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Last updated on November 8th, 2022
Not all waste goes into the trash can. Some waste, and money, goes down the drain (literally). Cutting water waste in my home starts at the bathroom faucet with the water-saving nozzle attachment Altered Nozzle.
UPDATE: I no longer recommend the Altered Nozzle. The first nozzle fell off of my faucet, and the company kindly sent me a replacement. The second suffered the exact same fate. The company told me it was because of the way it was twisted, which I believe happened when I had guests over. I think the design is superb, but still unperfected. Hopefully, the manufacturer will tweak the design and publish an update.
I discovered the Altered Nozzle during its wildly successful Kickstarter campaign, which raised more than half a million dollars back in 2016.
The campaign boasts a small nozzle that attaches to the faucet you already have and cuts water usage by 98%. Water color me intrigued (sorry, pun intended!).
When the campaign was taking orders, I was about to leave to go traveling in South America for 6 months. With a one-way ticket and no foreseeable permanent address, that wasn’t the right time for me to take the plunge.
I can’t shake the idea that I’m using 98% more water than I need to be using.
I’ve continued to move around a lot, but the Altered Nozzle has always been on my mind when I think about home projects.
Fast forward three years: I’m living in the Netherlands, with another move on the horizon for 2020. I decided to finally purchase the Altered Nozzle, despite still being in a somewhat transient state.
It seems like a sound investment, even for someone who moves frequently:
- It’s removable – can be unscrewed and taken from home to home
- It’s extremely small and lightweight – the entire box, with all the necessary faucet pieces and tools for installation are hardly bigger than an iPhone
How it works
The Altered Nozzle attaches to the nozzle already on your faucet, and turns your water flow into a mist. It has 2 settings, “mist mode” and “save mode.”
Mist mode claims to save 98% of water flow, and save mode is said to save 85%. You change modes by turning the water drop-shaped attachment.
Altered Nozzle Review
Overall: 4/5
After using this for a month, I would recommend it. It looks great, cleans up well, works as described.
The difference in water output is massive. In my sink, if you ran the faucet at full blast it would fill up in about 10 seconds.
I think I could let the mist run for an hour or so before the water would rise to that point.
When I have guests over the house, they always seem to think that the sink is broken. I see this as a fun opportunity to talk about water conservation.
Design: 5/5
The nozzle is a very small piece of hardware but changes the faucet completely.
The function of the design is excellent, and it looks incredibly sleek as well.
It’s much more beautiful than other water-saving nozzles: it adds to the style of the bathroom, instead of just being something functional that we learn to live with.
Installation: 4/5
It took several attempts to get the Altered Nozzle installed correctly.
At first water leaked out when the faucet was on, and then it fell off.
The instructions say it can take 30 seconds to install, which I think is optimistic for a first attempt.
It took me more than 30 seconds just to get the old nozzle off my faucet.
I think if I install another one on another sink in my home, it will take about 2 minutes, which is a real improvement from my first attempt.
To be fair, the instructions were clear, and it comes with every piece necessary to install, and all in an impressively small box. Everything went together as described, I’m just a bit handicapped at doing any sort of technical work.
Emotionally prepare yourself to be installing your Altered Nozzle for longer than the instructions say, but trust the process.
Value: 4/5
For about $40, this was a bit of an investment upfront.
Other water-saving nozzles cost a lot less (see below), but they don’t save as much water, and their design looks purely functional.
I wouldn’t buy an Altered Nozzle for every faucet in the house, but it was a good investment for my bathroom faucet. Altered Nozzle advertises that this product pays for itself in a few months, which wouldn’t surprise me but I’m not able to track this because utility bills are rolled in my rent.
Similar Products
There’s a competing water-saving nozzle is made by Niagara Conservation. Costing about $5, it offers 3 water settings versus the 2 settings of the Altered Nozzle.
I chose to buy the Altered Nozzle over the Niagara Conservation one because the Altered Nozzle saves more water and I’m a sucker for great design. But the Niagara Conservation will be my next water-saving purchase, which I’ll try on the kitchen sink.
Niagara Conservation Tri-Max 3 Flow Rate Water-Saving Aerator on Amazon
Summary
If you’re looking to cut water usage in your home, the Altered Nozzle will serve you well and look good while doing it.
I hope this helps anyone who wants to reduce their water waste or is deciding whether or not to purchase the Altered Nozzle! If you have any questions please comment or message me on Instagram @kayla_ih, I’d love to talk to you.
You can purchase the Altered Nozzle directly from The Altered Company
Hi Kayla,
A really interesting read as this has not occurred to me before! Living with people who like to leave the tap running can drive me to distraction but this seems like a clever idea! Thanks for the article and the detail as it has given me a strong case to go back to the OH with!
Dear writingfromnowhere.com owner, Thanks for the well-structured and well-presented post!