Do You Need a Battery Powered Neti Pot?

The arms race of neti pots is finally heating up, and not a millennium too soon. Although this ancient treatment has been around since long before modern medicine, it has only been in recent years that device makers have begun refining the design.

The latest trend? Battery-powered nasal irrigation, which means machines capable of clearing out this area with greater force and consistency than gravity alone:

Powered by a pair of AA batteries, the irrigator inside this contraption pulls a saline rinse from its upper tank through one of your nostrils, out the other, and then into its lower collection tank which after a couple of treatments must look absolutely horrific.

Gizmodo has a characteristically disturbing GIF to headline that article. But ultimately this technology isn’t especially scary or concerning. We already have nasal irrigation devices that supplement the power of gravity with squeezing; this design simply offloads the squeezing action to a small motor instead.

Far more important is what you irrigate with. If you’re not using distilled water, or following these guidelines to scrub your own water supply clean of microbes, then you could be placing yourself in danger of a serious infection.

So by all means, go for the batteries if that’s your thing. Just fill those memorable tanks with sterile water.