The LifeStraw Max Water Filter Can Save You From Contaminated Water

Floods, hurricanes, heavy rainstorms and wildfires can contaminate local water and make it potable without first boiling or chemically treating it. Even in the absence of a disaster, thousands of alerts about boiling water are issued each year in the United States by city and state environmental agencies or water utilities.

This led us to wonder if there was a better solution to the ongoing problem of contaminated industrial water. A filtration device that could provide clean, disease-free water quickly without requiring electricity would be great. One that could do it in sufficient quantities to provide a family, or even an entire neighborhood, with enough water to drink, cook, and wash until the crisis is over would be even better.

We found one: the LifeStraw Max.

Editor’s Note: The Max is currently sold out in stores. LifeStraw emailed us that their entire inventory of Max units has been sent to Turkey and Syria to help with earthquake recovery. They expect Max units to be back in stock in the first week of May. For now, you can sign up for a notification when they return.

LifeStraw Max

Proven in the field and in independent laboratory tests, the Max removes virtually all pathogens and many contaminants, and outperforms most household water filters.

The LifeStraw Max removes virtually all viruses, bacteria and other pathogens from contaminated water, in addition to reducing sediment and many industrial and agricultural chemicals and dissolved metals. Its capabilities surpass those of the water filters many people may already have at home. No larger than a beach-sized cooler (20″ x 16″ x 13″), the LifeStraw Max is easy to store when not in use and weighs only 16 pounds, making it easy to take out when needed too. The device does not use electricity but needs to be connected to a standard garden hose to work; Thankfully, it’s rare for municipal water utilities to shut down, even during a natural disaster that results in boiling water. If you frequently order boiling water from your area, the LifeStraw Max is a viable long-term option, and it’s far more efficient than boiling — it can clean up to 40 gallons an hour, and its ultrafilters can clean 26,500 gallons before you need to replace them. When a group of neighbors share the initial cost, it’s even more convenient and can provide several households with clean water for weeks.

Our research was inspired in part by the summer of 2022 drinking water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, which exposed more than 150,000 people to a distressing boil report. Flooding and neglected infrastructure led to the near complete failure of the city’s municipal water supply. Many residents had no water supply at all because critical pumping equipment and pipes had failed, while those who had supplies drew from reservoirs that might have been contaminated with disease-causing bacteria. Just a few months later, in December 2022, a cold snap ruptured several mains and the entire city was once again hit with a boiling water alert. Jackson is perhaps the most visible recent example of the vulnerability of the US drinking water supply, but it’s not the only one — and it won’t be the last of its kind.

Why you should trust us

I’ve been testing water filters for Wirecutter since 2016. I’ve spoken extensively to filter certification organizations to understand how they conduct their testing, and I’ve spoken to representatives from several water filter manufacturers. For this guide, I spoke to LifeStraw Director of Engineering Jean-Luc Madier and LifeStraw Chief Brand Officer Tara Lundy. I also picked up a LifeStraw Max to see how it works and how it fits into the routines of a typical American household.

What the LifeStraw Max is and does

Photo: Marki Williams

Launched in early 2022, LifeStraw Max was designed as an easy-to-deploy water filtration system for disaster relief and humanitarian crises in developing countries. “The Max was the answer to ‘the ultimate,'” said Tara Lundy, LifeStraw’s chief brand officer. Working with organizations like the World Health Organization, Doctors Without Borders and UNICEF, the LifeStraw team set out to find a high-volume filtering option for internally displaced people in refugee camps. During development of the system, which focused on pathogen removal, “we looked at it and said, ‘This has applications in the US, too,’ Lundy noted. (The household version has an additional filter that accounts for agricultural runoff and dissolved metals; disease is the primary concern in humanitarian efforts.)

Physically, the LifeStraw Max is small (20 x 16 x 13 inches). It’s also lightweight at 16 pounds and its carry handles make it easy to move around. Using a standard garden hose fitting to connect to an existing water supply, it uses line pressure to force the water through something called ultrafilters, which are capable of removing particles as small as individual viruses. Line pressure also lets the LifeStraw Max deliver plenty of clean water quickly, up to 40 gallons per hour (one gallon every 90 seconds). For comparison, the gravity-fed jug filters we tested typically take about 10 minutes to filter just a half-gallon. (They are also not certified for microbiological filtration.)

The heart of the LifeStraw Max system is its pair of hollow fiber membrane ultrafilters. “It’s very easy to understand,” said Jean-Luc Madier, LifeStraw’s chief technology officer, who oversees the research and development and testing programs. “They have a kind of straw with tiny pores, and the pores are smaller than bacteria and viruses. It’s a physical barrier – even if you use it for a very long time, you’ll never bypass it.”

In the LifeStraw Max membrane ultrafilters, the pores allow water to pass through, but block the passage of anything larger than 0.02 microns (20 nanometers) in diameter. As a result, they reduce virus levels in wastewater-contaminated water by 99.999% and bacterial levels by 99.999999%, making the water safe to drink. An additional pre-filter inside the LifeStraw Max captures coarse sediment, extending the life of the membrane filters, and a final carbon block plus ion exchange filter captures pesticides, petrochemicals and heavy metals that can enter the water supply as runoff during large storms. The membrane filters are rated to last up to 26,500 gallons, and if they become clogged before then, you can backwash them to clean them and extend their use.

Like the LifeStraw dispenser we recommend, the LifeStraw Max system has been tested by accredited laboratories to multiple international standards, including ANSI/NSF and the World Health Organization. In addition, the WHO has tested other LifeStraw products that use the same ultrafilter technology (notably LifeStraw Family 1.0, Family 2.0 and Community) and found that they offer “comprehensive protection”, the highest rating (PDF), bacteria, viruses and protozoa. Madier, who we’ve spoken to at length and length, has spent more than a decade working on water filtration for disaster and humanitarian relief. And LifeStraw Max was used in its first year of production by LifeStraw itself and partner charities in India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Haiti, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Kentucky. Taken together, all of these factors make us confident that the LifeStraw Max is an option for home disaster preparedness.

Is the LifeStraw Max the right option for you?

The answer to that question depends in large part on how concerned you are about crises like boiling water orders. If they’re a regular occurrence where you live, a LifeStraw Max would ensure you always have plenty of clean water and you would avoid the inefficient, messy alternatives of boiling your water or treating it with chemical sanitizers. Compared to pre-filled reservoirs or crates of bottled water—another approach we recommend for disaster preparedness—LifeStraw Max takes up much less space and, unlike stored water, doesn’t need to be regularly refreshed or maintained. Between uses, simply allow the filters to air dry thoroughly, then store away until the next time you need it.

An important caveat: We assume that even with orders for boiling water following a disaster, your municipal water system will still work. That’s almost always the case — Jackson’s double whammy of contaminated supply and disrupted delivery seems unique and was the culmination of years of system-wide neglect — but it’s something to consider in your decision-making. Although the LifeStraw Max can also work with a hand pump or even draw water by gravity (via an elevated reservoir or water tank), these methods are impractical for most households – in practical terms, you need to be able to get it from your to direct installation.

We also think it reasonable for a group of neighbors or a community organization to buy and use a LifeStraw Max together to help defray expenses. Thanks to the system’s 26,500 gallon filter life and fast filtration process, a single LifeStraw Max could easily supply multiple homes with water for several weeks, as long as someone is willing to provide the utility connection and make it convenient for people to stop by and fill their containers. (When we shared the idea with Lundy, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, she said, “I’m in the neighborhood disaster group because I’m ‘the LifeStraw Lady,’ right? And my husband is an ER doctor It’s like we’re the earthquake family and we’ve got a Max here and we’ve already told the neighborhood if anything happens people can just come and fill up.

If you’re never in a situation where you’d get a boiling water alert where you live, the LifeStraw Max wouldn’t be worth the cost – but at the risk of sounding alarming, it’s difficult to predict an area never will do under a water boil recommendation. For everyday water filtration with working city water, the LifeStraw Max isn’t as convenient as using a regular jug, faucet, or undersink filter.

Why can’t you use a simple water filter during a boil message?

We have not found a product that compares to the LifeStraw Max. The types of jug filters we cover in our guide, as well as the faucet-mounted and under-the-sink water filters we’ve tested, aren’t designed to remove everything that officers might be concerned about when issuing a boil-off notice. In particular, such devices are not certified to remove waterborne microbes such as bacteria and viruses. Filters designed for camping, like the Sawyer Mini we recommend in our guide to bug out bag gear, are effective against bacteria (but not usually viruses) and so inexpensive it would be easy to keep a few on hand to have. But unlike the LifeStraw Max, camping filters aren’t practical for producing the large volumes of drinking, washing, and cooking water you would need in a prolonged boiling water situation.

This article was edited by Harry Sawyers.