Larq PureVis 2 review: specs, performance, cost

Drinking enough water can feel like a chore, but the Larq PureVis 2 makes it safer, tastier, and even tracks every sip for you.

Water is crucial for life. Drinking it keeps you alive.

And yet, somehow, many of us still struggle with drinking enough. Whether it’s because of forgetfulness or a general distaste for whatever comes out of your tap, it’s pretty easy not to hit your eight-to-ten glasses a day.

That’s where the Larq PureVis 2 comes in. Their new water bottle is designed to ensure that not only are you drinking more water, but that the water you drink is both safer and tastier.

Larq PureVis 2 Review — Why would you want one

I live in the Great Lakes region of the United States in a port city where all of the drinking water comes directly from the lake. During the cooler months, it’s not something I think about — a blessed byproduct of living in an era where you turn on your tap and potable water magically appears.

However, once the weather begins to heat up, you do become acutely aware of the origin. You can “taste the lake,” a phrase often repeated by locals to visitors who get an unpleasant mouthful of decidedly “scummy” tasting water.

It’s why most of the folks in my town opt to install whole-house or under-sink, in-line filters. When I bought my house in 2022, it was one of the first things I did.

If you don’t own a house, odds are you either own a pitcher or an on-tap filter. I did this for nearly a decade when I rented apartments in the area.

Of course, I don’t exclusively drink water at my house. Sometimes I head over to friends’ places, and those friends don’t have filtered water — either they choose to keep bottled water in the house or manage to drink lake-sludge without getting grossed out.

Or I’ll head to the gym, where the filter on the water bottle filler is good, but not always great.

When I worked at a bookstore, I struggled with mild dehydration all the time. I didn’t want to purchase water at work, but I didn’t want to drink tap water, either.

PureVis 2 solves this problem by taking water that might not taste great and making it a whole lot better. That, in turn, is more likely to make you want to drink water.

PureVis 2 Review – The filter straw

PureVis 2’s filtration system is done via the straw itself. Essentially, the straw is a long, plastic tube that has a pill-shaped filter case at the end.

Inside the filter case is a proprietary filter. Larq sells two filters.

The first is the “essential filter” designed to remove chlorine, PFAS, and certain pharmaceuticals. The second is an “advanced filter,” which removes lead, heavy metals, chlorine, and certain particulates.

The filter doesn’t seem to slow down drinking too much. I did notice that it takes a fair amount of suction to pull the water through it.

I didn’t have a problem with it, but I’d probably avoid it for senior citizens, if you somehow thought this was a good gift for your elderly dad or grandma.

However, I’m glad to say that when I tested the filter with tap water from my bathroom — a sink that doesn’t have an in-line filter — I was happy with the results. While it didn’t taste as good as the mega-filter under my kitchen sink, it tasted significantly better than the water straight out of the tap.

Larq PureVis 2 review – the UV-C LED

Larq goes a step further, too. Inside the cap, there’s a UV-C light designed to kill bacteria. Larq says that the PureVis light can kill up to 99.999% of Salmonella and 99.99% of E. coli.

Now, I can’t speak to the effectiveness of the UV feature. I didn’t have time — or, realistically, the money — to send this off to a lab for independent testing.

Still, UV-C LED technology, which is the technology behind the PureVis, has been shown in numerous studies to kill bacteria. So, I feel confident in saying that PureVis probably does kill bacteria.

Some of you may be wondering why you need this feature in the first place.

Theoretically, if you’re drinking water from the tap, it should be safe to drink. But that’s not the main reason Larq included PureVis.

The PureVis feature is actually designed to keep your water bottle clean. It automatically runs every two hours or whenever you press the PureVis button on the top.

This keeps bacteria from contaminating water that’s been sitting inside your water bottle. This also means the bacteria won’t get a chance to cling to the sides of your bottle and necessitate frequent deep cleans.

Full disclosure. I’ve left water in the PureVis 2 for several days — far longer than I’d consider safe to drink. And, when I opened the water bottle to empty it and clean it, there was none of that gross “water bottle smell.”

You know the smell. That gross, sour smell that happens if you’ve ever opened a water bottle that you’d forgotten in the bottom of a gym bag.

Larq PureVis 2 review — Smart features

There are a couple of tricks that Pure Vis has up its sleeve. The first is automatic intake tracking.

Every time you drink out of PureVis, it’ll take a second to measure how much water you drank, down to the tenth of an ounce. This is a pretty interesting feature if you’ve ever been curious about how much water you drink in a day.

It’s also useful if you’ve suddenly needed to up your intake for medical reasons. My sister-in-law, for example, is pregnant — this has required her to make sure she drinks at least 100 ounces of water per day, as per her doctor’s orders.

It’s pretty easy to think you’re getting enough water when you aren’t. This is especially true if you’re partially refilling glasses or adding ice or the like.

That’s why I’m a big fan of the PureVis — every time you fill it up, it knows. Every time you drink it down, it knows.

It uses the UV-C light and a sensor to measure the water level each time the bottle is set on a flat surface. That happens whether you flip the cap open for a sip or unscrew the lid for a refill.

And it seems pretty accurate, too. I tasked myself with drinking two full PureVis bottles throughout the day and then doing one partial refill.

Surprisingly, at the end of the day, Larq told me that I had drunk 89 ounces of water. Had I drunk exactly 2.5 bottles, I would have drunk 85 oz of water — but I’m willing to bet that I didn’t drink exactly 2.5 bottles, either.

I was pretty impressed with the tracking, at any rate. I did notice that using ice seems to mess with the tracking a bit, but not enough that I’d consider it completely inaccurate.

And for those of you who are yelling at your screen that coffee, tea, and juice all count towards your water total — yes, I know. And, Larq has even included a way to log that in the Larq app.

Of course, you’ll need to remember how much you drank, though I’d argue a ballpark figure is fine.

If that wasn’t enough, it also seamlessly integrates with Apple Health. In fact, Apple has partnered with Larq and even sells the 34oz PureVis 2 in the online Apple Store.

In the interest of full transparency, there was a point where PureVis entirely stopped tracking my water intake. This happened after I’d let the battery die while I was away from my house.

This is somewhat impressive, and speaks to my ability to forget to charge things. The PureVis 2 gets about a week and a half between charges if you’re using it to drink roughly 3 bottles of water per day.

Even after I fully charged it, it wasn’t measuring my sips. I was worried that it was going to be a whole ordeal, trying to get it to pair again.

However, heading into the settings, hitting “factory reset,” and then pairing the bottle with my iPhone resolved the issue. It took maybe 30 seconds, and it worked completely fine after that.

So, the lesson here is don’t let the battery die. But, if you do, it’s not a big deal — just a little 30-second “inconvenience” at worst.

Eagle-eyed readers will note that I said the PureVis 2 has two smart features. And it does.

The second is the hydration reminder feature.

I will say — this feature is very useful while also being extremely annoying.

After getting sidelined with a migraine one afternoon, I filled my PureVis 2 with ice water and retreated to the safety of my dark bedroom. I took a swig, set it on my nightstand, and passed out.

Roughly 30 minutes later, I was startled awake by a bright flashing light. I was sure something was going catastrophically wrong — surely it was the end of days.

As it turns out, it was not. What it was — at least according to my water bottle — was time to take a second drink.

I did, and then I begrudgingly moved the water bottle outside the bedroom.

To their credit, the water reminder feature can be customized, and it can also be disabled. I’m typically not someone who needs to be prompted to remember to drink water, but I know a fair number of people who are — so your mileage may vary.

Larq PureVis 2 review — Larq App

I’m going to take a minute here to appreciate what Larq has done in terms of its app. It’s not often that I review a smart item — especially one designed to “solve a problem” — that also has a good app.

However, the Larq app is genuinely good. It’s pretty barebones, but I honestly like that quite a bit.

You can see how much you’ve drank, log any liquid you drank that wasn’t through the Larq bottle, and check out your streak. This is also where you customize hydration reminders.

There’s also a place to purchase new filters for your water bottle, should you need to. Of course, you can also purchase other Larq products as well.

Larq PureVis 2 review — Please use common sense

Before you rush out to buy this water bottle, I’m going to make a very clear, bold-faced statement: do not put non-potable water into this — or any other — filtering water bottle.

Normally, I wouldn’t feel the urge to include this, but because there are, ahem other products out there that make bold claims that you could drink dirty water right out of a stagnant stream and be fine.

I assure you, this is not a great idea. And, to be clear, Larq doesn’t suggest that you drink non-potable water from any of their products — this is purely for my own peace of mind.

If you’re planning on camping, be sure to pack an appropriate filter and plan to boil your water first. If you’re hiking or if you just want to be prepared while in the wilderness, I’d suggest picking up chlorine tablets.

Sure, your water is going to taste like you decided to go hog-wild and drink from the local YMCA’s pool, but you won’t get Giardia, at least.

Larq PureVis 2 review — But is a smart water bottle really necessary?

I’m often perplexed by the over-smartification of objects that really don’t need to have smart features. Before trying the PureVis 2, I was pretty skeptical that this would be a useful item.

However, I am willing to concede that the convenience of having a filtered water bottle on hand is nice. I am also willing to concede that if you need to track your water for medical reasons, this is a fantastic way to do it.

It’s also a nice water bottle that has a premium feel. And, really, the filters themselves don’t cost that much money — About $60 a year, assuming one filter will last you two months.

Still, the price tag is, unfortunately, pretty steep. And, there’s always the fear that if the company goes under, you’ll be left with an expensive water bottle that you can’t buy proprietary filters for.

Ultimately, it’s your choice. If you drink a lot of water and want it to taste good, it’s not a bad purchase. But if you’re just looking for a new bottle you’ll eventually forget at the gym, you’ll probably want to look elsewhere.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Larq Pure Vis 2: Pros

• Well-designed app
• Feels premium and well-made
• Filters can be purchased on a subscription plan
• Drink tracking is accurate

Larq Pure Vis 2: Cons

• Expensive
• Filters are proprietary
• Features may only appeal to a select few

Larq PureVis 2 review – Where to buy

You can snag the Larq PureVis 2 from Larq’s website for $130 for the 23 oz model, or $140 for the 34 oz model — – and I’d suggest paying the extra $10 for the larger size. It comes in multiple colors, including Obsidian Black, Granite White, Mojave Dune, and Eucalyptus Green.

Larq also routinely runs sales, so you may be able to snag yours for even less.