The #1 Reason to Ditch Single Use Water Bottles: Water-To-Go
There are 3 issues that affect all RVers: filtering water, saving space, and saving weight. In our minds, we convince ourselves that by using an elaborate filtration system on our RVs, we’ll filter our water sufficiently enough to be comfortable drinking it right from the tap. But we never do.
Oh, we feel good about our water; we shower with it, give it to the dog, and we might even brush our teeth with it….but we don’t drink it. Instead, we lug along heavy packs of bottled water that add weight and take up space. Why not simply use a water filtration bottle?
Why we switched to a water filtration bottle
I’m as guilty as the next guy. By the time I get water from the door of the residential fridge in my RV, the water has already been filtered three times.
Still, I’m more inclined to pack bottled water instead of drinking it. Why have I not tried a water filtration bottle? Most of the time, it’s simply laziness. I have not taken the time to think about the economics or the benefits of using a water filtration bottle, so I never buy one.
When the folks at Water-To-Go asked me to review one, I figured this was my best shot of looking into this practice. While I don’t consider myself a “Go Green” enthusiast (I drive a huge diesel pusher), I still understand the impact of tossing out dozens of plastic water bottles every time we go RVing.
Benefits of a water filtration bottle
Cleaner water
The most obvious benefit to a water filtration bottle is clean water. The Water-To-Go bottle I was sent filters 99.9999% of harmful contaminants. I’m expecting the water from my fridge door or my faucet to already be pretty clean, but what if it wasn’t? What if I was getting water from an old pump in a national forest or a sketchy campground with even sketchier water? 99.9999% is a great assurance that I will be safe.
Less plastic waste – Campgrounds very rarely recycle
Even those that are low on the green enthusiast scale will still make an attempt to recycle the most basic items. Yet the number of campgrounds that actually provide a recycling option is scant.
Inevitably, those 6 to 8 plastic bottles we use every day get stuck in the trash. It just feels wrong. We are, however, concerned about our health and well-being. We aren’t willing to risk a quick end to a bucket list trip by getting sick on questionable water, so we use bottled water. A water filtration bottle like the ones offered by Water-To-Go is a great alternative.
Less weight
A pack of bottled water can weigh as much as 30 pounds. Depending on the size of your family and the length of your RV trip, you might easily need to pack 120-150 lbs of water. That’s not a huge problem in my big pusher, but for a smaller travel trailer, it can be an issue. Consider that also when you plan your backpacking and hiking. How much water can you really haul?
Less hassle
Schlepping those packs of water from the store to the Jeep, then from the Jeep to the RV is a pain. It’s not hard, it’s just a hassle. A water filtration bottle would eliminate that. You can feel comfortable using the water from the campground or your fresh water tank because you know the water is getting filtered.
- The ‘Active’ bottle from Water To Go
The Water-To-Go Water Filtration Bottle
The bottle I was sent was attractively packaged and blazoned with information. A few observations were:
- Attractive yet functional rubber surrounding bands add strength and easy-to-grip surfaces on the bottle.
- The smoke-colored bottle was slightly transparent so I could see the levels of liquid.
- The cap opened and closed with a nice snap, but was not too difficult to open.
- The opening cap revealed a clever self-sealing vent to make the flow easier.
The heart of the matter – The filter
Attractive, high-quality materials aside, the heart of the matter is the filter that promises to remove 99.9999% of contaminants. Here more than anywhere is where the thoughtfulness behind the product shows.
The filter is solidly mounted inside a vented plastic housing that unscrews from the lid. Not only does this make changing the filter easy, it’s great for those that have a morning supplement that requires mixing or shaking. You can easily remove the filter, do your thing, rinse out the bottle, and reinstall your filter to be ready for your hydration needs.
Conclusion
We have approached this as RVers in a sense of what can this do for us. Saving weight and space and eliminating hassle are more in our wheelhouse than drinking water from a creek or lake, but those should not be overlooked completely.
Should you find yourself biking or hiking while you are RVing and need water, the Water-To-Go Active water filtration bottle has you covered. Check out the entire line at https://watertogousa.com/.
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All around RV industry enthusiast who has been RVing for 8 years and enjoys trips with his wife and dogs in their diesel pusher.
So how does the water come out of the bottle? Does it flow out, drip out or require a vacuum (sucking)? Capacity? Does the filtration take place when the bottle is filled or when the water is dispensed?
Patrick, You’ve presented a good and fair potable water solution review. I am always open to looking deeper into the RVing’s healthy water and recycling solutions.
Since choosing to RV travel with lighter weight dried food goods has resulted with increased in consumable water demand. I needed a healthy water solution. My experience is supported by my many failures with the discarded useless pitcher based water filtration solutions. The reverse asmosiss water filter is a very good choice, but there are other considerations; such as, disaster prep which I will detail below.
I have found success with the on the go potable water softner to keep my RV water lines, tanks and water fixtures clean and healthy, but soften water is high in sodium so it is not healthy to consume.
Consumming ice for cold drinks has a hidden health risk consideration, too! I never use ice in cold drinks where it is made on site from local well water. Those ice makers are usually poorly maintained.
Have you ever seen the inside of a poorly maintained commerial ice maker or have you seen black specks in your ice cubes? Yuk! While on the road I make my own ice with a standalone ice maker for those ice cold drinks.
Lastly I have concluded that using bottled or canned water has both health and safety benefits. Safety for continuing a fresh disaster preparedness supply and health by regular use restocking. Every day regular use of your disaster prep water stock can automatically keep your disaster prep stock up to date and refreshed.
Smart technology gives the RVer’s ways to make onsite electricity in a variety of different ways and now manufacturer are producing RV trailers with fully independent off grid solar/battery packages.
Manufacturers are not able to make or produce onsite water so they created ways for RVer’s to pack it with them! The manufacturers are smartly installing bigger capacity tanks for fresh and septic water storage.
The limited storage space of the mobile RVer has made trash disposal a complicated issue, too! I have been looking, but have not found a mobile trash compacting solutions especially one exclusively for those small plastic water bottles. I am thinking about using water from aluminum cans not plastic bottles as a solution. I consider the packaging cost and is it safe? Beer is mostly water and aluminum is safe for beer packaging. Using the aluminum can compacting sledge hammer has quickly resolved the compacting issue. The crushed aluminum cans are usually very wind resistant, too! We all probably have successful aluminum recycling hacks, but for the other general trash there isn’t a smart compacting solution for RVs.
RVer’s seem to have a natural attraction for healthy eating choices maybe due to all that fresh air and wide open spaces. The fresh food discards and table scraps are causing a stinky mobile trash recycling nightmare, too!
Speaking about what goes in must hopefully come out there is a smart tech septic solution called the composting toilet. There isn’t an affordable on site stinky slinky black tank waste smart water recovery solution, yet? May be the smart septic water recovery is in the next manufacturers break through feature. That would be the next great leap forward for black tank users. Until this happens many more FHU recreation areas are needed!
Modern technology creators only need a profitable market to influence these developments. Those remote seeking dry camper communities would rejoice! Is there any safe, healthy, nice, and smart recycling solution for all that fresh healthy food discards and those other kitchen waste?
You’re probably thinking that I mean that kitchen garbage! You have read my mind! The glass and tin can waste can be avoided by selecting RV desired lighter weight and softer sided packaging for food goods. The cardboard and soft packaging can be managed by a mobile compacter. Just think about the next time you take out that RV garbage bag, think about how and why that recyclable stuff got in there in the first place?
I love the RV Life, but seeing so many nasty broken down campground and boondocking dumpsters with all that wind blown loose litter they create just makes me sad. The RV community are not litter bugs and polluters. I think many believe as I do but feel overwhelmed because they have never been presented with any “smart tech” recycling solutions for boondockers.
Last year, I found at least 1 nasty dumpster per campground typical, but this year I’ve seen three or more nasty dumpsters installed at RV communities. Can the smart tech create clean, inexpensive, odorless, flying or non flying insect, and rodent free onsite mobile recycling capabilities? Do recreation operators have a reasonable standards to perform a safe and effective insect and rodent controls? I think it can be done.
The recreation operators are always in need of safe and inexpensive smart recyling solutions along with any smart pest control technologies available to meet the increase demand for recreational resources by their customers and themselves?
Every RV community contributor from the manufacturer to sales to consumers and recreation operators have the responsiblity to see their clients have clean, healthy, recreational areas free of garbage, trash, discards, and just pollution.
RV communities are very clever people and they will press to raise the standard of public and private recreational areas. This year FHU camping has been maxed out and dry camping is becoming just a overflow for ill equipped and flustered RVers.
To keep recreational area available, profitable, and the cost competitive the employment of smarter tech and value based with mobile recycling solutions are needed.
Remember back when it was the remote dry camping RVer’s which supported the Composting Toilet markets? Composting toilet uses the out of sight and out of mind stinky compost dumpster disposal verses the stinky hole in the ground septic disposal.
The RVer’s are more closely and keenly aware of waste disposal issues then the general public because they daily live with, deal with, and visit with one or more of those big nasty dumpsters at check out time!. Therefore, I believe this is going to change soon considering the sudden RV market explosion. The pandemic created the increase Market demands and this will force mores changes in the RV accessible locations.
Here is a Quiz question for creating a thoughtful discussion. There are 3 main categories of trash wet, dry or a combination of wet or dry. How and why could a RVer smartly separate them?
There are alternative SMART SOLUTIONS to the boondocking issues listed above. YES! The Walmart parking lot for campers without the Walmart and trees just RV carports and low cost artifical landscape.
The future is primed up for the automated and unmanned check in with the covered FHU RV parking space.This well landscaped FHU RV parking lot containing individual RV carports which can be built and located anywhere is coming. The operators only need to keep the artifical flower and boxes fresh with non organic munch.
Planning, selecting, and constructing locations near or far from the local recreational hotspots. i.e. hiking, 4 wheeling, biking, swimming, gambling, fishing, and, other popular …ings attractions and services would be big plus for the local communities. The shade without the mess of tree sap, bugs, grass, and plant pollen. Picture having your own bed, bathroom, dining, and hospitality. Camping with family, friends, and don’t forget the kids! Group travel meet ups are the ultimate caravaning on steriods. The reduced cost makes possible an every week or weekend event exploring different locations with your RV.
Meeting long distance with family or friends at a halfway point.
The opposite of course is the annual resort/motel/cruise ship recreation model of recreating with total strangers which is not like being with your family, friends, and don’t forget the kids they will have fond lifetime memories, too!
Passing the low cost of constructing, maintaining and operating to the consumer while still providing profitable income. Additionally it will take the current occupancy load off of the existing over burden traditional campgrounds and is not to replace them, but to inhence their availibility with additional RV consumers. The RV investment can be fully justified and utilized with this additional camping feature.This should further expand the RV market to more consumers.
PS If you don’t have deep pockets the low cost and affordability with the increased availability will make more opportunity for a lasting lifetime of memories. Enabling the weekly excursions verses an annual one all with the RV style of your choice.
Increasing the number of locations and size is highly flexible since installing the infrastructure of concrete, wires, metal and with prefabication planning results in quick installs can made anywhere.
Keeping your daydreams affordable and within a 300 mile radius or any radius distance or direction of your choosing.
Happy dreams to all my happy camper friends and friends yet to be made on the RV road.
Thank you, and have a nice day, Steve A.
I’m wondering about the taste. Also is it effortful to actually do the filtering?