Choosing A Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker
By Mike Agerbo
July 11, 2017
Product Discovery
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Summer is a great time to enjoy your favourite music at the cottage, on camping trips, or on the beach. However, these environments tend to be unpredictable and are not always ideal for your expensive tech items. Of course, the biggest risk to your tech in these situations is water: in the form of spills, splashes, and dunks. This is why I always recommend investing in waterproof speakers for outdoor activities. Naturally, when investing in any piece of technology, you want to know what to look for to ensure that it will meet your needs. For this reason, I’ve put together a short guide on what to look for in a waterproof Bluetooth speaker, as well a few suggestions for speakers I personally recommend.
The most important thing to look for in a waterproof speaker is an IP rating, which indicates how resistant a piece of technology is from penetration from solid items and liquids. Basically, an IP rating is usually denoted in this format: IPXY, with the X value showing the resistance from solid items and the Y value accounting for the resistance from liquids. As you can imagine, most tech these days is sealed quite well against solids, so when shopping for a waterproof speaker I recommend paying more attention to the Y value and looking for a value higher than 6. If you’d like to learn more about IP ratings, check out the complete chart of ratings and their meanings.
Since you’ll likely be operating your wireless speaker away from working outlets, you’ll want to pay close attention to battery life. Obviously, you’re looking for the longest battery life you can find and afford in this case. Many speakers these days have batter life in the 20 hour range, making charging a much more infrequent necessity. At a minimum, I recommend looking for a speaker with 12-hour battery life.
Being able to move with your phone or iPod while maintaining your connection to your speaker is the obvious draw to investing in a Bluetooth speaker. Naturally, you want to maximize the range within which you can move around and remain connected. Generally, Bluetooth devices offer a standard 100-foot range these days. That being said, I recommend double-checking that’s the case before investing in a Bluetooth speaker.
Being able to connect multiple devices so that a number of people can contribute to the music choices is a great feature that many Bluetooth speakers offer. This might seem like a minor point but it really does make a big difference to have multiple people control the music at a summer gathering, so I recommend going for a speaker that allows 2-3 wireless connections.
Chosen based on the features and specs I’ve mentioned above, I’ve tested a number of waterproof Bluetooth speakers over the years and the three I’ve found to provide the best sound quality and features are the JBL Charge 3 Portable Bluetooth Speaker, UE Megaboom Wireless Bluetooth Speaker, and UE Wonderboom Waterproof Bluetooth speaker.
IP Rating
The most important thing to look for in a waterproof speaker is an IP rating, which indicates how resistant a piece of technology is from penetration from solid items and liquids. Basically, an IP rating is usually denoted in this format: IPXY, with the X value showing the resistance from solid items and the Y value accounting for the resistance from liquids. As you can imagine, most tech these days is sealed quite well against solids, so when shopping for a waterproof speaker I recommend paying more attention to the Y value and looking for a value higher than 6. If you’d like to learn more about IP ratings, check out the complete chart of ratings and their meanings.
Battery Life
Since you’ll likely be operating your wireless speaker away from working outlets, you’ll want to pay close attention to battery life. Obviously, you’re looking for the longest battery life you can find and afford in this case. Many speakers these days have batter life in the 20 hour range, making charging a much more infrequent necessity. At a minimum, I recommend looking for a speaker with 12-hour battery life.
Wireless Range
Being able to move with your phone or iPod while maintaining your connection to your speaker is the obvious draw to investing in a Bluetooth speaker. Naturally, you want to maximize the range within which you can move around and remain connected. Generally, Bluetooth devices offer a standard 100-foot range these days. That being said, I recommend double-checking that’s the case before investing in a Bluetooth speaker.
Number of Connections
Being able to connect multiple devices so that a number of people can contribute to the music choices is a great feature that many Bluetooth speakers offer. This might seem like a minor point but it really does make a big difference to have multiple people control the music at a summer gathering, so I recommend going for a speaker that allows 2-3 wireless connections.
My Favourite Waterproof Bluetooth Speakers
Chosen based on the features and specs I’ve mentioned above, I’ve tested a number of waterproof Bluetooth speakers over the years and the three I’ve found to provide the best sound quality and features are the JBL Charge 3 Portable Bluetooth Speaker, UE Megaboom Wireless Bluetooth Speaker, and UE Wonderboom Waterproof Bluetooth speaker.