Which Water Treatment

[hazmat]

Hi! I am starting with the '15 class on Mar 17. I fully expect some cold weather ahead which can freeze some filters, so I would like some recommendations.

My primary filter will be the big Sawyer, but have a steripen also. Would you carry the Steripen first until the freezing temps are over?

Are the initial water sources clear? That's my problem with the steripen, I don't like to drink/use murky water even if purified.

All input appreciated.
Regards,

Hazmat

[A/B]

Use your big Sawyer. On cold days, just remember to sleep with it, and keep it in an interior pocket (in a baggie). Never had a problem with mine. They DO freeze; a hiking buddy forgot his is his pack overnight, it froze, and was toast. Also, stick with the big vs. mini. I went from big to mini, for size and weight; I went back to the big. The flow rate of the mini is SIGNIFICANTLY slower, so at the end of a long, hard day, time vs weight is an amazing luxury.

[Connie]

Sawyer Mini, in pant's pocket: .1 micron absolute.

The Steripen has been proven ineffective in murky water. If there, small Melitta coffee filter pre-treatment. Plus, MicroPur tablets.

That is, if murky water.

[Starchild]

...The Steripen has been proven ineffective in murky water. ...

.

Can you show where this has been proven? I have looked and did not find this to be true.


The only thing I can find external from a Steripen site is user opinion and a links back to the steripen site like this one:

However, if murky water is unavoidable SteriPEN suggests using two treatments for your volume of water.

from http://www.backpackgeartest.org/revi...b%20Dorenfeld/

[RED-DOG]

use the regular sawyer and sleep with it you should be fine.

[Deacon]

Use your big Sawyer. On cold days, just remember to sleep with it, and keep it in an interior pocket (in a baggie). Never had a problem with mine. They DO freeze; a hiking buddy forgot his is his pack overnight, it froze, and was toast. Also, stick with the big vs. mini. I went from big to mini, for size and weight; I went back to the big. The flow rate of the mini is SIGNIFICANTLY slower, so at the end of a long, hard day, time vs weight is an amazing luxury.

The few seconds saved once or twice a day with the regular is not worth the 50% increase in weight over the mini, IMHO.

[Dochartaigh]

Can you show where this has been proven? I have looked and did not find this to be true.

Anything that's in the water that's not penetrable by UV light could/will still be alive. Have a small piece of dirt, leaf, wood, whatever, with little nasties inside it, and there's no way that UV light is penetrating that small object to kill it. Ingest that object with the "treated" water, and you can get sick. ...basic property of light is that it can't penetrate all objects.

[Connie]

SteriPEN's own literature.

Now, SteriPEN has a prefilter.

I noticed there is absolutely no mention of certification.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention: if murky, prefilter.

There is a link to an "organization" Safari will not open. (anyone can be a .org)

In addition, I think SteriPEN was not "first".

Testimonials, only. I don't drink the koolaid.

Have you read, online, about the "returns"?

Sawyer, however, meets the ".1 absolute" standard for water filtration.


Disclaimer: I do not sell, have paid advertising, or, have a business interest.

I think müv water treatment may have been "first". I'll look for the literature.

[Starchild]

Again you stated it was proven, all I get is opinion and a reference back to the Steripen site.

The statement proven sort of requires you to be able to provide a cite if asked, or a retraction if you can not.

[Connie]

It is proven. "CDC" Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Enjoy, your SteriPen. Please use it in a safe and responsible manner.

I have described "how" to do that.

[gpburdelljr]

Again you stated it was proven, all I get is opinion and a reference back to the Steripen site.

The statement proven sort of requires you to be able to provide a cite if asked, or a retraction if you can not.

Any basic physics text will tell you that light cannot penetrate opaque objects. Opaque objects are what makes water murky. If the UV light cannot reach the microorganism, it cannot kill it.

[Starchild]

Connie, this is what I get from searching The Center for Disease Control and Prevention web site:

No pages or documents were found containing "steripen" .

So I do ask again for a link for your statment of 'proven' as I have looked and have not found it, just opinion.

[Connie]

Deal with it.

I added in the Edit: the .org is in Canada. SteriPEN is in Maine. CDC is in USA.

I put links: the information is all there.


Here is more:

SteriPEN website has "testimonials".

mÜV has documentation.


mÜV Micro-UV Water Purifier

Product Description
https://www.meridian-design.com/article_thebest.html

User's Guide
https://www.meridian-design.com/pdf/...de1rev5-08.pdf

Efficacy Report
https://www.meridian-design.com/pdf/...arEfficacy.pdf


mÜV device
https://www.meridian-design.com/muv.html

Guide:
https://www.meridian-design.com/muv.html

Recharger Kit: (includes batteries)
https://www.meridian-design.com/charger.html

Batteries:
https://www.meridian-design.com/batteries.html


Water Bottle and mÜV:
https://www.meridian-design.com/aquastarplus.html

The AquaStar Plus! bottle provides 100% shielding of any UV-C light

Philips Sterilamp® UV-C tube

99.9% effective against protozoa (including Giardia, Entamoebic Dysentery, and Cryptosporidium)
99.9999% effective against bacteria (including Cholera, Shigella, Salmonella, and E. coli)
99.99% effective against viruses (including Enterovirus, Rotavirus, Hepatitis, and Poliovirus)


Source Information on UV-C Efficacy

We have found that few people, especially outside of the water quality industry, are aware of much of the body of recent research demonstrating that UV-C is excellent at reducing pathogens. In fact it is superior in many ways to other methods of water treatment; for instance, it is now accepted as being highly effective at treating Cryptosporidium and Giardia. Confirmation of this fact is in recent EPA papers. 2, 3, 4, 6

We have included footnotes throughout so that our statements about UV-C can be verified. Most of them are in reference to the EPA's literature, and much of that is summarized in a single EPA document. That is, the “Ultraviolet Disinfection Guidance Manual ” dated June 2003 “Draft”. It can be found on the EPA website at:
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/lt2/guides.html
>>Ultraviolet Disinfection Guidance Manual
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/lt2/pdf...ance_draft.pdf

This EPA Guidance Manual is intended “...to provide technical information on the application of ultraviolet light for the disinfection of drinking water by public water systems.” This document is one of the most recent collections of research and explanation on the subject of using UV-C for water treatment and is highly enlightened on the subject. The Guidance Manual is intended as advice to municipalities so in many ways it is not directly relevant to a portable system, but much work was put into this document by the EPA to collect and summarize what is known about UV-C, how it works, and how well it works. In this discussion we will use this EPA document as support for our arguments since, owing to its source, it should be an acceptable independent reference. However all of the statements in that document are, rightly, based on a large body of research that can be referred to independent of the EPA manual.

Footnotes: PDF
https://www.meridian-design.com/pdf/...arEfficacy.pdf

[Sarcasm the elf]

Hi! I am starting with the '15 class on Mar 17. I fully expect some cold weather ahead which can freeze some filters, so I would like some recommendations.

My primary filter will be the big Sawyer, but have a steripen also. Would you carry the Steripen first until the freezing temps are over?

Are the initial water sources clear? That's my problem with the steripen, I don't like to drink/use murky water even if purified.

All input appreciated.
Regards,

Hazmat

I just want to tell you that I enjoyed seeing that a person named Hazmat started a water filter thread!

[freightliner]

Wouldn't it just be easier not to take anything but the antibiotic that clears up giardia.

[hazmat]

Hi again, that was ironic wasn't is Sarcasm the Elf. Anyway thanks for all the input. I guess I will go with the Sawyer and take extra care. Still have that question of, is the available water in March/April generally clear and fresh in GA thru Tenn. or are most sources murky and discolored. Obviously snowmelt and rainfall have something to do with this, but was wondering as general rule.

Regards,
hazmat

[HooKooDooKu]

I went from big to mini, for size and weight; I went back to the big. The flow rate of the mini is SIGNIFICANTLY slower, so at the end of a long, hard day, time vs weight is an amazing luxury.

I set mine up as a gravity feed system so that the slower time of the mini doesn't matter...

I take a 2L Evernew Water Carry to the water source to fill up. The way I avoid carrying the filter, dirty water bag, and clean water container all to the water source. Back at camp, I connect a 2L Platypus Hoser (bite-valve removed) and the dirty water bag to the mini, and hang the dirty water bag on a branch or nail (I've added a small loop of twine to the dirty water bag). During the 4 minutes the water filters, I do other camp chores like getting the cooking gear ready to use.

[swjohnsey]

Hi again, that was ironic wasn't is Sarcasm the Elf. Anyway thanks for all the input. I guess I will go with the Sawyer and take extra care. Still have that question of, is the available water in March/April generally clear and fresh in GA thru Tenn. or are most sources murky and discolored. Obviously snowmelt and rainfall have something to do with this, but was wondering as general rule.

Regards,
hazmat

The water along the trail is mostly clear, mostly springs. I only treated a few times when my water source was river or beaver pond.

[Connie]

Freightliner,

There is no anti-biotic.

There is something different, that attacks genetic material: not only the giardia.

Nasty stuff!

[kayak karl]

There is no vaccine that can prevent giardiasis. Medicine to prevent infection is not recommended.