LMC, Ltd Nerox Gravity Feed Water Filters

As many of you will find out I am a huge fan of water filters and what they can do to help your life in the case of a Natural Disaster, Hiking, Camping or weekend Get-A-Way trips. My goal is to discuss and test several on the market and talking about the good points & bad points of each. If you go back to 2018, I started doing Portable Water Filter Product Reviews and compared the Sawyer Mini to Life Straw as well as Survivor Filter and then on too the Renovo MUV. The Renovo Line of products and Survivor Water Filter to date have been my favorites but that may be fixing to change with the release of several of the new filters we are going to showcase.

LMC, LTD Water Filters is from Limerick, Ireland and is a Gravity Feed Water Filter only and is not the typical filter USA Consumers are use to seeing in a portable water filter.

We were contacted some time ago about doing a product review on new water filter on the market filter and were sent some samples to try. They were nothing like we had seen before and arrived in a cardboard box with no accompanying paperwork and no instruction on how to actually use them, the filter actually was not even in any consumer packaging itself, which immediately I found odd. I, immediately contacted the company and within a few weeks was sent a new filters in what the consumer would get in the consumer packaging which I have pictured below.

The LMC Water Filter states on their website they are approved thru the following organizations: World Health Organizations, UN Refugee Agency, Unicef, Concern Worldwide, Irish Aid, Water For People, Brothar, GOAL, Water Aid, Haven, Red Cross, International Water Management Institution for water quality. They are currently in only one city in the US and that is New Jersey, other than that they are in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Le Sotho, South America, Brazil, Haiti, Indonesia / Philippines, India, and Abu Dhabi. They are heavy in Kenya, Brazil & Haiti. They offer two system presently, one is the container system. Looks like a pool filter system and the other is a Gravity Feed system which this is what we have.

The gravity fed system. Comes in a plastic bag with a small rubber type tube attached to the filter. The filter is 6.5” x 6.5” square. States it is capable of filtering 25 liters of water per day; 6 gallons and has a life span of 2500 liters (66 gallons) or three months. The unit has a built in system to cease to working as it approaches it end of life. It also comes with some type of foam squares you are to use to wipe away dirt & debris away from the filer during it cycles.

The filter bio also states this is NEVER to be used on chemically treated water including water treated from mining tailings, ponds or near large agricultural operations. It goes on the state that it also should not be used to filter out Sea Water. Continuing on with the Bio: it states it combines the technology of a Ceramic filter, Purification Tables and Sand to make an all in one filter which is “Brittle” and extra care must be taken when using and working with this filter and you are to never use a cracked or broken filter. Do Not Drop or place pressure on this product in any manner. The Intestinal or unintentional impact of this product on a surface may damage the filtration mechanism with the LMC Filter and render it in affective and unusable. REVIEW: Now I know why they are not being used in the USA and especially in the South where we have constant Mining, Industrial Plants build along the rivers and throughout the entire Southern Region; this would also apply in the Northern Region. If this will not filter minerals and metal contaminants it is not an effective filter for our area. While this may be good in “SOME” rural area, how are you to know if the water runoff you are collecting water from is not from upstream where an industrial plant is?

I personally can see this is Alaska, out West possible Northern California & in the High Desert but even then you have high metal contaminants from the mining. May be in the Great Smokey Mountains, Colorado or somewhere up there. Secondly, based on the fragileness of this, no legitimate hiker or camper will take this on their trip. I don’t know if a RV’er would take this as a back up when there are other more compact viable options. We took one apart and it has elements of a ceramic filter and this is again not meant for traveling like we do here in the USA. Also, filtering 6 gallons a day, how many of these would you have to have for a family? The company also did not reflect how long it would take to filter that 6 gallons; apparently all day. The more overwhelming concern I have is that I have contacted the company numerous times and while there replies have always been very professional, they have never once answered my question as to what the filter is made of. I.e. HydroBlu Filter is a Hollow Fiber Filter which I love and is 10 times better than the Sawyer Mini by the way; they are open about it and they filter .01 microns, 99.9999 Bacteria, it will filter 100,000 Gallons. Even HydroBlu’s SideKick Straw will filter .01 Microns with 99.999 Bacteria. This little straw pre-filter membrane, increasing the longevity of the filter. Nasty chemicals and heavy metals are absorbed by the Activated Carbon Filter. Activated Carbon removes lead, iron, cadmium, nickel, chromium, and zinc along with chlorine, pesticides, herbicides, gasoline, and diesel fuel. So, if this little straw can filter metals contaminants and even diesel fuel, why can LMV not filter one from there’s? Based on the initial review, this is not a viable filter for travelers and for urban areas and only usable for select areas within the USA. I was not informed on the retail price and that is not a concern for me right now, what is a concern is the fact LMC did not answer my questions as to what it is made out of and how many microns it will filter and to what extent it will filter compared to the other on the market here in the USA.

During my research I did find a report out of Moscow, Russia the stated their filter was .04 Microns and will filter: Copper, Zinc, Lead, Iron and Molybdenum and levels on average decreased using the LMC Filter on Copper 36%, Zinc 83%, Lead, 33%, Iron, 38%, and Molybdenum 9%, so the filter is working and contrary to their bio, it will filter some metal minerals out of water.. Another report by Ukrainian by Institute of Mineral Research stated that after water was cleansed by a filter .04 levels of pesticides from that area went down 500 times. In this report they also state the LMC Water Filter is a .04 Micro Filter but nothing is said as to where they got that information who they determined if the filter was in fact a .04 micro filter, they just stated a filer of .04 would reduce levels 500% One report from Moscow stated the Nerox Filter (Which is this one) is a .02 Micron not .04 like the other filters results reflect. It goes on to state this filter is designed for drinking water taken from a water –source, or bare source i.e. Hiking conditions. Filter Material based on a track membrane which pores are .02 microns in diameter are used in this device. Filter is made in state with a flat square filter closed on both ends by a lid. Filter works by being dunked into the water source i.e. bucket or pale elevated higher than the collection device connected via a tube. This gravity feed system pulls the water thru the filter. The filter will require constant ablution to keep is clean as dirt and debris will stick to the outer layer of the filter. LMC, LTd. provided a minimum amount of foam square pads for cleaning but no instructions are given other a diagram photo on the outside of the initial packaging. I would suggest for LMC going forward to have this etched on the Nerox outer plastic case that houses the filter or on the inside of the case. LMC has a special section on their website dedicated to reports by various institutes who tested their filter but it appears most are comparing it to tap water. One report actually says this filter is only to be used with tap water, rivers, ponds and well water only; it will filter pesticides effectively as long as those pesticide are below a certain amount, I think 20%. The one thing all reports reflect is that it passes all water quality test, for what they tested (tap water) and the reduction of metals, minerals and pesticides that reside in these countries where their Tap Water is not purified like ours is here in the USA.

I would state for my review that average consumers here in the USA, we do not need nor want to read complicated chemical / testing reports that by all accounts are confusing to the laymen. We need basic information to make a quick basic judgement. Now my review may also be too technical for some, but some may appreciate the thoroughness of it too. After checking it out for some time and doing my own internal review of the filter I see that while it may actually work in some areas, based on LMC statement on the packaging they will inherently loss a lot of people here in the USA based on their statement that it will not filter chemical treated water. Most of the South has been either mined or gas well drilled and we have water run offs everywhere that has some type of chemical treatment in our water. While the EPA states it is safe we all want to better protect ourselves when we can with the best filters on the market. Same goes for the North, Northeast with auto plants or former auto plants and major industry plants everywhere and out West with Oil & Gas Well exploration everywhere. Environmentalists have been fighting a battle over major industry for years polluting our rivers, lakes and streams. In Alabama, all major industry at one time was built along the rivers and there is still chemicals leaching into the water today. One testing lab in West Alabama states each year when their new report comes out the we are not to eat but so many Catfish that come out of the Black Warrior River due to levels of metal (Mercury and Zinc) contaminants in the water. I do not feel at this time this being a viable option for most Hikers but Campers and RV’ers might use it but it is hard to get past the fragileness of it and how exactly are you to carry a large enough container to keep it submerged? Hikers & Campers do not usually carry a 5 Gallon Bucket that you will need to submerge the filter in for it too work! Rv'ers might but why would they carry the extra bucket and waste it for that all day when there are smaller options for them.

I will also say that most campers might not go thru 25 Liters or 6 gallons a day and most filters sets I know of have 10 liter collapsible, gravity feed bag they use that is much easier to use than the bucket idea and they also do not have a limit of how much they can filter per day. Only producing 6 gallons a day is not much in the big scheme of things but when you have nothing, I guess it is! If this is true and if they are filtering water for a village as LMC states they are doing, this would make a difference I am sure. I do however see this truly being a great option for third world countries and it might be good in here in the USA with regards to Natural Disasters Recovery Efforts when you need to help workers as well as people that lost their homes and are in need of filtered water on a short term plan. LMC / Nerox need to work on several issues with their filter design and concept: One being the limitations of 25 liters a day, the filter clogging too easily, the fact you have to have some sort of bucket of device that this has to be submerged in. For filtering tap water I see their other larger unit being viable for home and / or business use but not portable use. I do see the Nerox Square Filter being used too filter river, pond or lake water, I don’t have time to constantly stand there to take it apart and wipe it all day; this is a flaw in the design as well as the fragileness of it. I can see this on a two stage filter type. One, keep it like it is and have the US Gov give it too disaster survivors in affected natural disaster areas. Create a larger scale unit that is more portable for the operations of pop up mini cities that form when a natural disaster happens in the field by the Feds.

So, I hope this helps you in understanding the LMC, Ltd - Nerox Square Portable Water Filter. Conclusions: Yes, it is portable but fragile and limitations on water filtration per day. Only intended for rivers, lakes and streams, not anything treated. Hard to get around the fact of needing a bucket or container you will have to travel with or carry. Unlike other water filters that screw onto a water bottle or inline between a gravity feed bag and your collection device, this needs total submersion and this and I just do not see Campers & Hikers using it However I could see this in an emergency situation do to a natural disaster and you are out of water or live in a community where water quality is not the best, just be prepared for a slow return thru water filtering. This is the major thing to think about with this filter. We will have our own video from our testing published soon, but we are presently Sheltering in Place as a result of the 2020 Covin-19 Virus. In the mean time, check out this company video