Tech Tools review: The gadget that tells you when to drink water

“It’s blinking. Why is it blinking? What’s it doing?” I can’t answer that question. The Ulla clipped to my water bottle is pulsing with a tiny white light, and I have no idea what it wants.

If all else fails, RTFM, yes? It turns out it’s a movement sensor. Ulla will recognise each time you pick up your bottle, rewarding you – if that’s the right phrase – with a small pulse of light.

Ulla is, it claims, a smart hydration reminder. You clip it to your water bottle or glass and it will blink at 30-40 minute intervals if you haven’t lifted or tilted your glass to drink. And that’s it really. You pay €24 for the privilege of being bullied by your water bottle.

And I have – paid for it, I mean. Ulla popped up on Facebook as an ad reminding me that we all need water to live – I must have missed the memo on that one – and that this one tiny sensor would solve all my problems. I didn't get it at first, but a bout of boredom later, it suddenly seemed like a good idea. Buy it, review it from the point of view of a customer who has spent their hard-earned cash on a device to transform their drinking habits and see how that goes.

So here we are. One water bottle and a small sensor and I’m ready to see the error of my hydration ways. Ulla comes in several different colours and includes a band box that will help you fix the sensor to the outside (not the inside, as surprisingly, Ulla isn’t waterproof) of your water bottle or glass.

Speaking of the box, can we just talk about the description of Ulla for a minute? If you can get past the line where it urges you to feel the benefits of “optimal hydration” (Raise your energy levels! Boost your metabolism! Transform yourself into Scarlett Johansson! Okay, maybe that last one is made up) you’ll find out that Ulla’s “human-centred design makes drinking water a habit”. On the off-chance that your eyes haven’t rolled so hard they’re currently staring at the back of your skull, you might like to think about exactly what other type of design the makers of Ulla considered and decided wasn’t for them. Alien? Animal? Who knows?

Anyway. Miss that regular pick-up and the light will blink rapidly to get you attention. That’s about it. Out of respect to your colleagues, Ulla has made the device office-friendly, ie with no alarm. And because it doesn’t connect to your phone, there’s one fewer notification to have to deal with. While I understand the theory behind it, it also means Ulla is very easy to ignore. On several occasions, I’d put the bottle down without thinking and the sensor was facing away from me. In a brightly lit office, it had zero impact when it started flashing to remind me to drink.

Ulla doesn’t actually keep track of how much you drink; you could lift, sip and replace the bottle and it would be none the wiser. It does not monitor how much you are drinking, just that you are lifting the bottle. Sticking to Ulla’s schedule I actually drank less water during the day than I normally would.

The good

If you are very bad – to the point of dehydration, I mean – at drinking water, Ulla may help.

The not so good

For a smart sensor, it’s not really all that smart. Yes, the tilt sensor means you can’t just pick the bottle up to turn it off, but one sip does not an “optimally hydrated” person make. If you invested a little more, you could buy the HidrateMe, which not only reminds you to drink, but it will also keep track of how much you’re drinking with a sensor in the water bottle.

The verdict

It’s not bad as such. It’s just a bit, well, meh. This does nothing that an app on your phone wouldn’t do, ie annoy you into drinking more water. It just does it in a pretty colour. If you want to spend €24 on a blinky light that will flash every time you forget to lift your water bottle, go ahead. Ulla even offers you a money- back guarantee: if you aren’t happy, you can return it. I’ve decided to keep mine as a reminder that just because you can do it, it doesn’t mean you should.