Aquatina is a refillable and reusable water bottle that holds 500ml of water. When it is empty it compresses down to 1/3 of it’s original size so that it then fits in your pocket or in your bag. It is PET and BPA Free which means it is safe to use again and again unlike conventional water bottles that you buy filled with water. The product is Made in England and it is affordable at under £5.  I was sent a lovely girly pink Aquatina to try out and the one they sent me has their new child friendly grips on the top. (I’m not sure if this version is available to buy yet though).  I found the Aquatina is easy to open and it is no trouble to compress and expand the bottle. I did find it a little difficult to drink from the bottle but I think this is because it has such a wide neck and is therefore very different from the usual plastic bottles I would drink from. The reason the bottle has a wide neck is so that you can easily clean the inside. In the future they are hoping to develop a lid with a nozzle so that it would make it easier for people to drink from the Aquatina. I think this would be a great idea and I would definitely buy one of those.

I gave my Aquatina to my sister so she could use it when she goes to the gym and she really likes everything about the bottle..especially the colour. The Aquatina is also available in Blue and Clear.  I think the Aquatina is a handy bottle to own as it is small enough you can stow it away in your bag and it won’t take up loads of vital space. When they develop the Aquatina with nozzle I would be very keen to have one of those as I think that would be even better to use with my daughter as she could drink from that without me having to hold the bottle for her. I didn’t personally have any issues with the bottle but my Mum has told me that she found that some droplets of water got caught on the inside of the bottle after washing it and thus the bottle didn’t dry properly. She worries that if you can’t dry it properly that you may drink these droplets of old water next time you use it and she doesn’t think that would be very good for your health. If you look at this picture you can see the droplets of water stuck in the creases of the bottle. 

  

I think they could maybe suggest to their customers a good way to dry the bottle thorougly or maybe invent a special drying brush to completely dry the inside of the bottle and rid it of any water droplets. As a normal bottle has smooth sides you don’t normally have the issue of droplets remaining in the bottle but because the Aquatina has concertina sides the water droplets can remain in the creases.  The Aquatina is dishwasher safe which is great. When expanded the bottle is 13cm high an when it is compressed it is 3.8cm.

Aquatina has been through durability testing and they found that it should last in excess of 9 years if you use it 3 times a day. So for your £5 you can use it an awful lot of times!  Aquatina is designed to give people an alternative to buying bottled water. The developers of Aquatina want people to always have the water bottle in their pocket and to fill it up with water from a tap, fountain or cooler when they would normally go out and buy a bottle of water.  They have developed a website called ‘Find a Fountain.org’ which is a site that has a map showing you where you can obtain free drinking water to fill up your Aquatina. At the moment the map shows mainly London but they are hoping to expand the areas covered so that everyone around the country will be able to find out where to go to access free water sources. They are still looking for sponsors to help them build the website and to develop a FaF application. If you can help them with those things or you want to help them restore drinking fountains or promote the drinking of tap water then they would love to hear from you. You can contact them here. 

In his pitch on Dragon’s Den, Guy said that in Europe the average person throws away 85 bottles a year. He hopes that by making free water sources more accessible to people and by giving people a handy means of drinking it , ie – the Aquatina..that one day there will not be as much waste accumulated by all those plastic bottles going to Landfill.   I really like the idea of having a refillable water bottle with me at all times but I have to be honest in saying that I’m not likely to go hunting down a water fountain or to go asking in a cafe if they would fill my bottle for me for free. I more like the idea of being able to fill it up at home and then when I have emptied the bottle I can compress it and pop the bottle into my bag for refilling later on. 

I must admit over a year I do buy a lot of bottles but I don’t tend to buy bottles of water. I more tend to buy bottles of fizzy drink and fruit juices. I know it is a bad thing to do but it is convenient. I always do my best to bring the empty bottles home and to recycle them but what makes me angry is that there are not enough places to recycle your bottles and drink cans when you are out and about.

Guy said on Dragon’s Den that their target market for Aquatina is kids , corporate and sports and leisure. I agree with this but I really think the product is suitable for everybody! It doesn’t matter who you are, where you work, or what your hobbies are…you can make use of the Aquatina. Even if you only use it once a day by filling it up with some squash before you go out shopping or to work…you will be helping to save the environment as you will not be purchasing yet another plastic bottle that you will drink from for 5 minutes and then put it in the bin.  Guy says that it takes about a quarter of litre of oil and seven litres of water to produce and transport one litre of bottled water. That is a scary thought! He also says that globally we throw away 150 billion water bottles every year which if lined up nose to tail would stretch to the moon and back 50 times! This does encourage me to try and stop buying so many bottles and to try and use more refillable bottles like the Aquatina. 

If you would like to buy your own Aquatina you can buy one from the following websites:-

If you would like to visit the Aquatina site please click here.

I will finish this review with a quote that I received in an email from Aquatina.

“Here we have a world where people are dying of thirst, where people lack the clean water to feed their children and we’re spending billions of dollars and huge amounts of energy moving water from people who already have it to other people who already have it.” The BBC – Liquid Gold Documentary 24/11/2010.