LaVie PREMIUM (1 L) Innovative Tap Water Purifier with Natural Bamboo Case - Purify Water in 15 Minutes Using UVA light – No Filters, No Maintenance, Just Pure Fresh Water

This is an amazing machine, it completely removes the bad taste in our tap water without using any filters. I have been using filter jugs for years, but the filters are really expensive and are apparently a health risk, so I thought we’d try this new type of system which I heard about when we were last in France.The box arrives well protected, and nice to see it uses recycled packaging. Inside you get the machine – mine is the aluminium version, a glass bottle, and a (UK) plug.It’s easy to use, you plug it in, fill the bottle with tap water (not right up to the top, this causes problems apparently), and put the bottle in the machine which lights up to show its working. After 15mins the lights go out and the water is ready to drink.I also bought a spare bottle so that I always have a full one in the fridge.We find ourselves drinking much more water now that it tastes good, I even use it to make tea and my sourdough bread.It’s definitely a bit of an investment, but when you look at the price of filters, we’re going to get our money back pretty fast. It also looks way better than a plastic jug on the table!

Bought this for a friend after buying one previously. It is elegant to look at, easy to use and works very well. One of my better acquisitions.

I rarely come swooping down, trampling out the vintage (grapes of wrath and all that) to give a scathing review, but this product is pretty deserving of one. First, the scope of its purification is pretty limited and while the product description doesn't seem to make any completely dishonest claims, it certainly makes misleading ones. Second, the construction of the bamboo/light box looks pretty shoddy and isn't really that attractive. Third, the product is not good value for money.First, the product's purifying qualities are limited. It says of itself "No Filters, No Maintenance, Just Pure Fresh Water". But what is pure, fresh water? Evidently, it is chlorine-free water. Because that's all this product has been proven to do in a lab report that the company publishes on its own website (the study was presumably and independent one done by Nicolas Roche of the IUT d’Aix-Marseille, a French research-led university). Mind you, people from the English market would have difficulty reading this report as it's published in French and the company provides no translation. Roche affirms that after 15 minutes of using the product, the UV-A light it applies greatly removes the chlorine content from your water. He notes, however, that no bacteriological change in the water occurred. Because the system uses no filters, the mineral composition also remains unchanged. Therefore the scope of its purification process is limited and its claims to make water more tasty are a bit unfounded -- you're water will taste the same, and in fact I found that waiting 15 minutes to drink my water simple made it less cold and less refreshing. In the product description, LaVie writes:"LaVie next generation water purifiers use UV-A light to make great tasting chlorine-free water with no need for cartridges or filters. The patented treatment process uses innovative technology known as chlorine photolysis. UV-A light eliminates chlorine in tap water, and the process produces high energy free radicals which destroy organic contaminants in the water such as pharmaceutical residues, pesticides and bacteria." This is a bit misleading because they say that their water purifiers remove chlorine (true), by a certain process using UV-A lights. They then make the claim that UV-A light produces free radicals that, among other things, destroy bacteria. UV-A light has been found to have no germicidal characteristics. It is UV-C light that has been proven to kill germs and bacteria. So is LaVie lying? I'm not sure, but it seems that they are implying that UV-A light, which their product emits, kills bacteria, while only affirming that their product eliminates chlorine. Quite misleading.Second, the bamboo box is not that attractively made. This is of course my aesthetic opinion, but I have included pictures of it. Inside of the bamboo box is a metal cylinder. As you can see in the images I have included, the hole cut in the box does not even perfectly match up with the metal cylinder. You can see the electrical components at the bottom of the box and while they are protected on the bottom by a plastic cover, they are open to the air inside the box. My flatmate, interested in seeing how the box emits the light into the bottle, noticed that there were buttons or switches that, when pushed down on simultaneously (which the bottle does by its weight), trigger the light. He wanted to see if he could trigger the light himself so he pushed down on all three buttons with his fingers and received a little electric shock! This begs the question of saftey for children whose smaller arms could more easily access those buttons. This also begs the questions of why you would have exposed electrical components in a space where you are to place a water bottle that might have droplets of water on its outside that could subsequently roll down onto the electrical components. This is bad design, both in form and function.Finally, because of its technical ineffectiveness and its poor design, I can only say that at almost £210, this product is extremely poor value for money. If we take the fact that LaVie sells the bottle alone for around £17, we can calculate the retail value of this light-shining bamboo box at £193. This is madness for something that is really proven only to remove chlorine from water. Do most of us in Britain gather our drinking water from swimming pools.If I must be generous on one point it is that I think this product is not really intended for the British market, but rather the developing world where people may still purify water using chemical treatments like iodine or chlorine (which will kill bacteria) and then could use this product to eliminate the chlorine taste. But we are not a developing country and this product will not in any way significantly improve the quality coming from your taps.I was going to give this product a two-star review, simply because it does do some of the things it claims and because I do like the design of the bottle, but after writing all of this, I have actually convinced myself that it is only deserving of one-star. I am sorry LaVie, but your product is ineffective, your design is poor, and your pricing is unreasonable.

Provide clean and tasty waterVery easy to use, ready in 15 minutesEcologic and economic in the long run (post upfront cost)

I couldn't believe that UVA had the ability to filter out bacteria and chlorine from our tap water. The company LaVie also claim to remove pharmaceutical residue too. That is some claim and I checked research online to check the research and efficacy. Sure enough UVA has been used for several decades to filter water beyond drinking standard.So the LaVIe product arrived. A smart, toughened glass bottle with a bamboo lid that sits in a bamboo crate-like casing. Herein is the UV light that does all the work.So - you simply plug the bamboo case in to a standard socket. I rinsed out the bottle and then simply filled it - not quite to the top (instructions online tell you to fill leaving a 5cm gap at the top) with cold tap water. Gently screw on the lid, not too tight; and then carefully immerse the bottle into the case. The UV light powers up with a soft blue glow. It takes 15 minutes to achieve the cleansing process. Then the water is ready to use.You can leave the bottle in the case (it does become quite warm - not unpleasant) or remove the bottle and put in the fridge to chill it down. I like my drinking water at room temperature, so I leave it in the case or take it to my desk ...The flavour is smooth and notably better than out of the tap. My husband and I have done a comparison test and the LAVie definitely tastes better. I am now ordering a second bottle as we keep running out and my husband wants a bottle on his desk too! The bottles are shock resistant which is a helpful feature.There are no instructions beyond basics on the box, but it is easy to look up more information online and the Amazon listing tells you plenty about how it works ... The UV bulb is guaranteed for 200 000 litres of water - that seems quite generous !Because the water tastes so good - and at an ambient temperature - I am drinking much more water - and feeling better for it. Highly recommended. I have already told many friends about it. It's not cheap but a worthy investment. I am now using the water for cooker, watering my plants, the dogs water bowl ... so not just as drinking water.No mucky plumbing, no cartridges, so probably in the long term this is good value. Excellent product. Cheers!