Disclaimer: Water-To-Go sent this product to us for free for a review. That does not affect our opinion about the product. In this article, we list both what we like and dislike. Read more about this here.
Water-To-Go Makes Bottles With Filtration Systems
Just like every other human on this planet, travelers need water. It can be hard to come by sometimes though, especially clean water.
Water-To-Go is a company that wants to make it easier for people to get access to drinking water. They do it by selling bottles with filtration systems.
They’re not the only company to do this and we have reviewed similar bottles before, but what caught my attention with this specific brand were two things.
First, they say that their filters removes up to 99.9999% of illness-causing contaminants. That includes viruses like polio, bacteria, parasites, chemicals, pesticides, nitrates, heavy metals, and microplastics.
Second, the specific bottle they sent me is made from 100% sugar cane, which I think is really cool.
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To be clear, I don’t have the tools and tests required to test whether all their claims are true or not. But in this article I am going to share my thoughts about it after using it to drink water out of lakes and streams.
The Water Bottle
Water-To-Go makes and sells bottles in different sizes. They all use the same filter, but the design of the bottles are different. Based on what I can tell, the biggest difference between them is the material it’s made by, and whether or not they are dishwasher safe.
I was sent the 18.5oz/55cl water purifier bottle. It comes with a filter that is supposed to be effective until at least 53 gallons (200 liters) has gone through it.
I was also sent an extra two-pack of filters.
The way it works is that the the filter is screwed to the bottom of the lid, so the water will be purified when you drink it.
With the lid off, scoop up water or submerge the bottle to fill it up with a nearby water source before putting the lid and filter back on.
Let it sit for 15 minutes to activate the filter (only required the first time), then you can start drinking from it like like a regular water bottle.
The water does not come out as easily as with a regular bottle since it does have to go through the filter first. But it’s easy to take a sip or suck the water through, a small squeeze helps.
Water-To-Go doesn’t recommend excessive squeezing, but I did squeeze it pretty hard during my tests.
Another thing I want to mention is that the filter doesn’t work with salt water, only fresh water.
How Well Does The Filtration System Work?
Like I mentioned earlier, I don’t have tests readily available to check whether the water is any less contaminated after going through the filter.
All I could do was to use the tools I was born with, so I did the good ol’ smell and taste test.
The water from the lakes and streams near me isn’t bad in the first place, but the water coming out of the bottle did smell and look a lot better. As you can see in the image below.
I didn’t taste the water before filtering it, but it tasted like fine drinking water out of the bottle.
So Can I Drink Any Water Around Me Now?
If you ask me, the answer is no. It sounds great that it removes 99.9999% of illness-causing contaminants, but it’s not 100%.
I am not saying that I know more about these things than Water-To-Go or that you shouldn’t trust them, I think it comes down to me being a very careful person with these type of things.
Would I drink filtered water from a stagnant water source? Only in a life-and-death situation.
I am planning on using the Water-To-Go bottle though, but I am not going to be filling it up with whatever water I come by.
I’ll be using it to filter out the different smells you get from tap water here and there, and only fill it up in nature if I am hiking to a fresh water spring in the mountains.
Please leave a comment down below if you have any questions.
