I have a filter. A small, light, fast filter. The only thing is, it can't freeze or it'll break. I'm leaving in early-mid March. I like my filter and want to use it over chemicals- at least for the most part. Should I take some aqua mira for the first few weeks and then mail my filter to myself after the chance of freezing passes? Or, carry my filter and keep it warm in my pocket all the time, but possibly fall on it and break it? or carry my filter and not use it for a few weeks, which seems like a waste of weight? Any ideas?

what make and model do you have

Carry it buried inside your pack, and keep it in your sleeping bag at night (in a plastic bag.) It should be fine. Also, once you are done filtering water, run the pump for a while to get most of the water out.

What big said. Follow that advice and you'll have to do something really stupid or get hit by some extraordinarily nasty weather to freeze the filter.

basicly what he said one idea i might add though it comes with the disclaimer that ive never tried it myself is if its going to be particuraly cold use your stove to heat some water and run a cup or two through before emptying it for the night and keeping it with you in your sleeping bag. the thought here that raising its internal temp to warm will help....???? dot dot dot question marks

its an MSR hyperflow. hollow fiber technology. ie. lots of little skinny tubes that the water passes through- its hard to get all the water out.

Carrying a filter in the deep belows/winter months is always a hassle and it's an even bigger hassle to expect to keep your filter next to your body or warm the whole time. It will freeze solid and probably rupture the micron mesh, etc. I wonder between the paper cartridges(Katadyn Hiker)vs ceramic(MSR mini), if the ceramic might be better, although freezing water I suppose could split the ceramic.

On my cold-arsed trips I boil up creek water with no filtering, use the water to fill my Sigg bottles for warmth and drink it too. No filter required. At other times it's possible to drink straight out of little seeps and springs, you'll know by the lay of the land and volume, etc. Even though I go out alot in the winter, I still take my little water filter but only use it when it is thawed out naturally, ambient temps, etc. Other times it sits frozen and I boil.

Carry it buried inside your pack, and keep it in your sleeping bag at night (in a plastic bag.) It should be fine. Also, once you are done filtering water, run the pump for a while to get most of the water out.

exactly. been there & done that in single digits and never had an issue.

also, if your playpus freezes, be careful not to hold it too close to the fire. (been there & done that too, only with different results.:o)

TW is correct about the hassle. Plus, you have no way of knowing 100% if part of your filter has frozen yet still allows some flow. At which point you may have damaged your filter and really won't know for sure. My recommendation for freezing temps is to avoid a filter that can't be frozen or switch to another method of treating.

One of the reasons I say that about the partial freezing is that even with my insulated platypus, line and bladder, which has warm water in it, I still get ice crystals in my line. I do blow air back up the line, so the water remelts the crystals each time. I may not always get these crystals in the air cleared line, but they do happen. So I expect that something similar occurs with a filter not stuck in a jacket. You can't see inside the filter to know about any ice crystals, at best you would have to watch for decreased flow rates which would indicate partial freezings. At which point your filter could be damaged (could be sediment so it's hard to tell).

I had my filter freeze in the smoky mountains. I began carrying it in my clothes bag in my pack which worked ok. Wrapped in a plastic zip lock. I personally thought it was a real drag to try to keep it (especially the small hoses) from freezing and did switch to aqua mira for a few days until the really cold weather broke.

All this talk of freezing filters just makes my decision to go UVC that much better. No issues in cold with the Steripen and lithium batteries.

On the AT, especially in spring, the water is so clear. There is no need to filter out mud/yuck. I wouldn't even carry the prefilter that is used with the Steripen......just a Gatorade bottle.

Burying your filter deep in your pack is no guarantee that it won't freeze. Since there's no heat source inside your pack the temperature inside the pack will be just a little higher than the outside temperature, only because it's against your warm back. In the White Mountains, water must be carried close to the body (because it's a heat source) in extreme temperatures (below zero - unusual for the southern AT). For readily accessible water in those temps I can usually carry a quart Nalgene (the only thing I trust not to crack in those temps) in a completely enclosed insulated holder (Outdoor Research). It usually starts to freeze after an hour after boiling it. At first, I put it in the holder right-side-up, but found that the threads on the bottle froze, making it hard to unscrew, then I learned that putting it in upside down would cause the water in the bottom (now at the top) of the bottle to freeze. I would normally use up a quart of water in 2 hours or less, so the only water I couldn't get to was the thin crust lining the inside of the bottle which would become liquid once again when I boiled water for another bottle.
Btw: I used to carry a filter in the Whites in the winter, keeping it inside my parka (which has a large internal pocket big enough for a quart of water). It never froze to where it wouldn't work, but would start to freeze while I was pumping if it was cold enough.

All this talk of freezing filters just makes my decision to go UVC that much better. No issues in cold with the Steripen and lithium batteries.

On the AT, especially in spring, the water is so clear. There is no need to filter out mud/yuck. I wouldn't even carry the prefilter that is used with the Steripen......just a Gatorade bottle.

Or just buy a Bushbuddy and you can boil all the water you want.

Or just buy a Bushbuddy and you can boil all the water you want.
How much time would you kill using that thing on a typical day?

I have a filter. A small, light, fast filter. The only thing is, it can't freeze or it'll break. I'm leaving in early-mid March. I like my filter and want to use it over chemicals- at least for the most part. Should I take some aqua mira for the first few weeks and then mail my filter to myself after the chance of freezing passes? Or, carry my filter and keep it warm in my pocket all the time, but possibly fall on it and break it? or carry my filter and not use it for a few weeks, which seems like a waste of weight? Any ideas?

I understand you are talking about the filter - I think the above posts cover it. but this thought came to mind.


FYI aqua mira - manufacturer says the product takes hours to work at that temp, You need to insulate the bladder and pipe if you are out in those temps. Closed cell Neoprene is available for some bladders and pipes see the manufacturer. If I ran into the problems you are talking about, I am kind of wondering if a heat pad might make a difference.

On the other hand LW has clearly posted in the past that somewhere between ten to twenty miles is a water source and you should not have to worry about the bugs in water. I think he is immune to Guardia.:o

Jist drink out of springs. I rarely, if ever, treat water;usually when I hike with a friend and his pump. Giardia is overblown. Save the weight.

This is off the MSR web:

How should I store my filter?

Remove inlet hose from the water source and pump SweetWater Microfilter until dry. Detach the filter cartridge from pump and shake out water; air dry if possible. Avoid getting unfiltered water into outlet hose or bottle adapter. For long-term storage, place filter cartridge in a zip-lock bag in freezer to retard bacterial growth. Discard your first few quarts of water filtered after extended storage.

Here is a link to the above info:

http://www.msrgear.com/support/watertreatment.asp#55

The bold and red was added by me to highlight the info. From that info it sounds as freezing won't hurt some filters. Depending on your filter you may want to check the manufacturer's web for info about your particular filter.

I take a bunch of pine needles a small ceramic bowl and put the needles inside it and then I start a fire in the bowl and put a fetuydkl lid on it and I put that in my pack and then set my filter beside it it works great and I also have a good source of fire starter when I get to the shelter.

A 2 oz. bleach bottle carried in my pack pocket has never frozen to where I could not use it.

ok, so it looks to me like my filter (hyperflow) could very well freeze. I could put it in my pack close to me to keep it warm, but I don't know if I want to take that risk that it could still freeze. I'm leaving in early-mid March. So, WiseOldOwl made the point that it takes an hour for aquamira to work in cold temps. What the heck do people do when its cold out to treat their water? It takes forever to boil it and uses fuel, plus I spilled the water and burnt my hand once while holding the Nalgene I was pouring it into. oops. So what's the verdict? What do you do when it's cold enough to freeze?

I use the Kataden (used to be owned by pur) hiker and I havent had any problems with it. I open up the canister and dump out any water and then blow all the tubes out and put it in the middle of the pack. Havent had any problems on my hike.

I'm leaving in early-mid March. So, WiseOldOwl made the point that it takes an hour for aquamira to work in cold temps. What the heck do people do when its cold out to treat their water? It takes forever to boil it and uses fuel, plus I spilled the water and burnt my hand once while holding the Nalgene I was pouring it into. oops. So what's the verdict? What do you do when it's cold enough to freeze?
Steripen takes under 2 minutes and does not care about the cold. Treated water must be free of ice to be treated 100%.

In the Springtime along the AT, I thought it was hard to find water that needed to be treated. There may have been a low-lying cattle field somewhere, but I can't remember it. The first time I wanted to treat water was at a shelter in the Smokies. So many springs, the best water on earth, why would you want to treat it? My verdict: Just carry one set of Aquamira for occasional use in questionable water.

In the Springtime along the AT, I thought it was hard to find water that needed to be treated.

year-round it's hard to find water that needs to be treated along the AT. it's all good

pick,
another option would be to create a 'cozy' for your filter. a blue walmart sleeping pad could be cut up and duct taped into a box specifically built for your filter. plastic bag around the cozy and you should be good to go

never used a hyperflow so not really sure how it's put together but i've never had a filter freeze on me yet. i've had a pur hiker for years and all i do is spin the hoses after every filtering and pump the excess water out by turning the whole thing upside down and pumping. i've gotten ice crystals but never leave enough water in it to have it freeze solid.

the hyperflow has tiny tiny tiny tubes in it basically, that the water flows through- and clogs in for many people, it seems. It looks like a bunch of straws in a big clump looking at the end- all the holes, but a lot smaller. I'll see what I can do for creating a cozy and stuffing it in my pack to keep it warm. Thank you, HikingPA and Kanga, for some answers I can use.

if you FBC you could just stick your filter in that cozy while hiking and take it out for meals. you'll probably use it then anyway :D

Best advise---KISS---Keep It Simple Stupid. (Please take no offense to this statement)

I found that a gravity fed system worked very well