Zuvo Water's Stratus cleans your H2O with WiFi filters, cloud-connected app
Few of us are fortunate enough to enjoy clean municipal tap water -- the rest have to make do with clunky bacteria-riddled filters and wasteful bottled H2O. Enter Zuvo Water, which has hopped on Indiegogo to fund its elaborate and tech-centric Stratus water purification system. It includes WiFi-enabled hardware, filters, optional "intelligent" faucets and a cloud-connected smartphone app that'll tell you when to swap out old cartridges for new ones. These are no ordinary filters either -- they go beyond simple carbon filtration by combining ultraviolet light (UV), oxygenation and carbon with a patented five-step process, which Zuvo claims makes it the "only filter system in the world that is self cleaning." Beat that, Brita.
Two kinds of Stratus filters can be part of the setup: a countertop model for existing taps and another that fits under the counter to accommodate one of Zuvo's touch-sensitive faucets designed by D2M (which was incidentally behind Kickstarter-success Instacube). The faucets come in Bamboo, Acacia tri-flow and Hibiscus designs, and with chrome, brushed nickel or oil-rubbed bronze finishes. In case you don't have your smartphone app handy, the taps are equipped with LED lights to show the water's filter status as well -- blue means clean, yellow means not so much and red means you should probably get a new filter, pronto. In addition to managing your filters, the aforementioned app also offers a personalized hydration coach that'll remind you of your daily water consumption needs.
As of now, Zuvo's Indiegogo campaign is almost $40,000 shy of its $50,000 goal, with about 58 days remaining. Contributions can be anywhere from $10 to $449, with rewards that range from a stainless steel bottle to a bundle that includes a faucet, a filter, the app and a home water quality test. A bare minimum setup with just the countertop model costs $79 if you get a "super early bird" deal. The whole thing isn't exactly cheap, but good, clean, eco-friendly water might be worth the trouble. Look out below for a video explaining how it all works.
