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A Water Bottle that Fills Itself

This concept of pulling water out of the air is nothing new but the application is really cool. It is a water bottle you can can strap to your bike and in hot and humid weather, it can give you about 1/2 of a liter.

Fontus Self Filling Water Bottle
Fontus Self Filling Water Bottle

In some articles, the inventor Kristof Retezár, a designer based in Vienna admits it is far from perfected, but it works and could be commercially available in less than a year.

In ancient times, Air Wells were used to condense water out of the air and in Africa, today, there are modern versions of this that you can read about here: http://emediapress.com/2014/04/22/modern-day-air-well-for-cultivating-water/

In more modern days, there are electrical plug in powered water extractors, but these are really nothing more than dehumidifiers that filter the water. Here is an example of one that draws about 600 watts and will give you 2-5 gallons per day: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BW5GLJQ?ie=UTF8&tag=maimounas-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00BW5GLJQ

The issue with this kind of water system is that there are no minerals in it so it is like distilled water and can leach minerals out of your body. This is unhealthy, especially if you are sweating out a lot of electrolytes on a long bike ride. You can wind up diluting your electrolyte levels to dangerous lows so keep that in mind should you ever depend on these.

You can always add a few drops of purified desalinated sea water, which is a great mineral supplement. A little bit goes a long way and it is hard to be liquid ionic minerals. This is what should be added to any water extracted from the air if you plan on drinking any in any serious amount: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AMUWLK?ie=UTF8&tag=maimounas-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000AMUWLK

For about $20, you can get a 3 month supply for the average adult. Just a few drops can remineralize this water and make it safe for long term drinking. For bike rides, the little 4 oz bottle is perfect for a trip.

The Fontus self filling water bottle is an awesome technology and can help bring clean water to those that need it but be aware that minerals are needed to make it a long term safe water supply.

We hope to see this device advance with filtration as well as an educational pamphlet that tells the user how to drink the water responsibly.

Read more about the Fontus water bottle here: http://www.livescience.com/53401-fontus-converts-humidity-into-water.html

1 thought on “A Water Bottle that Fills Itself

  1. Aaron, better and cheaper than concentrated sea water drops is Magnesium Chloride chips. Industrial grade is what they use to “salt” icy roads. At low concentrations in water, water highly emulates human breast milk. $20 for two pounds at Swanson Vitamins now. Two articles on MgCl for healing purposes here: http://healingtoolbox.org/search-results?q=%22magnesium%20chloride%22

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