OT water filters

[cmbicycles]

I'm looking at getting a portable water filter, and looking at the MSR filters from rei. They seem highly rated, with a lot of fans. Anyone here use one much, or have a different recommendation?

It will get used on family camping trips, and as a backup at home when power goes out so we don't have to stockpile bottled water.

[Black Dog]

This is the best. No moving parts, easy to maintain in the field, easy to use, and fast to filter. I spend several months a year in the wilderness and I stand by this filter 100%. It is the exact same filter as the MSR version.

[dustyrider]

I've got an msr from a few years back now. It's been great. I've been meaning to pick up something a little more portable from sawyer.

[estilley]

I use the steripen. Great as it's tankless, used it a bunch backpacking around the NW and traveling in Asia - never got sick.




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[gdw]

I've used an MSR Miniworks for back/bikepacking and been satisfied with its performance. That said I switched over to a Sawyer Mini rigged into a gravity system like the Platypus. It's lightweight, compact, rugged, inexpensive, and will filter 100oz in under 4 minutes.

[Bradford]

I picked up the Platypus pictured above a few years ago for backcountry trips and couldn't be happier. It is so much better than the old pump systems it isn't even close.

You get lots of water, the effort is much less, and it works extremely well as long as you take 5 seconds to backflush it after every fill. I used to use the bare minimum of water when I had to pump it through a filter, now I use as much as I need and don't think twice about it.

[p nut]

I use a Katadyn for backpacking (I also carry a Sawyer filter straw). I like the concept of the Platypus, but where I typically hike, there were times where I had to snake the filter hose through a crevice in the rocks to suck out water. That wouldn't have worked with the Plat.

https://www.rei.com/product/830746/k...r-water-filter

[11.4]

It's actually a bit of a complicated answer.

First, do you face Giardia and other sub-bacterial-sized parasites? If so, it limits your choice somewhat. More and more filters are being designed to stop Giardia (and with it, other primitive parasites) but there are plenty that don't.

Second, how much and how frequently will you use it? Some units like the Katadyn are made to be stored for years, then used for years with intensive activity. They aren't the fastest but they don't grow crap in the filter, they can be cleared well, and they last forever. If you're using it on a couple family vacation trips a year, you almost want to get something with a throwaway cartridge because the cartridge can easily develop mold by the time you get around to using it again.

Third, capacity and weight are both factors. Gravity fed units like the Platypus work well if you backflush and change the cartridges when needed. They do slow down a lot if there's a lot of silt in the water, and you have to backflush them a lot more. In some places silt and organic suspended debris (algae, etc.) can create an issue with almost any filter. If you're having to do a gallon or two of water for a family, capacity becomes a very big issue for some of the units.

Units that use UV are, in my book, less reliable. Most people don't really give enough exposure, and even if you reduce viability by three or four logs, you don't usually get rid of a contamination risk. And if the water is contaminated, cloudy, whatever, they don't work as well.

MSR makes good units and their pump mechanisms are pretty reliable. If you're really out in the wilderness, simple mechanical systems become valuable -- I've broken the lever on a plastic pump filter and had no decent way to fix it.

If you're purifying water for day hikes and such, I'd just get water from a safe source and carry it. Thermoflasks are great for keeping it cold (or hot), and flexible bottles are great because they disappear when you've used up the contents (and it's hard to drop them, a benefit if you have kids or are on technical ascents).

I spent a good part of 2014 in west Africa working on the ebola epidemic. We had big commercial water purifier systems for regular needs, but if we headed into the bush we carried portable filters. We had a number of models and in heavy use, they all had glitches somewhere along the way. That was a pretty hard life, much more so than a family or couple hiking trip. The worst problems came when we had people who didn't understand how to use them, clean them, or purge them properly, and frankly when we had people who had no idea what sanitary methods looked like. They would gather water in the bottle that the sanitized water was going to be stored in, for example. We had a couple people use a filter and leave it out with water sitting in it, and by morning we had insects depositing eggs in it. That kind of thing. I'd suggest a good bit of reading and practice with any of them.

The people who make serious water filters like to say that the people who don't have problems after using them are the people who weren't facing serious risks. Truthfully, most contaminants are a lot less common than one would think. Precautions are always vital, but if technique or technology aren't quite right, luck may well be on your side.

Also, by the way, you can have contamination not by microorganisms but because you're downstream from an old defunct uranium or lead mine. You may not come home with a raging enteric infection, but the damage can be worse. I'd always be sure your filter will remove soluble metal contaminants. That's something that UV, chlorine tablets, and many of the popular filters don't do.

[false_Aest]

Damn, 11.4 nailed it.

[cmbicycles]

11.4 thanks for the detailed response. Which filters have you found that will work effectively on soluble metals?

[45K10]

I had a Kataydn, great filter but it froze and broke on a cold hiking trip. I replaced it with an MSR but honestly unless you are dealing with really turbid water you are better off with AquaTabs.

I pretty much leave the water filter at home nowadays and just pack the AquaTabs. They are much lighter and I can't taste any difference from when I use the water filter.

[Black Dog]

Originally Posted by 11.4

It's actually a bit of a complicated answer.

First, do you face Giardia and other sub-bacterial-sized parasites? If so, it limits your choice somewhat. More and more filters are being designed to stop Giardia (and with it, other primitive parasites) but there are plenty that don't.

Second, how much and how frequently will you use it? Some units like the Katadyn are made to be stored for years, then used for years with intensive activity. They aren't the fastest but they don't grow crap in the filter, they can be cleared well, and they last forever. If you're using it on a couple family vacation trips a year, you almost want to get something with a throwaway cartridge because the cartridge can easily develop mold by the time you get around to using it again.

Third, capacity and weight are both factors. Gravity fed units like the Platypus work well if you backflush and change the cartridges when needed. They do slow down a lot if there's a lot of silt in the water, and you have to backflush them a lot more. In some places silt and organic suspended debris (algae, etc.) can create an issue with almost any filter. If you're having to do a gallon or two of water for a family, capacity becomes a very big issue for some of the units.

Units that use UV are, in my book, less reliable. Most people don't really give enough exposure, and even if you reduce viability by three or four logs, you don't usually get rid of a contamination risk. And if the water is contaminated, cloudy, whatever, they don't work as well.

MSR makes good units and their pump mechanisms are pretty reliable. If you're really out in the wilderness, simple mechanical systems become valuable -- I've broken the lever on a plastic pump filter and had no decent way to fix it.

If you're purifying water for day hikes and such, I'd just get water from a safe source and carry it. Thermoflasks are great for keeping it cold (or hot), and flexible bottles are great because they disappear when you've used up the contents (and it's hard to drop them, a benefit if you have kids or are on technical ascents).

I spent a good part of 2014 in west Africa working on the ebola epidemic. We had big commercial water purifier systems for regular needs, but if we headed into the bush we carried portable filters. We had a number of models and in heavy use, they all had glitches somewhere along the way. That was a pretty hard life, much more so than a family or couple hiking trip. The worst problems came when we had people who didn't understand how to use them, clean them, or purge them properly, and frankly when we had people who had no idea what sanitary methods looked like. They would gather water in the bottle that the sanitized water was going to be stored in, for example. We had a couple people use a filter and leave it out with water sitting in it, and by morning we had insects depositing eggs in it. That kind of thing. I'd suggest a good bit of reading and practice with any of them.

The people who make serious water filters like to say that the people who don't have problems after using them are the people who weren't facing serious risks. Truthfully, most contaminants are a lot less common than one would think. Precautions are always vital, but if technique or technology aren't quite right, luck may well be on your side.

Also, by the way, you can have contamination not by microorganisms but because you're downstream from an old defunct uranium or lead mine. You may not come home with a raging enteric infection, but the damage can be worse. I'd always be sure your filter will remove soluble metal contaminants. That's something that UV, chlorine tablets, and many of the popular filters don't do.

Giardia is a protozoan and much larger than bacteria and is easily filtered and probably the most common risk faced in North America. The gravity filters can clog with silt but can be back flushed and you can buy a cheap silt pre-filter.

[gasman]

Yes, 11.4 nailed it ! I've owned about every filter there is and he covered it well.
Really well.