HidrateSpark Steel Review - Spark in a Bottle?

Yep, a water bottle. That’s what it’s gotten to with this blog. *sigh* 

Anyway, snarky opening lines aside, I can totally understand that the concept of a “smart” water bottle might at first glance seem to be peak tech bullshittery. Once you take a closer look at the idea however, it makes a surprising amount of sense, leaving the tech bullshit field to cryptocurrencies and NFTs. I work in an office job that is hardly physically taxing, yet I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve forgotten to drink water because I was too engrossed in my work, often to the point of dizziness and headaches. I know from conversations with colleagues that I’m far from alone in that regard. I did try setting up regular reminders but they just don’t cut it for me.

Now while I had noticed the Hidrate Spark before while browsing through the websites of several large online retailers, The price had always put me off. These things are expensive! To be honest, if it hadn’t been for my company’s regular Christmas voucher, I probably wouldn’t have gone for one of those bottles no matter how much of a use case I might have for them. As it stands, this voucher was just enough to pay for a HidrateSpark Steel or, as they’re calling it now, the Hidratespark PRO. The bottle itself arrived on the Monday before Christmas, which is probably not the best time to test such a gadget, especially with several days of food coma on the horizon, but I digress. I went for the HidrateSpark Steel with a capacity of 620ml, or 21oz, as the manufacturer markets it on their website. Bloody Colonials! 

Unboxing & Setup

The box is nothing much to write home about. Mine actually felt like it had been bleached by the sun, but that could just be the design of the packaging.

The content of the box that arrived is pretty par for the course. There’s the bottle (obviously), a “chug” lid and a more regular “straw” lid, this latter combination being an exclusive to Apple’s online store, a sensor module with integrated Lithium Ion battery that is already inserted into the bottle, and a proprietary USB charging cable. At first glance, the HidrateSpark Steel appears pretty solid. As the name suggests, the body is made up of stainless steel, with a translucent plastic enclosure at the bottom that the sensor module is screwed into. The lids are, in a surprise to absolutely no one, screwed onto the top. They’re also made of high quality plastic, contributing to that solid feel I mentioned. One thing to note is that the HidrateSpark Steel is a single-walled bottle, meaning that while it will keep cold drinks pleasantly chilled, it is not suitable for hot drinks. The bottle body is not dishwasher-safe either, although the lids can be washed on the top rack. The usual raft of quick start guides, warranty papers and liability exclusions completes the package, because killing trees for a bunch of useless paperwork never seems to go out of fashion.

That's what you get, minus the usual load of paperwork that has to be included for regulatory reasons, I suppose.

Setting up, while mostly straightforward, does take quite a bit of time. First things first, the sensor module needs to be charged, which means unscrewing the module to uncover the proprietary charging port. I’m not a fan of this. The connector is on top of the module and thus not really exposed to water anyway, so why couldn’t they have gone with a USB-C or even Micro USB Port? Anyway, charging can take a few hours, so make sure you’re not in a rush to set this up. Once it’s charged, pairing happens quickly and seamlessly using the Hidrate App, which will also guide you through the rest of the setup process. As part of this setup, the app will also “calibrate” the bottle to make sure it registers the proper amount of water or drinks when you fill it up. This is once again straightforward, but there’s also a setup guide available on YouTube that guides you through these steps.

First Impressions

Usage is pretty straightforward but then again, if you’re a regular person who doesn’t know how to drink from a bottle, you’re probably not old enough to be drinking from a bottle anyway. Sarcasm aside, the bottle is pretty good at tracking any drinks you take, from quick sips to gulping down most of the bottle in one large gulp. The bottle will let you know that it’s registered a drink by flashing the LEDs on the sensor module. It will similarly flash when you’ve refilled the bottle while a series of flashes is meant to remind you to take a drink. These flashes can be customised within the Hidrate App, though advanced customisation, individual patterns and similar changes require an additional in-app purchase. 

Since these changes are purely cosmetic, I personally find this to be a pretty good way of generating additional revenue for the manufacturer without curtailing the functionality of the app. In addition to these signals, the Hidrate App will also push out notifications on your phone and smart watch. As I’m still firmly ensconced in the iOS ecosystem, I can’t really say anything about Android, but I presume that that won’t be too different from my experience. Both the frequency and the tone of notifications can be customised, from funny/sarcastic to motivational to quotes, or all of them in a mix&match scenario, the latter being the option that I went for. 

The Hidrate App is pretty straightforward when it comes to tracking your progress.

It also allows you to add any "external" water intake manually.

It doesn't just nag you, don't worry ;) Wins are also celebrated.

From quotes to snarky or humorous comments, the tone of reminders varies wildly.

So does the quality, unfortunately...

And yes, you can monitor your progress and add drinks on your smart watch as well.

However, the app doesn’t just track how much you drink. It also shows you a recommendation for how much you should drink. This it determines by taking into consideration your activity level, height, weight and even the weather at your given location. You can either enter this information manually or allow Hidrate to access the health data on your phone, which is particularly handy when you use an activity tracker such as, say, an Apple Watch. Using all of this data, the app not only calculates a recommended water intake but also determines how far along you should be at any given time of the day. Whilst I have no idea how accurate these calculations really are, they just confirm what I’d suspected all along, namely that I’m not drinking nearly enough.

Everyday Use

With me still being mostly home-bound thanks to yet another resurgence of COVID-19, seriously, that stuff has had more comebacks than Madonna at this point, my usage pattern is not really what I’d originally intended for it to be. As I’m working as an analyst, I spend a lot of time at my desk trying to either make sense of large datasets or deciphering requests from my colleagues, both of which can be equally mentally taxing. Having a reminder pop up either on my wrist or flashing on my desk really does help in keeping up with my intake. That being said, it does take some time to change any habit and for the time being, I still find myself ignoring the reminders when I’m busy or dealing with a particularly complex issue.

This is my current "operating environment" for the HidrateSpark Steel. It will see a lot more movement when/if we ever get back to the office.

Using my HidrateSpark Steel on the road has been the absolute exception so far, so my on-the-go experience is limited. That one trip, a cycle from Cork City Centre to Blackrock and back via Marina Park, amounted to a ten-kilometre round-trip in early January 2022. Whilst the priority of that trip was to finally check out Marina Park almost a decade after moving to Cork (Shame!), as well as giving TFI Bikes another try three months after an “upgrade” to the Cork system, articles on both will follow soon, it also gave me a good chance to try out the bottle. Now, when I work from home, or am deskbound in general, I tend to use what Hidrate call the “Chug” lid, basically a spring-loaded lid that covers a large spout. While this allows for a lot of water to be drunk at once, I don’t really trust a spring-loaded lid when I’m on the road, even if it comes with a safety latch. That’s not an issue with the optional “Straw” lid which is not only not springloaded but also folds down, closing the opening and being held down by a massive latch when not in use. It feels as close to bomb-proof as you’re going to get on this bottle.

On my first "road trip" with the HidrateSpark Steel out at Blackrock Pier. The "Straw" lid should really be the prime choice if you're out and about.

One thing that I do find slightly annoying is the battery on the sensor module. This needs to be charged about once every seven or so days in my experience. While unscrewing the module from its enclosure to expose the charging connector is far from a chore, I’m less than thrilled about the charging solution, not least because of the proprietary nature of the charging cable. Apparently, it’s to ensure the watertight integrity of the sensor module, but in an age of USB-C smartphones that are often at the very least splash-proof, I’m not sure I buy this. Also, the sensor module remains on by default when removed from the bottle, meaning it will still flash its reminders whilst of course not registering any drinks whilst it’s out of the bottle. Thankfully, the Hidrate App also allows you to record drinks you’ve taken outside the app.

Conclusion

So, after three weeks of using this contraption, where do I stand on it? Well, its purchase didn’t dig into the limited funds on my bank account, so that’s a definitive plus right there. However, I genuinely believe that the concept of a smart water bottle makes sense, not just for athletes or active people but also for us desk jockeys in office environments. So on that front, the HidrateSpark Steel certainly ticks all the right boxes. It is well-built, reasonably accurate, and the app provides some really good insights into your drinking habits. Having said that, I believe that Hidrate Inc., while being all-in on the active target audience, is missing a trick by not offering full-on thermos flasks or a fully dishwasher-save bottle body. Nevertheless, the HidrateSpark Steel is definitely something worth taking a look at if you’re struggling to drink enough on a daily basis. On that note, Cheers!