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Smart faucet nozzle achieves 98-percent reduction in water usage

An innovative new Kickstarter project called the Altered: Nozzle is hoping to introduce the world to a special faucet, one which allows users to save up to 98 percent of the water that comes out of their taps.

“People think about showers consuming a lot of water, but when you look at an average household roughly the same amount of water flows through the taps as is used in our showers,” Altered co-founder Johan Nihlen told Digital Trends. “Most of the previous attempts to cut down on wasted water from taps has involved restricting the regular flow of water. The problem with that is that there’s only so much you can restrict it.”

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The Swedish-designed Altered: Nozzle instead works by turning your tap’s flow of water into a heavy mist.

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As a result, instead of the water which comes out of the taps bouncing off the surface of your hands and going straight down the drain, the mist lets you carry out many of the same use-cases — such as washing your hands or cleaning a plate — but without the waste.

“What we’ve developed is a new kind of nozzle that sits at the end of your tap,” Nihlén continued. “This nozzle atomizes the water coming from the tap, which means that it splits it up into tiny water droplets.”

Of course, water mist isn’t so good for certain tasks, such as filling a saucepan or glass with water — which is why the Altered: Nozzle also lets you easily switch to a regular water mode.

It’s a nifty tool, and apparently users think so too because it’s already smashed past its Kickstarter funding goal with more than 20 days still remaining on the clock. If you want to get hold of one of the Nozzles, you can do so for the equivalent of $38. Best thing of all? It’ll fit on your regular tap.

“Our company name, Altered, refers to the fact that is something that can alter existing taps,” Nihlén said. “We didn’t want people to have to throw their old taps away. That also makes it cheaper, which means that it can be made more accessible to people all over the world. We’d like to apply that same way of thinking to other products in the future, too.”

Based on this innovation, we can’t wait to see what else the firm comes up with.

Luke Dormehl
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…
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