Gear Review -- KOR ONE Hydration Vessel
January 19, 2009, 8:39 am / Categories: Food / Hydration
The Gear Junkie: KOR ONE Hydration Vessel
By STEPHEN REGENOLD
This is not a water bottle. The KOR ONE, a new water-toting container made for outdoors enthusiasts, exercisers, and everyday users, is indeed a “hydration vessel.”
At least that’s according to KOR Ideas Inc., the maker of these one-foot-tall elliptical flasks, which hold 25 fluid ounces of water and were purportedly designed with inspiration from “the organic beauty of blown glass.”
It costs $29.99 and is available at www.korwater.com or select retailers around the country.
KOR ONE Hydration Vessel
What makes a KOR ONE bottle — yes, I will deign to call it such — so special? For starts, it is made of a material called Eastman Tritan, which is a clear and strong synthetic compound that has no bisphenol-A (BPA), a suspect chemical still prevalent in some water bottles.
KOR Ideas touts a partnership with a design firm in the creation of its hydration vessel. The bottle is nice to look at and easy to hold. There are several appreciable small touches, including a pop-top lid on a metal hinge, a large pour spout, and a rubber bottom to make it set smoothly on a hard surface.
Other design decisions are less pragmatic: The bottle includes a “mantra insert” area where you can pop a rubber guard and place a piece of paper face down with a picture or saying. Each time you open the lid for a drink the “mantra” is then visible to “inspire you, one sip at a time,” as the company puts it.
I used my KOR ONE bottle mainly in the everyday category, toting it in a backpack for short bike rides this fall or while walking in the woods near my home. It has little in the way of performance for outdoors activities, as the bottle is bulky and too tall considering its liquid capacity. You can’t open it easily with one hand and you can’t rack it on a bike. There is little insulation for winter use.
The bottle’s “mantra insert area” comes into view when you pop the lid
But water stays fresh inside. It’s easy to drink from and has a clean, ergonomic design to grip and sip. The bottle, manufactured in Monterrey, Mexico, should last for years.
KOR Ideas’ namesake bottle is admittedly a bit kooky. At $30, many people will scoff at the price. But the company seems sincere in its mission: To inspire personal health and global sustainability through a new type of drinking vessel.
If KOR can convince people to reuse a bottle instead of throwing away disposables then I am a fan — paper mantra insert or not.
—Stephen Regenold writes a daily blog on outdoors gear at www.gearjunkie.com.
I’m off to the store for the two one liter bottles…………….30 dollars plus 6 dollars for shipping/handling…………..THE ONLY GREEN I SEE HERE, IS THEM LINING THEIR POCKETS !!!
I could be wrong, but a bottle made in Mexico and sold here for a HUMONGOUS profit under the guise of GREEN….hahahaha….not with my money.
If the KOR ONE strikes your fancy, you can always try to win one in the 1GreenProduct.com KOR ONE sweepstakes — http://www.1greenproduct.com/2009/01/drink-outdoor-kor-one-hydration-vessel.html
While it is true that the KOR ONE is somewhat expensive for a reusable water bottle, it’s also BPE-free, stylish and from what we can tell, quite durable.
Often, quality over quantity makes good sense from an eco-friendly standpoint.
Aaron Dalton
Editor
1GreenProduct.com
Its good for the stylish around towners and much better than buying copius flats of bottled water from costco and tossing the bottles in trash cans around town. BPE/A sounds like it’s overblown.
I won’t buy one, but if they can make a market and reduce the landfill bully for them!
I bought a KOR ONE. I decided to return it within moments of opening the box. Too bad I wasted so much on the shipping. Years ago I decided to forego disposable water bottles. I have been using an aluminum bottle I purchased at a discount at Starbucks of all places. It has a wide mouth which makes it easy to drink from. The problem is having to unscrew the top with two hands to take a drink. I thought the Kor would alleviate that issue. The Kor One is difficult (if not impossible) to open with one hand, is too bulky to hold, oddly shaped to fit in cup holders, too big for the amount of water it holds, too heavy and unwieldy, and too expensive. i would not really have minded the expense if it was the perfect bottle for me. Oh well.
This bottle is cheap, but not inexpensive. That lid looks and feels like its about to snap off. Especially if I drop the bottle while drinking from it, since their is no grip to it. The bottle does not hold enough water for its size. You would be much better off purchasing two 1 liter Camelbak Better Bottles at your local outdoor sporting goods store, for about 17 each.
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Why bother? You can two 1L bottles for the same price.