Chris Richter of Water Doctors (a division of HMI Water Specialists, which is an industry leader that specializes in custom built and engineered water-conditioning equipment) was astonished by the fact that in today's world there still is no connected way to have a network of "water readings that were continuous, accurate, precise and proactive, especially when dealing with potentially large amounts of heavy metals in the water." And this is what prompted the creation of WaterBots, with the help of Chris' father, Bob Richter, founder of Water Doctors and engineer Edgar Duarte.

Using WaterBot paired with any Android or iOS device, we can track the quality of the water we drink in real time.The user's phone or tablet receives WaterBot's stream of data via designated applications.

There are two types of WaterBots to choose from. Node+, the dual-probed version, is the right choice, if you have an existing drinking system like a reverse osmosis system. One sensor lives before your drinking system measuring household water and the other sensor lives after the system measuring drinking water quality. If you don't have a drinking system like a reverse osmosis system, then Node is the better choice. It connects to most standard plumbing lines.

WaterBots are very easy to set up. All they need is access to your water and an internet connection. They ship with connectors to adapt to most standard plumbing connections. They communicate with the OpenWaterQuality.org database, sending your data, anonymously, to a central, open-sourced database to create a huge global network offering water data to research organizations and universities.

Using one of the WaterBots and agreeing to share teh information it collects, would help create a global picture of water quality in different places on Earth, not only locally.