Hydration is crucial. Whether you’re a fervent gym goer or not, we all need to get that fluid in, every day. I find it difficult to get the recommended daily intake of water. After a good run is fine, but sitting at my desk or at home in the evening I could do with nudge.
The Ozmo smart water bottle is a gadget that promises to help those of us who find it difficult to top up the daily recommended intake of fluids. The idea initially struck me as a sounding a little like a nanny-state initiative, but I was willing to give it a go.
Unpacking the Ozmo reveals what looks like a fancy sports water bottle. In the box there’s a USB cable, which is used to charge the water bottle. It’s available in half a dozen different colours that stretch from fashionable to functionable. There’s also a slightly more expensive version, the Java which keeps coffee warm.
I charged up the bottle for the recommended two hours, and that single charge could give me up to three week’s operation. There’s an Ozmo app for smartphone that you need to download and it can downloaded from the Apple iOS or Google Play stores. Once downloaded, the app easily pairs your phone with the bottle to monitor your consumption.
The simple idea with the Ozmo is that it will remind you to drink. As well as that, it will monitor your coffee and water intake. Then, it will monitor your hydration over time to illustrate how you’re doing.
To get the most accurate feedback, you enter some demographic information like age and gender and the Ozmo seems to figure out what you should be consuming. One of the features that seems really smart is that it syncs with FitBit and Apple Health to calculate fluid consumption that’s balanced with exercise.
When I was all set-up I filled the Ozmo with coffee in the mornings for my commute, and then, with water for the rest of the day. There are some small LED lights on the side of the Ozmo and they work as visual indicators on how you’re doing.
One blue LED light indicates 20% of your target hydration. When all three lights blink blue, you’ve achieved 100% of the recommended daily hydration goal.
If you combine these lights with the notifications from the smartphone app this gizmo becomes a hard taskmaster. I turned on all the notifications and between my phone buzzing and the lights, I learned pretty quickly that Ozmo was watching.
