LifeStraw Go Water Bottle Review

It's not a surprise to many of you that I love hiking and backpacking. Not so much backpacking lately but lots of hikes with the Hubby and kiddos. When I was given the opportunity to review the LifeStraw Go Water Bottle, I was excited because I like water bottles and thought it was pretty awesome that it had a filter in it. I received a complimentary LifeStraw Go Water bottle in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

What's so special about the LifeStraw Go water bottle? Well it has a filter in it that removes 99.9999% of bacteria (E. coli, etc.) and 99.9% of protozoa (Giardia, Cryptosporidium, etc.) so it pretty much makes unsafe water, safe to drink. 

Before you use the bottle for the first time, you need to rinse the bottle and top cap with safe water (did this). Then you are supposed to fill the bottle with water and allow it to sit for a few minutes to prime the filter (didn't do this because I couldn't find the instructions on the day of our hike and didn't know I had to do it). Then you are supposed to take 5 quick sips to get the water flowing (didn't do this either).

Here is my first experience testing it out on a hike. I really like how it is easy to use. Just scoop water from any pond, stream, river, puddle, etc. 

Close it up and make sure you don't get the drinking valve contaminated with the water.

Should I really drink this water? :p

 

It has to be safe, it's got this neat filter in it.

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It was hard to suck up the water at first. It took more than a few tries as it seemed stuck, but if I had read the instructions, I needed to prime the filter and then take 5 quick sips (silly me, I need to be better with instructions). Without doing that, the water eventually came through and I was drinking. I drank the water from the creek and I didn't get sick. It tasted fine just like the water at home that I drink with a Brita Filter. It does work. No sickie for me from the sketchy looking creek water. :) 

This bottle is pretty awesome and perfect for hiking if you know you will be near a water source and don't want to lug a bunch of water. It is also ideal for backpacking trips. It would have been perfect when Hubby and I used to go on our backpacking trips that spanned multiple days like in the Enchantments. It definitely would have saved a lot of pumping using our backpacking water filter. I'm looking forward to using it for future trips.

This bottle would also be useful for other situations where you are unsure of the water and you just want safe water to drink. It can be used when traveling to foreign countries or if you just want filtered water and don't like the taste and are uncomfortable with your tap water (I know that some places the water tastes different from others). It would also be a nice item to include in emergency kits. 

It is easy to clean, just take the filter out and you can put the bottle and cap in the dishwasher for cleaning. The LifeStraw filter is good for filtering 1,000 liters and you will know when you need to replace it when you can no longer drink from the straw.

Another nice thing about the bottle is that for every LifeStraw filter you purchase, a child in Africa will be provided with safe drinking water for an entire school year. Pretty awesome to help out someone else in need while making a purchase. You can check out FollowTheLiters.com/ to see the impact you make. Overall, I think this is a great product. It gives you clean safe water easily and conveniently!