothered about the insulating qualities, the Larq Bottle Movement is bigger but lighter – 710ml and 0.3kg.

I wasn’t carrying out my own tests on bacteria and virus levels but even in the UK, where I’m happy to rely on the water quality, it’s reassuring to think that the bottle is staying clean when I’m far from my own kitchen.

And while it’s still worth wiping down the next of the bottle and rinsing it out from time to time, with hygiene higher on everyone’s minds (and because I often share the bottle with my daughter), it’s great to think the cleaning all happens automatically.

When I’m travelling further off the beaten track, it’s even better to feel certain the water is clean.

The downsides?

The price. The cheapest bottle costs £99. The website suggests you can save over £750 per year by using the Larq bottle rather than plastic – unless you’re buying at least one bottle a day (and that’s at central London prices rather than bulk buy supermarket costs), I’m not quite sure how that works out.

I’m certainly not recommending buying multiple bottles, of course – with a million plastic bottle bought around the world every minute (every minute!), and the majority ending up in landfill or in the ocean, we have a big enough single-use plastics problem already.

Should you buy a Larq bottle?

The big benefit is the technology. If you find you replace your current reusable bottle more often than you’d like because the bottle starts to go a bit manky, or if you particularly value being able to keep your water clean – whether it’s for travel or during the current pandemic, Larq bottles have something nothing else can promise.

In fact, they insist theirs are 10,000 times more hygienic than regular reusable bottles. 

Ticking the boxes for being sustainable, stylish, practical and with those impressive added extras, this is one investment it’s well worth considering.

PIN FOR LATER: LARQ BOTTLE REVIEW

Disclosure: My Larq bottle was sent for review – all opinions remain my own, including the one about London’s tap water. This post contains affiliate links – any purchases you make are unaffected but I may receive a small commission

Images copyright MummyTravels

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