Meet LARQ: The World's First Purifying, Self-Cleaning Water Bottle

If drinking water bottles was a day job, I'd surely be retired with a full pension by now. I seriously drink like a fish, although, I'm not quite sure how much water fish actually drink, if any at all. You get my point though.

I used to go through—I kid you not—10 Poland Spring water bottles a day. While I've always had my handy dandy Brita pitcher, I always found it a chore having to buy new filters every few months—not to mention being forced to refill it seemingly after every use, and, of course, seeing my glasses pile up in the sink. What can I say, I'm a pretty lazy guy. I'll stick with the water bottles.

Obviously though, I couldn't keep living my life waking up to 5,000 water bottles all over my room. It felt like I was swimming in a cesspool of plastic, and it just got to the point where I started to feel guilty. One of my friends had one of those Brita filter bottles and I thought that might have been a solid alternative, but that was before I was doing some holiday shopping, and came across the LARQ—a self-cleaning water bottle that purifies water, much like a Brita bottle. The self-cleaning aspect really piqued my interest, so I decided to make an executive decision and just buy the LARQ. I'm usually very indecisive, but something came over me and I just couldn't resist.

I don't regret the decision at all. In fact, it's actually quite the opposite. I'm in heaven over here.

So when I first came across this water bottle, I was a little confused as to how it worked. How can a water bottle properly disinfect itself without going through a dishwasher or something? It just didn't add up.

When I looked further into it, things started to make sense—even though the technology itself was WAY over my head.

A quick overview of the bottle—it stands around 9.5 X 2.5 inches, and can hold up to 17 ounces of water. It's double insulated, so your water will stay cold for a full 24 hours. If it's hot water (let's say you're drinking tea out of it or something), it will last a solid 12 hours.

The self-cleaning mode automatically turns on every two hours, which is groundbreaking in and of itself, but what is also pretty crazy is the way it digitally purifies water without going through a standard filter. This also made the bottle a better option to the classic Brita refillable bottles, as I was not looking forward to having to buy new filters every so often, much like I am already forced do with my regular pitcher.

The whole thing is rechargeable, so you don't have to worry about replacing pesky batteries—something that is arguably more annoying and time consuming than changing a filter.

Now the only question remains, however, is how exactly does all of this work? Naturally, I went down the rabbit hole to search for more answers.

So with all that we've gone over, let's take a look at all of the reasons why the LARQ bottle is superior to it's competition.

• Eradicates bacteria and viruses—this is a no brainer. Good luck finding another bottle that does this through digital technology.
• Keeps bottle clean—no more hand washing! One thing I also noticed is how this bottle doesn't smell at all, thanks to the self-cleaning technology.
• Mercury free—maybe you can now up your tuna intake thanks to this bottle, which effectively eliminates Mercury in the water.
• BPA and plastic free—there's nothing wrong with helping preserve the environment, right?
• Long lasting in every way possible—no replacement filters are necessary, and the Li-Polymer battery lasts up to two months on a single charge.

So obviously, this water bottle will cost you more than your run-of-the-mill aluminum bottle or refillable Brita bottle. With all of the perks though for both you, and more importantly, the environment, there are plenty of reasons to go with the LARQ. I did, and I couldn't be happier. No more plastic bottles, no more worries.

Now if only I can find something like this for beer...