Most electrolyte reviews are written for athletes. Somebody runs a half marathon, sweats hard for ninety minutes, and needs to put it all back at once. That's a real problem, and the products built for it are good at solving it.
It is not the problem you have.
If you're on a warehouse floor, a roof in July, a loading dock, or in a cab with no air conditioning, you are not sweating hard for ninety minutes. You are sweating moderately for ten to twelve hours, with no fridge, no blender, and no clean place to set a cup down. That changes what a good electrolyte powder looks like — and almost nobody writes about it.
So we pulled the actual Supplement Facts panels off the six sugar-free mixes people in this line of work are most likely to be handed or to buy, and compared them on the things that matter across a full shift. Ours is in the table. It does not win every column, and we'll show you exactly where it loses.
The comparison
All figures are per single serving, taken from published panels as of August 2026.
| Product | Sodium | Potassium | Magnesium | Calcium | Sugar | Cost/serving |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LMNT Recharge | 1,000 mg | 200 mg | 60 mg | — | 0 g | $1.50 |
| Liquid I.V. Sugar-Free | ~510 mg | 380 mg | — | — | 0 g | $1.75 |
| DripDrop Zero | 330 mg | 185 mg | 39 mg | — | 0 g | $1.12 |
| Nuun Sport | 300 mg | 150 mg | 25 mg | 13 mg | 1 g | $0.75 |
| Sqwincher Zero | 135 mg | 110 mg | — | — | 0 g | ~$0.48 |
| XGRITX COOLANT | 100 mg | 200 mg | 20 mg | 40 mg | 0 g | $1.17 |
| Ultima Replenisher | 55 mg | 250 mg | 100 mg | 47 mg | 0 g | $0.53–1.05 |
Two notes on accuracy. Liquid I.V.'s sodium varies by flavour — we've seen 510 mg and 530 mg on two verified panels. And Sqwincher publishes panels in both per-8-oz and per-20-oz-stick form, which differ by about 2.5×; the figure above is per 20 oz stick. Nuun Sport is included for completeness but technically isn't zero sugar — it carries 1 g.
Start with the honest part
COOLANT has the second-lowest sodium on this list. One hundred milligrams a scoop, against LMNT's thousand. If you are comparing single servings on the one mineral sweat actually costs you, we lose that comparison and it isn't close.
We're telling you that up front because you'd find it in thirty seconds anyway, and a comparison article that hides its own weak column isn't worth reading.
What we'd argue is that single-serving sodium is the wrong way to read this category if you work a long shift — and the reason is on our label rather than in our marketing.
Sip-all-shift versus one big hit
LMNT is a single-dose product. One stick, 1,000 mg of sodium, taken around a hard effort. That is a sound design for a hard effort.
COOLANT is dosed for repeat use. The label permits up to five scoops in twenty-four hours, which no other product on this list is dosed for. Across a twelve-hour turn, three to five scoops gets you 300–500 mg of sodium, 600–1,000 mg of potassium, 60–100 mg of magnesium and 120–200 mg of calcium — spread across the day, in the water you're already drinking, instead of arriving in one hit at 6am.
That is a different curve for a different job. Whether it's the right curve depends on how hard you actually sweat, which we'll come back to.
What each one is genuinely best at
LMNT — best if you sweat heavily. Roofers in August, foundry work, anyone who finishes a shift with salt crust on their shirt. Sweat sodium losses run roughly 500–1,500 mg per litre, and if you're at the top of that range nothing else here keeps up. It's the most expensive per serving at $1.50 and the taste is genuinely salty, which people either like or can't get past. LMNT also publishes Certificates of Analysis for recent batches, which almost nobody else in this category does.
Sqwincher Zero — best value, and the one your employer probably buys. At roughly 48 cents a serving it's less than half the price of most of this list, and it's sold through safety-supply distributors straight onto jobsites. Sodium is modest at 135 mg per 20 oz stick, magnesium isn't in it at all, and the vitamin C dose is high. If there's a bucket of these in the break room, drinking them is better than not drinking them.
Ultima Replenisher — best magnesium, lowest sodium. A hundred milligrams of magnesium is the most on this list by a distance, and if night cramps are your problem rather than heat, that matters. But 55 mg of sodium is very little for anyone actually sweating, so treat this as a daily mineral drink rather than a heat-work product.
Liquid I.V. Sugar-Free — best potassium, easiest to find. Three hundred and eighty milligrams, in every grocery store in America. No magnesium at all, and at $1.75 it's the priciest here. The allulose-and-amino-acid blend is designed around absorption rate, which is a reasonable thing to optimise for.
DripDrop Zero — the balanced one. Nothing extreme in any column, ORS heritage, and the brand sells hard into occupational and first-responder channels. If you want a middle-of-the-road pick that does everything adequately, this is it.
XGRITX COOLANT — best for all-day sipping, and the only one built around the shift rather than the workout. Four electrolytes including calcium, a full seven-vitamin B complex, caffeine-free so it doesn't interfere if you're on nights, sugar-free so there's nothing to crash off at hour eight, and dosed for repeat use across a turn. Low per-scoop sodium is the trade-off, and if you're a heavy sweater you should take more scoops or take LMNT.
How to actually choose
Do the shirt test. Finish a shift, look at your shirt. White salt rings means you're a salty sweater and you need sodium above everything else — go LMNT, or take COOLANT at four to five scoops rather than one.
Check the caffeine. If you rotate onto nights, caffeine in a hydration drink is a problem, not a feature. Everything in the table above is caffeine-free except LMNT's Lemonade Iced Tea flavour, which carries about 50 mg from black tea.
Work out cost per shift, not per serving. A 48-cent stick you drink three times costs more per day than a $1.17 scoop you drink twice. Sqwincher still wins on that maths — just don't compare a single serving of one against three of another.
If your job drug tests, read the whole label. Not the marketing — the ingredient list. Any product worth buying prints every dose with no proprietary blends, so you can check it against your employer's policy before you swallow it. Ask for the Certificate of Analysis too; LMNT publishes theirs, and we'll send ours on request for any XGRITX product. Most of this category will not give you either.
The short version
If you sweat heavily, buy LMNT. If your employer already stocks Sqwincher, drink it. If cramping at night is the problem, Ultima has the magnesium. If you want something you can sip across a whole shift without sugar, caffeine or a crash — and you want to be able to read every milligram on the label — that's what we built COOLANT for.
We'd rather you bought the right one than bought ours.
XGRITX makes shift-dosed supplements for warehouse, trucking and trade crews. Founded by a 25-year warehouse veteran. Every formula prints every dose — no proprietary blends. See the electrolyte range →
Figures taken from published Supplement Facts panels: LMNT (drinklmnt.com), Liquid I.V. (liquid-iv.com and verified retailer panels), Ultima Replenisher (ultimareplenisher.com), Sqwincher (sqwincherindustrial.com), DripDrop (dripdrop.com and verified retailer panels), Nuun (nuunlife.com), COOLANT (XGRITX Supplement Facts panel). Accurate as of August 2026; formulations change, so check the current panel before you buy.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
