Tim Cook Invests in Water-Efficient Shower Head Startup Nebia

[G4er?]

As with most economically infeasible green products this is just a feel good product for those able to waste money. Kind of like buying a Prius and being the fastest speeder on the highway.
"I deserve this because I'm saving the planet."

 

[garylapointe]

He invested a serious (large) amount? OR he "invested" $299 in a shower head?

Gary

 

[HiRez]

I'm skeptical because it seems more like a mist, where the force would dissipate quickly after leaving the nozzle. Great for the head but I wonder if you'd get enough force lower down on your body. Which is why I suspect they had to add the wand accessory.

 

[WelshDog]

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.

If your municipality is putting so much chlorine in the water that it is actually reaching your house in meaningful quantity, then they are doing it wrong. 4 mg/L is the maximum allowed and that ain't much. Here in Austin the average level is 2.16 of chloramine (more persistent disinfecting method than chlorine gas). There are not many studies on inhalation of water treated with chlorine/chloramine, but at the levels allowed it is not considered harmful. I use a low-flow shower head that makes quite a lot of mist similar to Nebia, but not as fine. I don't have any issues, but that doesn't mean anything. Interesting question to raise - you should send Nebia an email.

 

[vailr]

I don't see this design as being such a good idea, unless you add on a more expensive "whole house" water filter solution, in order to prevent the clogged shower nozzles. Without it, the harmful water additives such as chlorine and fluoride would become more easily breathed into the lungs. What California needs is sunlight powered de-salinization/purification located next to the Pacific Ocean.

 

[blulegend]

Isn't urban water use in California only 10% at best?

 

[Cmd-Z]

Isn't urban water use in California only 10% at best?

And over half of that is (or was) for watering landscaping.

 

[AngerDanger]

I'm skeptical because it seems more like a mist, where the force would dissipate quickly after leaving the nozzle. Great for the head but I wonder if you'd get enough force lower down on your body. Which is why I suspect they had to add the wand accessory.

Me too. I've used a shower head which was breaking and spraying water in a mist. Obviously, it was neither atomizing the water nor functioning as intended, but the misting lead to the water getting cold when it was more than a foot away from the head.

 

[campingsk8er]

See, I'm for saving water and this looks unapologetically amazing, but I don't have to pay for my water anyway so there is no added benefit for me.

 

[dannys1]

"Your shower is deeply personal"

Christ, no its not, I'm just having a wash!

 

[PJL500]

No App?

This is revolutionary!

Apple CEO Tim Cook is amonga 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

 

[GenesisST]

"Your shower is deeply personal"

Christ, no its not, I'm just having a wash!

You don't have teenage boys, do you?

 

[markfrautschi]

The hard water issue is addressed at the very bottom of their Kickstarter page. Basically, with V1.0, we are on our own, though, ordinary demineralizing techniques should work. They point out that their V1.0 nozzles are metal instead of plastic. I am not sure why they say this, perhaps it is because plastic nozzles mineralize at a lower rate:

What if I have Hard Water?
If you have hard water, Nebia can be cleaned like other showers using an acidic solution or cleaner like CLR if build up occurs. The current design does not have rubber nozzle tips, like some other showers, because of the nozzle technology that we are using. Other materials are currently in R&D to reduce the effects of hard water on Nebia although the time line for these materials are still in development.​

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1499369835/nebia-shower-better-experience-70-less-water

 

[MRrainer]

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.

I've got hard water, too and the landlord has installed a softener (decalcifier) - but I can still see mineral build-up on my shower-head.
If this thing can solve the clogging-problem, I'm sold.
Well, of course not in my rented flat. But if I buy something (a house or a flat), it's easier to stomach because it adds only a small amount to an already large sum of money...

 

[acctman]

sadly Kickstarters have been more miss than hits. it's like you're throwing your money away. You fund something and if it ever get made / delivered on time... it turns out to be a piece of junk. You get one version and the company is gone 6-12mons later. Pebble is the only real success store from Kickstarter

 

[swingerofbirch]

Having soft water is even worse than hard in my experience. It makes it hard to rinse soap off. I can't imagine I'd get very far misting soap off with soft water.

 

[Beerstalker]

The hard water issue is addressed at the very bottom of their Kickstarter page. Basically, with V1.0, we are on our own, though, ordinary demineralizing techniques should work. They point out that their V1.0 nozzles are metal instead of plastic. I am not sure why they say this, perhaps it is because plastic nozzles mineralize at a lower rate:

What if I have Hard Water?
If you have hard water, Nebia can be cleaned like other showers using an acidic solution or cleaner like CLR if build up occurs. The current design does not have rubber nozzle tips, like some other showers, because of the nozzle technology that we are using. Other materials are currently in R&D to reduce the effects of hard water on Nebia although the time line for these materials are still in development.​

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1499369835/nebia-shower-better-experience-70-less-water

They say this because many shower heads these days have rubber nozzles that allow you to just rub your finger back and forth across them a couple times to clean out the minerals. When you do this the rubber nozzles are able to stretch and change shape enough that the minerals are loosened up and the water flushes it right out. It works pretty well with my shower head at home. I haven't had to use any kind of chemical cleaner on them since we moved in 7 years ago. The sinks on the other hand have to be cleaned every couple months.

 

[macosxuser01]

I'm gonna wait till the Apple Shower Head "S" comes out

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.

 

[MyopicPaideia]

I just wonder how this is even news on the Mac blog page. How does this news article even remotely relate to Macs, especially as opposed to iOS, meaning is would be equally as meaningless on the iOS blog page?

This is definitely a situation where having a "back page news" blog about all the general or tenuously Apple related news should go, that obviously isn't worthy of the landing page.

You can rarely read about Mac related news anymore on the Mac blog. Let's count the number of directly Mac related articles on this page out of 10....

 

[brucebrendon]

does it bend?

 

[tennisproha]

Why is this even a rumor? If Tim wants to shower different, that's his business!

Is there a shower head Edition version?

24k gold b*****!! Shower like a king lol. smh…

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.

All very good points I hadn't thought of. Thanks for sharing.

Water has always been a limited resource. Its just that in typical homo sapien fashion, we normally don't do anything to fix our bad habits until it starts to affect our personal well being.

 

[Meandmunch]

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

In no time at all copycats will flood the market so your $80 dream is not far off.

It really is about time something as simple and obvious as the shower moves forward.

Finally getting that Star Trek Shower!

 

[Nica]

not sure if anyone has mentioned it... but this design will probably lead to rather cold showers. There's already a noticeable temperature drop between the shower head and the floor. Now, increase the surface area for heat to transfer into the environment.... cooooollddd mist. Then again, an enclosed shower might be okay. My shower is open to the rest of my restroom and room. It looks cool, but man, it gets cold!

 

[unplugme71]

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

Unless you use 270,000 gallons of water in one week which is absolutely crazy as I barely use 4,000 a month, it will not pay for itself in a week. More like 5.75 years.

 

[unplugme71]

I'm redoing my master bath soon with multiple nozzles. That way I can rinse off much quicker and save water too. Wow, and it didn't cost me $400 in shower heads.