Best reusable water bottles 2024, tried and tested | The Independent

Oct 17, 2024

The original air up bottle became a must-have accessory in British schools, convincing even the most water-phobic child to get sipping throughout the day. A flavour pod fits over the mouthpiece and, by the power of smell, convinces the drinker they’re sipping a flavoured drink rather than bog standard water.

The problem was that the original version of the bottle tended to leak, and we lost count of the number of times our junior tester’s school bag came back soaked. Air up has now designed a new version of the same bottle and it’s a huge improvement. It comes with a rubber seal inside to stop any leaking – though, it’s worth checking this is in place whenever you fill it. Ours slipped once without us noticing and the school bag got another drenching. The lid also needs to be fastened correctly to prevent further leaks, which our young tester sometimes failed to do.

We were also glad to see the bottle has been tweaked so it can now stand upside down to drain as the previous version couldn’t. There’s no need to manually activate the flavour pod now, either, as it works automatically unless it’s deactivated. Just remember that you will need to buy replacement pods once the three included with the bottle have run out – air up estimate each one should last long enough to flavour around 15l of water, although, we found they actually lasted a little longer.