Hidrate Spark PRO Smart Water Bottle – Insulated Stainless Steel – Tracks Water Intake with Bluetooth, LED Glow Reminder When You Need to Drink – Straw Lid, 21 oz

When keeping well-hydrated is a must!
As we all struggle with the extreme temperatures triggered by global warming, we have been admonished by our doctors, especially those of us older folks taking strong medications that require adequate hydration for proper infusion and flushing from our bodies afterwards, to drink at least 64 oz. of water a day. When I was told that I wondered how I could possibly drink that much water every day! But, my daughter, who now lives in Alabama, told me her doctor prescribed a smart water bottle for her and urged me to try it.Although specialists in Alabama can evidently prescribe smart water bottles, I wasn’t sure about doctors here in Oregon so I just went up on Amazon and bought one. The smart bottle my daughter recommended is called a HidrateSpark. It comes in various configurations but I selected the 21 oz. version with a straw-style top. There is a version with a chug-style top as well.The bottle has a Bluetooth-enabled “puck” screwed into the bottom that you charge via a USB cable. It communicates with the HidrateSpark app on your phone that can be downloaded for free from either the App Store or Google play depending on whether your phone is an iPhone or Android device.I downloaded the app and provided my height, weight, and activity level and the app calculated based on that specific information that I actually should be drinking 70 oz of water every day (sigh…). I charged the puck – this took overnight for the first use. (It’s been a while since I bought my last USB splitter and it may be just USB 2.0. If your computer has USB 3.0 it may charge a little faster during the initial charge.) While the puck is charging, it flashes green lights periodically until it becomes fully charged then the lights will be on solid. After the first full charge, though, it will stay charged for a couple of days and the next charge will be much faster.My first blunder was assuming the bottle, once charged, would be automatically detected so I was confused when I filled the bottle and drank some of the water that the app did not appear to register the amount. Then I realized that you have to press the “bottles” icon, add new bottle, provide the capacity (in my case 21 oz.) then the app will search for and “discover” the bottle. Once it is discovered (paired through Bluetooth), however, you won’t need to do that again. After each drink you need to set the bottle down on a level surface for a few seconds within 30 ft of your phone to allow the information to “sync” over Bluetooth. If you take your water bottle on a walk, you just drink from it as needed then “sync” it to your phone when you return (I usually don’t take my phone with me when I walk my little dog since I am just walking around the perimeter of our five acres.)The app also has an icon of a large drop of water. You use this icon whenever you drink from any other source. I prefer to drink ice water from a glass at meals and whatever beverage container I use when I’m drinking a protein shake or a cup of hot chocolate. This “other source” feature actually enables you to record your fluid intake without a smart water bottle if you want to and the app is free. You can select from a default list of beverages and the app will automatically calculate the water content. To access an expanded list, however, you are offered an in-app subscription purchase of $1.99 per month. I try to avoid these small subscription fees because I think they represent a “death by 10,000 cuts” to your bank account! My daily protein shake and hot chocolate are about 80% water and I can do the math in my head. I don’t need a monthly subscription to calculate it automatically for me!If you do purchase the smart water bottle, you also have the option to customize the color of the puck’s reminder glow but this too requires the “Pro” subscription. Hey, the default color is fine with me!The puck glows periodically if you have not taken a drink and you have not recorded water consumption from anywhere else. At first, I didn’t think it was working because I begin each day with a variety of water, juice, hot chocolate, etc. that I record after breakfast so the app considers me well hydrated for a while. Yesterday, though, I was concentrating so hard on image editing that I didn’t notice how much time had passed and the bottle began to glow and pinged my phone with a little text message telling me it was time to take a drink. It reminded me a couple of more times throughout the day and I was able to meet my goal of 70 oz of water by the time bedtime arrived.One small observation about the instruction manual. It is printed in such a tiny font I could not read it even with my 2.5X readers. So, I went online and downloaded a pdf of the file so I could zoom in and read it more comfortably.Another first time blunder occurred when I attempted to upend the bottle to take a drink and wondered why the water didn’t come out evenly. With the straw-style cap you need to suck on the spout like a straw! I know – its the simple things that ultimately get you! If you want to drink by upending the bottle, you need to choose the “chug” cap instead. By the way, the caps are dishwasher safe but don’t put the bottle with puck attached in the dishwasher!Anyway, the smart water bottle is proving to be helpful and will hopefully keep my doctors happy!

Useless, Expensive Paperweight in 6 Months (multiple units!)
Honestly, the device itself and AppleHealth integration, in theory, are nice. However, that doesn’t translate to practice so that’s really where the pros end. I’ve spent HUNDREDS of dollars on these (bought two for myself and lost both, bought 2 as gifts, and then bought myself fiancé one and myself a replacement in April, and then found one I lost) just for them to randomly stop working.I’ve never got them wet, frozen, refrigerated, etc. It worked fine up until this morning when I thought it just needed to be charged. I plugged it in to the charger and, well, see the video. So I figured it was a dud and pulled out the one that I lost and found. I plugged it in to the charger and, well look at that. Same thing as the first.I’ve used this charger countless times so I was sure it wasn’t that, but in an abundance of caution I tried a different charging block. No difference. Clearly the Amazon return window closed, so I decided to check the warranty. It’s only 100 days so I’m out of luck.I’m baffled how such an expensive product has such a short lifespan. And not to mention no warranty outside of 100 days? I’ve never seen that. They absolutely know these things aren’t going to last.I’m so disappointed I gave this company as much money as I did. (And just for them to want to charge a monthly fee for custom color lights lol).

A good innovation but still needs improvement
Whats good:1) The app calculates a personalized goal for you each day for optimal hydration, based on your Age, height, weight, activity level.2) Tracks your drinking and syncs it to Google fit.3) App features such as the highlights, specifically tracking your drinking goals in a percentage value, how many bottles you still need to drink and hourly goals are really helpful.4) Glow reminders to remind you to drink, you can set the frequency in 30 minute increments on the app.5) Different colored notifications. One is for when you finished drinking (syncing notification) and the other is for when you fill up the water bottle(cyan).6) Had not encountered any leaks so far even if its full.7) Decent battery life, been using it for 2 weeks and its still around 50%What needs improvement1) While it glows to remind you to drink water, you pretty much need the bottle to be within your line of sight, it would be really nice if it can notify or remind you via the phone app as well, its not practical in some cases where you move from time to time, essentially requiring you to take the bottle with you. (Edit : I found that you can set up notifications from the app so it would notify you based on your selected frequency, still this needs to get improved since it is not turned on by default, i synced the app notifications to my smartwatch so that i get notified instantly)2) For the app to track your drinking habits properly it needs to be put on a flat surface and wait for atleast 10 seconds so that it gets synced into the app, again not ideal if you are in a hurry or if you need to move to and from different places.3) Charging cable provided is very short.4) App features are blocked by a paywall which i think should be free, things such as tracking specific drink types, hydration score, glow studio and app wallpapers5) Instruction manual should be readily available within the app6) After filling up the bottle you also need to put it in a flat surface and wait for the puck to glow (cyan/aqua) to ensure that it syncs your hydration correctly later on. This again isnt ideal if you need to move around.What I personally think of it:Its a water botttle with added quality of life features, which makes it expensive for $56. Personally I really want to track my water consumption so this helps me saves time. Can be worthy or unworthy depending on your own use case. For comparison a hydroflask of the same size is ranging around $22. Unfortunately, the hidrate spark pro requires your attention if you want it to be effective, things such as making sure to put it in a flat surface after drinking and filling up your water bottle isnt really ideal in outdoors scenario but it great for when you are at home or office environments

This is my third hidrate bottle and they’re great when working and definitely make me drink more. Sadly the puck wasn’t working on this one though in hidrate’s defence they have fixed it by sending a warranty replacement puck. Despite the negative reviews on trust pilot they have been good at resolving the issue

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