--- title: Turn Air Into Water with Water-Gen's Atmospheric Water Generator description: An Israeli startup is selling its atmospheric water generators to several countries canonical: https://time.com/75612/atmospheric-water-generator-watergen/ author: Anita Hamilton article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-24T19:05:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:48:42.613Z og:title: This Gadget Makes Gallons of Drinking Water Out of Air og:description: An Israeli startup is selling its atmospheric water generators to several countries, but it may be a while before a consumer version hits the shelves og:url: https://time.com/75612/atmospheric-water-generator-watergen/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt50f38e9f0c685f2c/69868c4813c79f3830191c95/sgt_pouring1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: Water-Gen og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Gadget Makes Gallons of Drinking Water Out of Air twitter:description: An Israeli startup is selling its atmospheric water generators to several countries, but it may be a while before a consumer version hits the shelves twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt50f38e9f0c685f2c/69868c4813c79f3830191c95/sgt_pouring1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Gadget Makes Gallons of Drinking Water Out of Air > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Anita Hamilton](https://time.com/author/anita-hamilton/) ## Anita Hamilton Apr 24, 2014 7:05 PM UTC  A U.S. Army member pours water generated by Water-Gen's Atmospheric Water-Generation Unit during an exercise. A U.S. Army member pours water generated by Water-Gen's Atmospheric Water-Generation Unit during an exercise. Courtesy Water-Gen by [Anita Hamilton](https://time.com/author/anita-hamilton/) ## Anita Hamilton Apr 24, 2014 7:05 PM UTC Water is in the air nearly everywhere on earth, even in the most parched desert. But that doesn’t help much when you’re thirsty because most of that H20 is in its vaporized form, not its handy liquid state. To solve that dilemma, an Israeli startup based in Rishon LeZion has developed a portable water generator, which extracts water from the air by sucking it in and cooling it down, much like an air conditioner, but a lot more efficient. “We bring the water in the air to the dew point and recycle the cold air so we can reuse it to cool the water even more,” [Water-Gen](http://www.water-gen.com/) CEO Arye Kohavi told TIME.  Courtesy Water-Gen Called the Atmospheric Water Generation Unit, the generator-powered device can produce up to 450 gallons of clean water a day for as little as eight cents a gallon. (It needs about 310 watt-hours of energy to make a liter — just over a quart — of drinking water.) Available in either ground or vehicle configurations, the units are no lightweights, weighing in at about 1100 and 175 pounds, respectively. Prices start at $18,000 for the Gen-40 vehicle model and $30,000 for the larger, Gen-350 ground unit (shown at left). Ok, so chances are you won’t be hauling them around on your next camping trip. But the units are quickly gaining traction in the military sector and are currently being tested by armed forces from seven countries, including the United States, India, France and Mexico. Water-Gen [isn’t the first company](http://store.ecoloblue-world.com/6-atmospheric-water-generators) to market such a device, but Kohavi says his units are more energy efficient because they reuse the cool air generated while converting water vapors to liquid to create even more water. He’s also working on adapting the technology for personal use in clothes dryers and dehumidifiers that could speed drying time by as much as a third. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/75612/atmospheric-water-generator-watergen/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/75612/atmospheric-water-generator-watergen/"},"headline":"This Gadget Makes Gallons of Drinking Water Out of Air","datePublished":"2014-04-24T19:05:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:48:42.613Z","description":"An Israeli startup is selling its atmospheric water generators to several countries, but it may be a while before a consumer version hits the shelves","url":"https://time.com/75612/atmospheric-water-generator-watergen/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Technology","Water"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt50f38e9f0c685f2c/69868c4813c79f3830191c95/sgt_pouring1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Anita Hamilton","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/anita-hamilton/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt50f38e9f0c685f2c/69868c4813c79f3830191c95/sgt_pouring1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Water-Gen","caption":"A U.S. Army member pours water generated by Water-Gen's Atmospheric Water-Generation Unit during an exercise.","creditText":"Courtesy Water-Gen","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/75612/atmospheric-water-generator-watergen/","name":"This Gadget Makes Gallons of Drinking Water Out of Air"}}]}] ```