Staying hydrated is not optional. You drink or you die. This water bottle/filter system may be what you need, and it helps cut down on single-use plastic bottles.
by Leon Pantenburg
Water-to-Go™ supplied the products for this review. I was not paid to write this post and don’t work for the company. There is no advertising relationship between Water-to-Go and Survival Common Sense. The following is my opinion and nobody had any input. All I ever promise is a fair and impartial review.
I’m a sucker for any effective water filter that saves space and weight. My filter collection proves that! I will try out just about any new water filter, searching for that elusive do-it-all product that can handle anything. I really like filter bottles and use them frequently.
(Leon mounts the soapbox): Water filter bottles are a big deal! If more people used them instead of buying bottled water, the world would be better off.
More than 8 million tons of plastic bottles enter the sea each year, according to plasticexpert.co.uk, and it is estimated that in the year 2050 there will be more plastic than fishes in the sea. The range of plastic products commonly found in the ocean include bottles, plastic straws, cutlery, bags wrappers and various drinks and food packaging. However, plastic bottles account for the most plastic waste found in the world’s oceans. We must quit using so many single-use water bottles! For more info on plastic in the ocean look here. (End of rant.)
As a guide with Quapaw Canoe Company and Big River Wild Adventures on the Mississippi River, effective water filters are a standard part of my gear. We always take drinking water along, but in an extreme emergency, water might have to be filtered and purified from the big river.
Recently I came across the Water-to-Go™ Sugarcane filter bottle. What caught my eye was the composition of the bottle – it is completely made of bioplastic, and that includes the filter. I had to try out the Sugarcane bottle and here is what I found.
The bottle material, according to the company, is made from sugarcane harvested from Bonsucuro accredited farms. Bioplastic is made from plants and the bottle’s bioplastic is made from the fibrous material left over from sugarcane extraction. The end result is a plastic made in a more earth-friendly manner, since it is made from carbon-sequestering sugarcane. Subsequently, the bottle is recyclable via standard recycling methods. Every aspect of labor and environmental protection is certified to exacting international standards, according to Water-to-Go.
Water-to-Go is a 10-year-old British company with over 500,000 customers around the globe. The company’s stated mission is “to protect people and the planet by providing pure water, anywhere, free of single-use plastics that pollute our planet. A better bottle for a better world.”
Over the last decade, according to the company website, Water-to-Go filters have replaced over 165 million single-use plastic bottles that would otherwise be filling up landfills, littering beaches and floating in the ocean. Water-to-Go was recently introduced to the US and Canada.
Sugarcane water filtration bottle specs:
- Filter lasts for 200 Litres
- 100 days use at 2 L/day
- Weighs 120 grams
- BPA Free
- Filter 100% recyclable
- Capacity: 18.5 fluid ounces
I used the water bottle as needed. That means it rides in the cupholder of my truck, goes everywhere, and keeps me from having to drink from public water fountains. If I am rambling in the woods, the bottle goes in the side pocket of my daypack. I love drinking from springs and running creeks and a filter bottle allows that.
How do you tell if a water filter is doing its job? Well, I presume that would be indicated by nothing – there was no reaction to drinking out of it. I’m not going to try the bottle and filter out on obviously polluted water – c’mon, this is survival common sense!
Here’s the good stuff:
No plastic in sugarcane bottle: The sugarcane bottle has only bioplastics in it. Plastics in the other models are non-toxic and eco-friendly materials that are BPA free and FDA approved. Water-to-Go will eventually transition to all bioplastics in their bottles, according to the website.
Reusable: Each filter is good for processing 200 liters of fresh, clean water. This replaces 400 single-use plastic bottles.
Filter: The 3-in-1 filter technology eliminates up to 99.9999% of all Bacteria, Viruses, Chlorine, Fluoride and Heavy Metals, according the Water-to-Go, leaving safe, healthy water. Advancing a water purification technology originally developed for NASA, Water-to-Go developed its “3-in-1” nanotechnology filter. Combining three different technologies, the results were perfect for hiking, camping, travel and emergency preparedness, the company claims. The water purification filter eliminates up to 99.9999% of water contaminants and have been proven by lab tests at four different labs on four continents. (see testing).
Recycle: The Sugarcane bottle is 100 percent recyclable.
I also checked out two other Water-to-Go models, and will be doing more field testing on them. These include the Water filtration Bottle and Water-to-Go Active. These use the same water filtration system as the Sugarcane, but have differing capacities.
750 ml Active Water Filtration Bottle: This bottle will be a favorite to cyclists – the container is designed to fit in the water bottle holder on bicycles.
SPECS
- EASY TO USE WITH ONE HAND: – New click lid with a single-hand flip cap action with a ‘squeezy ’ bottle which is a key feature for the active sector
- LONGLASTING FILTER: – Filter lasts for 200 Liters/50+ Gallons and is fully recyclable
- NON-TOXIC AND ECO-FRIENDLY MATERIALS: – BPA free and FDA Approved
- LIGHTWEIGHT AND PRACTICAL TO USE: – The bottle weighs 138 grams and is semi-transparent with embossed content markings to show the amount of water left in the bottle.
Classic
SPECS
- Filter lasts for 200 Litres, and replaces 400 single-use bottles.
- BPA free / all materials
- FDA Approved
- Weighs 138 grams
- Filter 100% recyclable
Then there’s this:
-
- Any filter water bottles requires some suction to get the moisture to flow through the filter. An elderly or very young person might not be capable of exerting enough force.
- The only way to fill another container with filtered water would be to suck it up and spit it out. (Yeah, ewww!) In an emergency, do what you have to do. Stay hydrated at all costs.
- While effective, this is not a system that could work for a large group. ^^^
- The containers have limited capacity, so carrying large volumes is not possible. Unfiltered water, true enough, could be carried along on a separate container.
- The Water-to-Go bottles are designed, developed and assembled in the UK and components come from the United States and China. I’m a solid “Buy American” person and I wish all parts were manufactured in the USA.
So do you need a Sugarcane bottle?
Well, I think everyone needs some sort of water/filtration system. The plastic, one-use water bottles are killing our oceans. At the same time, potable water is getting harder and harder to find.
Using a water bottle and filter that isn’t made of petroleum-based plastics is a step in the right direction. Whether you use a Water-to-Go product or another, we must cut down on plastic bottles in our water systems.
So yeah, you need something and this Sugarcane bottle may be it.
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Felipe
I have the 50cl Water-to-Go bottle. The elastic gasket on the filter did not seal tightly, so some unfiltered water came out of the nozzle. I have solved it by wrapping Teflon tape around the thread of the filter, but since all the water that comes out of the nozzle now passes through the filter, you have to suck harder and less water flow comes out.