The folks at Soma put a lot of thought in to their product but I wonder if they actually spent much time using it. The things fails at almost every aspect of being a water delivery system and sometimes even the simple, beautiful design hurts the functionality of the Soma. From filling to pouring, there are problems.
First, the Soma is a little tricky to put together. You’ll feel like you’re going to break the thin, flimsy lid. Apparently Soma knows this is a weakness, so they’ve produced a video showing you how to put the lid on. Seriously. It’s part of a longer video welcoming new customers by giving them incorrect information about their own product. In the video we’re told to simply soak the filter for 15 minutes and it’s ready to use, but in the instructions that come with the Soma you are told to give the first three fills to your plants. Seems minor until you see the “dust” on the filter after you’ve soaked it. You really need to run water through it a bit before it’s ready to use.
Once you’ve got the lid on and the filter ready for use the real problems with the Soma start to become apparent. Pouring is a mess. Soma knows this is an issue as well, and guess what? They produced a video showing you how to pour properly. That’s right. You need to be shown how to pour with a Soma, because according to the company you need just the right amount of water in the carafe before the pressure will be right. You also need to pour at the proper angle and I guess you only get to pour out a single glass until you have to refill the Soma because then the pressure won’t be right. You also have to be careful not to overfill the Soma, because then it might leak. If I stand on one foot and whistle Dixie can I get two glasses of water out of the thing before I have to refill for a decent pour?
Probably not, because that’s not the end of the problems with pouring. The lid never opens up fully, causing a choppy sloshing effect that makes water dribble everywhere. They got around this little problem in their pouring video by forcing the lid all the way open before pouring. You know you’ve got a faulty product when the only way you can get it to function is to change the design for the instructional video.
The Soma pours so poorly that they produced a training video and rigged the lid to stay open.
The lid itself is another issue; if you’re not careful while you’re filling the Soma, water will find it’s way through the lid and into the filtered water at the bottom of the carafe. Even worse, sometimes water gets in between the white cone and the glass, waiting to invade your cup on the next pour or just dirty up your otherwise lovely glass carafe, which leads to the final problem; cleaning.
The Soma is marketed as dishwasher safe, but that’s not true. According to their own FAQ on the subject, the white circular ring is not dishwasher safe. This means you have to deconstruct your Soma to wash it and then put it all back together. You’ll need to do this often because of the aforementioned leaky lid and the condensation that builds up inside the carafe.
I wrote Soma to complain about these issues and their reply was baffling. Rather than resolving any of my issues or offering a refund, they simply linked to videos and gave me more examples of how the Soma could perform its duties poorly.
I can’t recommend this product to anyone which is a real shame because a beautiful, functional, and eco-friendly water filtration system is something that a lot of people are looking for. Maybe they’ll get things right with Soma 2.