Same chemistry. 3× the reagent. 5× cheaper. One is us-registered.
Fluoro-Spec and Lumetallix both use methylammonium bromide in isopropanol. It forms perovskite quantum dots on contact with lead. Green glow under 365 nm UV. Same mechanism. Neither of us invented it. What differs is bottle size, price per ml, us EPA registration, and whether you can refill at a sane cost.
By Eric Ritter, founder of Fluoro-Spec Inc. Reviewed against publicly listed Lumetallix configurations and the peer-reviewed literature.
Photographed on the same surface, same lighting, same camera. Lumetallix on the left. Fluoro-Spec on the right.
Drip · 10 ml vs 30 ml. Same green-tip applicator concept. ~3× the volume on the right.Spray · 9 ml vs 30 ml. The pen-style sprayer on the left holds ~3.3× less reagent than the bottle on the right.
Compare
SPEC
Lumetallix
FluoroSpec
DIFFERENCE
Drip bottle volume
10 ml
30 ml
3× MORE
Spray bottle volume
9 ml
30 ml
~3.3× MORE
Total reagent · full lineup
19 ml (across 2 products)
60 ml (one Full Kit)
~3.2× MORE
Drip tests per bottle
~330
3,600
~10× MORE
Spray tests per bottle
~180
170 baseline · 500 with Extender Ring
~3× w/ ring
UV flashlight
Included (lower power)
Included (365 nm, brighter)
SAME-CATEGORY
$ per ml of drip reagent
~$7.90 / ml
~$1.67 / ml
~5× CHEAPER
US EPA TSCA registration
Not publicly disclosed
LVE L-25-0206 · cleared
CLEARED vs ?
Active chemistry
MABr in isopropanol
MABr in isopropanol
SAME
Same reagent. ~3.2× the volume. ~5× cheaper per ml. ~8× more total tests. Plus a us EPA TSCA registration on file.
For 30 ml of drip reagent at Lumetallix prices, you would buy three of their 10 ml bottles for roughly $237. One Fluoro-Spec Drip Kit covers the same volume for $50. UV light and extender ring included.
I built Fluoro-Spec because the consumer market for lead detection was missing a kit with the right form factor, the right volume, the right price, the right regulatory clearance, and the right context around the test. Tests without context produce panic or denial. Context without tests produces inaction. The kit and the curriculum together are the product.
Eric from Fluoro-Spec helped Lumetallix design their first consumer blend. He imported and sold it. But there was a problem. The bottles were too small. The formula was being kept a secret, even from the US government. I knew there was a real opportunity to help people here. So I got the licenses to legally make this. Not try to get away with something. I tripled the volume, sell directly to consumers to cut out all the middlemen, and focus on getting people the best deal with the best information possible so they can be as safe as possible.
The chemistry is published. The kit is just a product.
Both products are consumer applications of published, peer-reviewed academic chemistry. Yan et al. Demonstrated methylammonium lead bromide as a fluorescent lead signal in solution and on paper. Wang et al. Measured quantitative limits-of-detection at roughly 1 ng/mm². Holtus et al. (the same group that later founded Lumetallix) published the sand-dollar perovskite-conversion paper in 2018 and posted the conversion video to twitter the same month.
Face-off · which is more sensitive
Both kits use the same MABr-in-isopropanol chemistry, so on most surfaces both will Detect Lead. The spread between "barely visible" and "obvious glow" matters at the threshold of detection. Two head-to-head tests, paint and glass.
Test 01 · 800 ppm lead paint
A deliberately lead-doped paint sample, measured at 800 ppm pb on XRF. Both reagents on the same patch, identical 365 nm UV. Lumetallix barely registered. Fluoro-Spec lit it up. Their own customer thread (visible at the bottom of the source clip) acknowledges their reagent caps out around 200 ppm sensitivity, not 500 ppm as the original spec sheet suggested.
Face-off · 800 ppm lead paint. Lumetallix on the left, Fluoro-Spec drip on the right. Same surface, same UV, same shot.
Test 02 · painted glass
Vintage gold-leaf glassware, the kind at every new england estate sale. Lumetallix gives a faint signal. Fluoro-Spec gives the unambiguous green you don't have to squint at.
Face-off · painted glass. The decorated leaves are where the leaded gold pigment is concentrated. That's where the green should appear.
The takeaway is not that Lumetallix's chemistry is wrong. It's the same MABr reagent we use. The difference is reagent concentration and bottle volume. A more concentrated solution and a bigger applicator give a brighter, more obvious result on the same surface, especially at low-ppm lead loads where the reaction is barely above visible threshold.
What you actually get.
The kit is one part. The other part is every tool I've built to help you find lead, understand it, and end it. None of this exists at Lumetallix. None of it exists anywhere else.
Check Your Dish — search 5,800+ tested dishes by brand and pattern.
Easy Wins List — the dishes that always test safe. Start here if you want to replace fast.
The Baby Hub — bottles, dishes, baby food, room paint, in one place.
Food testing
Brand Averages — 35 brands ranked by lead burden across their baby-food lines.
Ships same-day before 2:30 pm ET from East Setauket, NY. EPA TSCA LVE L-25-0206.
The anti-guarantee. The reagent is consumable. Once it leaves the bottle it is gone. So there is nothing to return. If the kit does not do what I said it does, email Eric@DetectLead.com and I refund the entire order. No shipping back.
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Drip Tip + Spray Bottle. Both halves of testing.
$100
$99
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$198
$99
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Love Eric's Flurospec kits!! I keep finding all of the lead in my late parents house. Thankfully I'm able to chuck most of the items! Highly recommend!!