A Tap Water Filter that’s Simple and Sublime

Despite the fact that hundreds of companies make reusable water bottles, single-use plastic bottles are ubiquitous. Last year, Americans spent about 10 billion dollars on bottled water and disposed of 20 billion bottles. And only about 25 percent of these were recycled.

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One explanation is that tap water doesn’t always taste good. Plenty of public water supplies are still heavily chlorinated—not most people’s favorite flavor. Maybe that’s why Kor’s Nava filter Kickstarter campaign reached its $50K funding goal in three days.

Kor’s Nava turns tap water into filtered water as you drink—about 40 gallons, or 220 refills, per filter. Use the Nava filter for three months, and you’ll keep about 300 disposable bottles from being manufactured, transported and disposed of, while saving yourself $300 or more on buying bottled water. It’s a triple win any way you slice it. Only Dasani loses.

Nava, named after Spain’s wetland reserve, Laguna de la Nava de Fuentes, is made from absorptive activated carbon. Like wetland vegetation,  which absorbs pollutants before they can enter watersheds, the highly porous filter attracts chemicals like chlorine and benzene on it’s expansive surface area. Made from burned coconut shells ground down into small granules and bound together, its raw materials are low impact. And, activated carbon, used throughout history for water purification, makes the water that passes through it taste and smell better. But it’s for potable water only. Nava does not remove Giardia or other harmful microbes.

In designing Nava, the Kor team wanted to build a filter that made drinking feel more natural than sucking through the filter straw of other options on the market. They made the flip top one hand operable, and drinking hands-free, with no squeezing, biting or excessive sucking required. Replacement filters are by subscription, so you’re never without.

Paul Shustak, Co-founder of Kor says, “If you’ve tried Camelbak Groove or Brita, they require quite a bit of suction to get water flowing. With some clever fluid hydraulics in the filter and filter housing we were able to substantially improve flow. And it may sound nuts but we spent a month prototyping and testing mouthpieces that are comfortable to use, which has made a huge difference in the ease and pleasantness of using our bottle. We see our competition as bottled water. Everything we’ve done is to create a better than bottled experience.”

Clearly Shustak and team are on the right track. Nava has earned double its funding goal with more than 20 days still to go on Kickstarter. The name, Holds 20.3 ounces, weighs 6.5 ounces, and filters up to 40 gallons per replaceable filter.

$30, $11 for a two-pack of replacement filters, korwater.com