FLOWBIO Sweat and Hydration Sensor – First Thoughts
More: flowbio.com
I’ve had the FLOWBIO hydration sensor sitting on my desk for a month and haven’t reviewed it yet for various reasons. Here are some thoughts.
Background
The base need for the product is, or should be, obvious to all endurance athletes. Dehydration and electrolyte loss dramatically impact your performance.
Most of us can probably get by consuming recommended amounts without knowing our personal hydration stats. But what if absolute performance matters? and what if you aren’t ‘normal’ in the sense that you might sweat more or might lose more electrolytes than normal? That’s where something like FLOWBIO helps. This emerging class of products can give us a post-exercise summary or live, in-workout feedback. But…
How it works – basic
It specifically measures water loss and sodium loss. Its algorithms build on that data to advise on fluid intake before, during, and after exercise.
Q: Does it have a needle or filament
A: No. It’s non-invasive.
Q: Is it suitable for swimming
A: Yes, it works during swimming.
Q: Is there a subscription
A: No. just the initial one-off cost
The S1 module captures sweat through a tiny channel when attached to a chest strap or biceps strap (included).
There is basic sync functionality in the smartphone app with connected sports platforms like Garmin.
FLOWBIO claim its S1 sensor is the most accurate hydration sensor; coming in at £329 it ought to be!
Thoughts
I’ve not tested S1. I’ve been too busy to do it justice.
That said I met up with the owner a couple of years ago and know the device has been progressing for a considerable time so it’s great it finally hit the market. However, there is no way to show live data on a Garmin or Apple Watch despite the stated support for ANT+ and BLE. For me, that’s a fundamental feature I need to devote considerable time to reviewing it.
I recommended a couple of CIQ developers to Flowbio, so let’s hope they’re already working hard on a Garmin integration.
The product format is similar to the CORE Temperature sensor but slightly larger. That’s fine, attaching to a strap works well and FLOWBIO doesn’t seem to need the small black retention mechanism used by CORE. I think FLOWBIO should produce a significantly better-looking product with a decent finish, branding and strap.
Contrast FLOWBIO to Nix Hydration, certainly a more visually polished offering. FLOWBIO is quite a bit more expensive but does not require the ongoing annoyance and cost of replacement patches like NIX.
Ultimately though its success will come down to accuracy. I know that Stefan is confident that FLOWBIO has accuracy between 73% and 90% when compared to industry ‘gold standards’ (whitepaper), let’s see if that translates to consumer-grade or lab-grade results. If it’s accurate I can live with the £329 price tag especially considering its huge 100+ hour battery life which will be perfect for ultra-endurance athletes of all types. The bottom line for me is that it’s no use if it needs a smartphone during exercise to see live data.
More: flowbio.com
Hi
Nice to know, never heard about this sensor. Do you update us when there are news or updates about the sensor? And can someone tell me how to handle it with shipment, taxes etc when he/she is outside of UK (EU for me). This sucks hard, I wanted an Aerosensor, but taxes are like WTF!
hi
i will keep producing updates on this sensor. i hope to review one later this year with the CIQ stuff (once it gets cold and i end up not sweating much…#sigh!!)
I think you are describing an apparent situation where you are double-charged VAT by the UK and your country. this is wrong and should never happen (but it incorrectly does, people make mistakes). Anyone is free to comment below and tell me that is wrong (it’s not!)
The stated UK prices you see will include VAT @20%. Shipments anywhere else in the world should ***exclude VAT** from the price from a uk-based seller. You should then be charged import tax/VAT by your country eg I think Germany is 22%, there can also be duties and handling fees which may also be vatable, import VAT may be lower than your countries normal VAT rate.
If there is an agreement between your country and the UK, you will only pay shipping, handling, admin and import duty (not VAT) that should be relatively low.
Some uk companies will set up an EU based subsidiary. That subsidiary will only charge you VAT at the prevailing rate for your country and the company will internally handle transfer pricing, taxes and duties itself.
yes trading within the EU is easier but if you buy from anywhere outside the EU like the us or china or uk then you should have a simialr experience. In the UK selling to the EU is like selling/exporting to any other country. Over the last few years certain countries, like Italy, appear to deliberately misrepresent how import-VAT works as an excuse to raise more revenue and, from the perspective of some people in the UK, appear to be deliberately punishing britain for brexit.
I like gadgets, especially those that track bio-markers etc, but this one is a little confusing to me. Is sweat loss or electrolyte loss trainable? Meaning, does it change over time? Seems to me that it probably doesn’t and once you’ve run a few tests with such a device and know your baseline, I’m not sure I see the value in continued testing. Would sweat/electrolyte loss really change that much?
I know there is some heat acclimatization that occurs (Garmin somehow “tracks” it), but not sure if that’s the same thing this is doing.
It will change chronically with fitness and acutely with effort, humidity, etc
I guess the most use is either to validate your hydration strategies or to use it as a mechanism to alert you to consume more