How Hydroviv Makes Clean Water Accessible To All

Eric Roy is Hydroviv's founder.

On its website, water filter maker Hydroviv explains its origin story traces back to 2015 and the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. The company writes it “saw people in need and decided to take action,” adding “we recognized that the consumer-grade filters that would be distributed to Flint residents would fail prematurely because they were not designed to handle the high lead levels found in Flint’s water.” It was at that point when Hydroviv was born, thus beginning the process of “developing, building, and donating high capacity lead removal filters to impacted families and child-centric organizations” in Flint. Notably, all this work happened “months” before the national press got wind of the story and the government swooped in to help. To this day, Hydroviv says it continues to “partner with much larger donation programs, and we have not taken a dime from anyone in Flint unless they insisted on paying.”

A Newsweek report from September stated “cancer-causing chemicals” were found in bottled, tap, and treated tap water in the Bay Area. The research was first published by PLOS Water, which found “all three sources of drinking water in the region contained trihalomethanes.” The compounds, known as THMs, form during the water disinfection process. Newsweek also wrote in-home water treatment systems—such as what Hydroviv hawks—are becoming increasingly popular with consumers, with the market reaching over $2 billion in revenue.

Water treatment: it’s clean, safe, and particularly lucrative.

In a recent interview conducted over email, company founder Eric Roy explained he started Hydroviv by leaning into his background in science to focus on how to best remove contaminants from drinking water. The company worked on developing so-called “endpoint filters” that connect directly to existing faucets, custom-tailored to treat contaminants in local drinking water. In the years since, Hydroviv has evolved to selling a direct-to-consumer product, or DTC, as it’s known in the business world.

“The treatment process for water uses chlorine-based disinfectants, which make our water safe to drink—and this is a good thing—but disinfectants can irritate skin and be harsh on your hair,” Roy said of Hydroviv’s proverbial window of opportunity. “While the filtration needed isn’t the same for drinking water, we saw a product we understood and could build with our existing technology and expertise.”

As to who most benefits from a special water filter, Roy told me “anyone” can. More pointedly, though, he noted “they’re great for anyone with sensitive skin or hair that does not respond well to the disinfectants found in tap water.” Hydroviv’s filters, he added, have been specially engineered to address this whilst also allowing what he called “great flow.” Anyone can use a Hydroviv filter, Roy said, and end up “[feeling] even more refreshed.” According to Roy, Hydroviv’s filter don’t merely treat chlorines in the filter; it infuses it with bacteriostatic media with the intent of ensuring the filters are clean and ready for every shower.

While there’s no debate over water’s essentiality to human life, there is ample room to note how, to cite just one example, how members of the disability community can reap more benefit from the cleanest water. To wit, many disabled people take medications and/or adhere to special diets which require water at all times. If the water is neither clean nor safe to consume, that can put a person at exponentially more risk because they need water to take their medication(s). Likewise, to Roy’s aforementioned point about skin irritation, there are people out there with certain dermatologic conditions who have to be extremely mindful about what touches their skin—water included. For his part, Roy told me Hydroviv’s filters exist because they’re products people have asked them to make, adding there’s “demand” for such tech in the marketplace.

“One thing that stood out as we looked at competitors’ filters is that they made choices to use low-cost, low quality filtration media so the products couldn’t handle real-world conditions,” Roy said of Hydroviv’s development process. “This led us to our in-line filter with a larger cartridge volume, to ensure the filters have enough capacity to properly treat water and allow enough volume through to still have a great shower.”

When asked about feedback, Roy told me it’s been “great so far.” Customers, he said, have given the company’s filters an astronomical 4.9 average based on more than 500 reviews. They report being pleased with both water quality and volume, with Roy also saying customers like keeping their existing shower heads. The filters have proven “a very successful product and one we are excited to build on,” Roy said.

As to the future, Roy said Hydroviv feels energized by how well-received its shower filter has been, especially as a first entrant into the market. Because of this, Roy noted there’s “definitely an opportunity” for expansion because the company is recognizes an in-line filter isn’t right for everyone. Roy pledged to continue “[exploring] the this space,” saying Hydroviv has plenty of “great ideas” in mind for later.

“There are more products to come here for sure,” he said.

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