Tim Cook Invests in Water-Efficient Shower Head Startup Nebia

[MacRumors]

Apple CEO Tim Cook is among a group of high-profile investors in Nebia, a San Francisco-based startup that has created a water-efficient shower head, according to The New York Times. Nebia is a self-installed shower system that atomizes water into millions of droplets to create 10 times more surface area than a regular shower for up to 70% less water consumption than a traditional shower head.

Nebia Shower was recently introduced on crowdfunding website Kickstarter and has quickly reached its $100,000 funding goal, with over $130,000 in pledges and counting to be paid out to the six-person company on September 11. The shower head is available for a pledge between $269 and $299 and will retail for $399 once released.

According to the Kickstarter page, Nebia has tested its shower head with students, employees and customers at Equinox Gyms, Google, Apple and Stanford University. Apple noted that Cook's funding towards the Nebia was a personal investment, but declined to comment further on the matter. Other investors include Michael Birch, Y Combinator and the Schmidt Family Foundation.

Article Link: Tim Cook Invests in Water-Efficient Shower Head Startup Nebia

 

[AngerDanger]

Siri, get my backside, please.

 

[Shayanftw]

Homekit...???

 

[Corrode]

Is this what it costs to be environmentally friendly? I'm in when it's sub $80.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

You too can help save the environment by providing us your credit card. $400, they are out of their minds.

Also, thought KS wasn't supposed to be used as a store? That's basically what's happening here. The illusion of a community built product when it's entirely built are ready for orders and manufacturing ramp. Y-comb have already invested FFS!

 

[JeffyTheQuik]

Interesting. The current water saving technology is to put a flow restrictor in to not use as much water.

The atomizing facet is a "think different" type thing, and I hope they do well.

However, I'll wait until the second generation, where the price comes down, as about $99 is as much as I'll spend on a shower head, as the ROI is so far out on these up here in the Northwest. As a case in point, a discussion my wife and I had:
Mrs - "We need to cut way back on water usage. The bill is $140. (for 2 months' usage)
Me - "Let's look at that... $130 for sewage and other fixed costs means that we're spending $5/month for water, and $65 to get rid of it."

and there you have it...

BTW - I'm not saying that we have the sprinklers running 24/7 on our brown lawn. I'm just saying that the kids enjoy playing with the hose on, and we get two uses out of it: Kids playing and watering the lawn. I just worry about the stuff worth worrying about.

 

[antiretro]

that goddman price tho. give me 400 dollars and i won't take shower for a week, saving the same amount of water.

 

[dwaltwhit]

I think this is really cool. My only question is what about hard water. I live in a part of the country that has really high mineral content and I wonder how that would do with this atomizing process.

 

[testcard]

Is there a shower head Edition version?

 

[thebeans]

Apple CEO Tim Cook is among a group of high-profile investors in Nebia, a San Francisco-based startup that has created a water-efficient shower head, according to The New York Times. Nebia is a self-installed shower system that atomizes water into millions of droplets to create 10 times more surface area than a regular shower for up to 70% less water consumption than a traditional shower head.

Nebia Shower was recently introduced on crowdfunding website Kickstarter and has quickly reached its $100,000 funding goal, with over $130,000 in pledges and counting to be paid out to the six-person company on September 11. The shower head is available for a pledge between $269 and $299 and will retail for $399 once released.

According to the Kickstarter page, Nebia has tested its shower head with students, employees and customers at Equinox Gyms, Google, Apple and Stanford University. Apple noted that Cook's funding towards the Nebia was a personal investment, but declined to comment further on the matter. Other investors include Michael Birch, Y Combinator and the Schmidt Family Foundation.

Article Link: Tim Cook Invests in Water-Efficient Shower Head Startup Nebia

$399 for a shower head??!! Lol. Ol' P. T. Barnum was right! Hahahaha

 

[2457282]

Looks good. But as will all Kickstarters, I will wait until it is in the wild. I don't like to risk on products that may never make it. Just me being overly conservative I guess.

 

[Benjamin Frost]

I take it this news means that California is still suffering a catastrophic drought.

 

[kd5jos]

So, now Apple says, "You're showering wrong."

Terrific.

Is there an app for that?

 

[budselectjr]

Reminds of me that Seinfeld episode when the apartment building bans high flow shower heads and Jerry and Kramer have to go to a black market dealer because the low flows suck so much.

 

[0098386]

I'm interested! But not $400 interested.

 

[Pelea]

Welcome to Apple Shower, a 16L (liters per day) version starts at just $999.99, for just $500 more, you can get the 64L version and for just $1999.99, you'll experience 128L of beautiful full high quality dual hydrogen mono oxygen atoms.

For the first time ever, our engineers have been able to deliver the most premium quality build showers and we're delighted to announce that it will also come in an incredible unapologetically rose gold color for just $99999.99.

 

[gugy]

I think this is really cool. My only question is what about hard water. I live in a part of the country that has really high mineral content and I wonder how that would do with this atomizing process.

That's a good point. Here in SoCal the water is so bad and after awhile things get clogged by the hardness. One of the things I look forward is to get a softener.
I like this concept and would love to try it but it is very expensive now.

 

[michaelant]

Forget about whether you personally want this shower head for $400. I can't afford it. HOWEVER, it seems like a very cool idea. If it works well, this could eventually help a lot with water use. After the price comes down, or the tech spreads.

 

[zaneliu]

Well if you do save 70% of the water, then in theory you should be able to save and pay off your shower head in about two years

 

[CFreymarc]

Atomizing shower heads have been around for at least fifty years if not further going back to the 1920's. Issue with these systems has always been mineral build up in the thin pipettes that spray out the water. What is new here?

 

[darkknight14]

Could be a big thing for hotels who are increasingly becoming more green

 

[OllyW]

Well if you do save 70% of the water, then in theory you should be able to save and pay off your shower head in about two years

Not if you are like me and paying a fixed rate for an unmetered water supply. On the downside, it does rain here a lot.

 

[dwsolberg]

This looks very cool, but I worry about a couple things. First the atomizing process might create a lot of steam, which might cause mold issues, especially in bathrooms without powerful ventilation. Second, bacteria tend to live in moist places and atomizing the water may allow them to travel more freely into the lungs. This could be an issue, especially for older people. Third, it seems like you'd want very soft water so that the atomizers don't get clogged with minerals.

All these issues might be solvable, but I'd expect the first version to have some serious issues. Overall, though, anything we can do to save water is good. Water is quickly becoming a scarce resource in a lot of places.

 

[robbyx]

Forget about whether you personally want this shower head for $400. I can't afford it. HOWEVER, it seems like a very cool idea. If it works well, this could eventually help a lot with water use. After the price comes down, or the tech spreads.

80%+ of the water used in CA is for agriculture. This shower head is a drop in the bucket. Not that that's a bad thing, but $400 seems crazy steep for something that, relatively speaking, has very little impact on the problem. One big winter in the Sierra and no one will be talking drought much less buying $400 shower heads.

 

[robbyx]

This looks very cool, but I worry about a couple things. First the atomizing process might create a lot of steam, which might cause mold issues, especially in bathrooms without powerful ventilation. Second, bacteria tend to live in moist places and atomizing the water may allow them to travel more freely into the lungs. This could be an issue, especially for older people. Third, it seems like you'd want very soft water so that the atomizers don't get clogged with minerals.

All these issues might be solvable, but I'd expect the first version to have some serious issues. Overall, though, anything we can do to save water is good. Water is quickly becoming a scarce resource in a lot of places.

Great points. Also keep in mind that chlorine is relatively harmless when ingested by drinking but is very bad for you when inhaled and this shower head will probably expose users to a lot more chlorine vapor.