LARQ Purevis vs Filtered Bottle: Which Should You Get?

LARQ bottles offer two main ways to great cleaner water from your water bottle and it can be difficult to decide how to spend your money and which particular bottle you should buy.

They have a PureVis bottle which uses UV-C rays to kill bacteria, protozoa and viruses in your bottle and to self-clean the bottle and then they offer a Filter bottle which has a physical filter and can remove contaminants.

Both work differently for different circumstances. So which bottle should you get?

The LARQ PureVis UV bottle is ideal for it's self cleaning feature and for water which you suspect may contain bacteria that could make you sick (eg. river water or untreated water). The PureVis does NOT filter out contaminants or particulates though.

The LARQ Filter bottle is ideal for safe-to-drink water sources (eg. Municipality water) where you want to remove chemicals and contaminants like Chlorine, heavy metals and micro-plastics. The filter bottle does not filter out bacteria, protozoa and viruses though.

The Filtered bottle is also cheaper to purchase and will save you around $40-$60 in the cost of the bottle. But the filters need to be replaced every 2 months or so at a cost of around $20 each. So within 6 months or so the PureVis bottle actually works out to have a cheaper overall cost.

Really, which bottle you should choose comes down to what type of filtration you want.

The Type of Filtration Is Wildly Different

The biggest difference between the 2 types of LARQ bottles (and what will likely ultimately make your decision) is the type of filtration that each of the bottles do.

Many people think that the LARQ PureVis filters your water and remove bad things, but this isn't actually the case. It treats your water in a very different way.

PureVis Kills Bacteria, Protozoa and Viruses With UV-C Light

The LARQ PureVis bottle doesn't “filter” your water by removing anything from your water.

Instead it uses UV-C rays from the LED light in the lid to kill any micro-organisms in your water bottle.

UV-C light is very harmful to bacteria, protozoa and viruses and by running a 1 minute cycle (LARQ's “Normal Mode”) it'll kill most of these problematic microorganisms and by running a 3 minute cycle (LARQ's “Adventure Mode”) it'll kill nearly all of them.

This makes water from questionable sources safe to drink from because the levels of microorganisms won't make you sick.

This is absolutely ideal if you're hiking or traveling to other countries where your main water sources are questionable quality. I love being able to drink directly from the river with little to no worries about ever getting sick.

However, it does NOT do any active filtering or the removal of anything from the water.

It doesn't remove the microorganisms (it just kills them and they stay in the water which is fine) but it also doesn't filter out any chemicals, heavy metals, other contaminants or microplastics.

It will NOT make your water taste any better or any different. You'll effectively still be drinking the same water with nothing removed from it.

So you still need to be confident that your water source isn't contaminated with chemicals and if you're trying to filter tap water and remove things like chlorine and other additives that municipalities add in to keep the water bacteria free then this type of bottle won't do that.

For that you'll need the filtered bottle.

LARQ Filter Uses Nano Zero Filters To Remove Heavy Metals, Chemicals and Particulates

The LARQ Filter bottle doesn't use UV rays to kill harmful microorganisms but instead uses a physical nano filter that allows water to pass through but stops larger molecules like certain chemicals and heavy metals.

The LARQ Filter bottle uses a straw lid and at the base of the straw is the NanoZero filter which also contains activated charcoal. This traps harmful chemicals and particulates so you're drinking cleaner and more pure water.

It won't remove absolutely everything but it will remove a lot of harmful substances that you don't want to be drinking such has:

Removes:

• Lead
• Chlorine
• Heavy metals
• VOCs
• Pesticides
• Mercury
• Cadminum
• Particulates
• Herbicides
• Chemicals
• Microplastics

The filter will also make your water taste better (or taste different depending on your palate) and a lot of people really like this feature.

The Filter does not completely filter out all bacteria, protozoa and viruses (viruses in particular are incredibly small and able to pass through filters like this).

This means if you suspect that your water source may contain microorganisms which could make you sick (eg. River water while you're out hiking) then this isn't the bottle for you.

But, if you're drinking from a clean water source (eg. tap water) and you just want to filter out the extra chemicals and potential heavy metals and micro plastics then this is the ideal type of LARQ bottle for you.

The straw lid also makes drinking super convenient.

Pricing

The pricing of these 2 bottles varies quite a bit with the PureVis UV light bottles being more expensive than the filtered bottles by around $40-$60.

Pricing can change at any moment but below is a table of pricing from Spring 2023 where you can see the different bottles and the prices they are selling for on LARQ's website.

Amazon pricing may differ and prices may be different when you read this, but it looks like the PureVis UV bottle will always be more expensive than the filters. Which makes sense because a fair bit of technology goes into the lid of the UV bottle, which would increase costs.

Spring 2023 Pricing

Product	PureVis UV	Filtered
Insulated 17 oz	$99.00	$58.00 $53.00 SAVE $46.00
PureVis Insulated 25 oz	$118.00	$68.00 $63.00 SAVE $55.00
PureVis Movement 24 oz	$89.00	$55.00 $50.00 SAVE $39.00
PureVis Movement 32 oz	$98.00	$65.00 $60.00 Save $38.00

PureVis Lasts Years While Filters Need To Be Replaced Every 2 Months (At A Cost)

While the Filtered bottle is cheaper in the beginning, it's more expensive in the long run.

This is because the filters in the bottle need to be replaced every 40 gallons or every 151 Liters.

This is approximately every 2 months and the filters cost around $20 each to purchase from LARQ. Currently you can't source them from Amazon, which I would prefer because I have Prime and get free shipping.

This means the $40-$60 that you're saving in the bottle cost gets eaten up pretty quickly by the filter replacement cost and in 4-6 months the PureVis UV bottle ends up having a cheaper overall cost.

But I think the type of filter you want will determine which bottle to buy more than the total cost. Filters cost money, that's the same with Brita filters as it is with LARQ.

The Lids Are Different But The Both Fit The Same Bottles

The bases of the bottles are identical and the same for both models and the different lids fit the bottles the same.

However, the lids are different in their design.

The PureVis UV lid is just a regular screw cap lid that you need to unscrew and drink from the bottle as you would any water bottle.

The Filter bottle lid is a straw lid with the filter on the bottle. You MUST drink through the straw otherwise you don't get any filtration.

You Can Buy The Lids Separately If You Already Have The Bottle

If you're struggling to decide between the UV version and filtered version then why not get the best of both worlds and buy an extra lid of the different type?

They both fit on the same bottle so you can mix and match them

Price wise, you're almost always better off buying the PureVis bottle and then buying the filter cap separately than you are buying the Filter bottle and the PureVis Cap separately.

LARQ Filtered Cap $29.95 $25.00

LARQ Purevis Cap – $69.96

LARQ PureVis UV vs Filtered Bottle: Which Would I Buy?

For me personally I prefer the PureVis UV bottle because of the longevity of the water treatment (the lid will continue to treat water for years) and because my needs are mainly outdoors when I want to drink from the river.

I also like the self-cleaning aspect of the UV lid because I'm not great at cleaning my water bottle as often as I should.

However, I know that for a long of my friends they are much more concerned about heavy metal and chemicals like chlorine in their water and they love being able to filter these out.

Sure you can do it at home with your Brita or whatever brand you have but being able to do it at the gym or the office or wherever you are with the LARQ Filter bottle would be a big plus for them and this would be their choice 100% over the UV lid.

Ultimately the choice is yours and you should get whichever bottle you like best. Both are great bottles with great filtration options.

You just need to choose the one that best suits you.