The internet is full of helpful (and sometimes not so helpful) health advice, from high-protein recipe recommendations to products that promise to decrease your toxin intake. And, while it can be hard to tell if a health trend is worth following, there’s one tried and true way to keep yourself healthy that will never be up for debate: drinking water.
Hydration improves your skin, ensures healthy brain and organ function, and helps you avoid a host of health concerns, among other things. The average human should get about 2.5 to 4 liters of water per day, according to the Mayo Clinic, and that number increases based on factors like exercise and environment. Luckily, the Hidrate Spark water bottle will help you calculate and track your daily water intake. It will also give you alerts when you’re not sipping enough.
As someone on intense medications that require me to stay hydrated, I bought the Hidrate Spark Pro to help me stay on top of my water consumption goals — and it’s been pivotal for me. Tracking water in such a precise way taught me that the way I’d been tracking before (essentially, trying to remember how many times I’d filled my Owala up) was over estimating how much water I was actually getting. The $56 price tag is therefore worth every single penny when it comes to how much this water bottle helps me fulfill the most critical health goal. Not to mention the bottle itself is high quality, insulated stainless steel, which would be about $30 with no “smart” features at all.
The Hidrate Spark uses a rechargeable electronic puck that screws into the bottom of the bottle and weighs how much water is in the basin at a given time. When you first set up your water bottle, you download the Hidrate app (which is free but has a paid version to input and calculate the hydration factors of other types of liquid, if you want to add coffee and tea to your daily total). You’ll connect your empty water bottle via Bluetooth and calibrate it, which essentially tares the vessel so the app can begin logging weight. Once synced, you can fill your bottle and drink as usual: every time you place the bottle on a flat surface, the puck will re-weigh the liquid inside and log however many ounces you drank.
The app displays water intake as seen in the photo above: there’s a green dot that moves around a circle to show where your water intake should be, based on the time of day. The blue circle fills up as you drink water, and should typically be close to the green dot. Once you fall behind, your water bottle’s LED lights will flash to warn you to catch back up. If you add friends on the app, you can see their progress compared to yours for a fun hydration rivalry.
Another cool part of the process is the goal calculation. The app connects with other health apps like Apple Health and FitBit to create a personalized hydration goal. I’ve personally found that on days where I exercise more, my goal will increase as a result.
You can shop the water bottle on Amazon and often find discounts. I have the Pro version, which currently comes in a variety of colors like white, orange, dark purple, and black. The Hidrate shop also has smart tumblers with straws if a traditional water bottle isn’t your thing. You can opt for an older model of the smart water bottles for as low as $25 if you’re open to a plastic version.