View Full Version : Sawyer Mini Water Filter - Sit On It!
Sawyer Mini Water Filter - sit on it... the dirty water bag, that is. Works for me. YMMV.
I've been using an Evernew 2 liter as my dirty water bag screwed directly into the filter, with a short length of tubing (I wanted a little more length than the included "straw") going from the filter to my clean water bottle with a simple barb-to-bottle cap adapter (e.g. part of the Sawyer inline Adapter).
I put my weight on the bag slowly, by using my arm(s) to support some body weight and kinda lean into it gradually. I'm also careful to have a softish place for the bag to lie on, with no sharp points.
My evolution with the mini began with immediately rejecting the squeeze idea; I didn't find that a huge step forward from pumping a normal filter. Roll/squeezing like a toothpaste tube was an improvement, but still too much effort for me. Rigging it up as a gravity filter was close to happy solution; others have described that. OK, but I wasn't completely happy with the fuss factor, and there's not always a branch to hang from when you need one.
So one day I just sat on the water bag, watched the pretty waterfall I had stopped at for a couple of minutes, and my life was changed. I realize the bag probably isn't spec'd for that kind of pressure and will fail at some point, but I'm going to continue, and find out about how long that will take. I'll let you know.
The one drawback to the Sawyer Squeeze is it takes three hands to use, which can be especially tough when you're standing beside a stream with sloped banks.
I ordered a set of adaptor caps from REI, and purchased a piece of cross linked vinyl tubing from my local hardware store, to make a hands-free transition from dirty to clean bottle.
The threads of the blue cap are identical to the Evernew threads.
28060
I just drink directly from the filter. Two hands are plenty.
I'm taking the mini on it's first outing next week, but I've used the regular squeeze on a two week trip - loved it. No problem at all squeezing water into a narrow topped platypus bladder. I have some of the older ones, so they thread onto the Sawyers fine, but I only used the one liter Sawyer bag that came with the filter, no problems with durability.
I have slight reservations about the mini, read complaints of them clogging and the flow being greatly reduced, but I tried it at home and the flow seemed fine, so I'm going with it. I will carry the back-flush syringe and use it regularly. It only takes about 30 seconds to back-flush.
Meant to say in the above post. I will keep your suggestion about gently sitting on it in mind for those times I get lazy. :)
Odd Man Out
08-11-2014, 10:47
The one drawback to the Sawyer Squeeze is it takes three hands to use, which can be especially tough when you're standing beside a stream with sloped banks.
I ordered a set of adaptor caps from REI, and purchased a piece of cross linked vinyl tubing from my local hardware store, to make a hands-free transition from dirty to clean bottle.
The threads of the blue cap are identical to the Evernew threads.
28060
I have a set up like this. Worked great until I inadvertently screwed the dirty water bag onto the clean side. So I forward flushed it with a couple of bags of water and hoped for the best. I lived.
The other problem I had was that I was using the 16 oz Sawyer bag for a dirty water bag and a couple of 1 L Evernew bags for clean water. Since the dirty bag was so small, I had to fill it several times. It was hard to screw the filter onto a bag of dirty water when attached to a half full bag of clean water. Next time I will use one Evernew bag for dirty water. I will just need to mark them clearly so I know which is which. I've considered getting a bigger (2L) bag for the dirty side. It would be nice to have to fill less often. But I'd rather have two smaller bags so I have a backup in case one ruptures.
HooKooDooKu
08-11-2014, 12:05
The setup for me that makes it easy to know the difference between the dirty water bag and the clean water bag was to use an Evernew 2L for the dirty, and a Platypus 2L hoser on the clean side. Simply remove the bite valve and push the hose onto the Mini nipple like shown above. Conceptually, the only difference between my setup and Wil's above is that my hose is about 2' long making for a little bit more pressure when used in the gravity mode. (With a new filter, I can filter about 2L of water in gravity mode in about 4 minutes while I'm busy doing other tasks.)
bigcranky
08-11-2014, 14:34
I saw a young AT thru-hiker using the sit-on technique at a shelter this summer, and totally stole that idea for the rest of our hike. Works extremely well. I did use my thin CCF pad as a soft and protected spot for the bag on stumps, tables, shelter floors, etc, so I wouldn't put a hole in it. Sitting is MUCH easier than squeezing, especially for those of us with hand problems (trigger finger in my case - very painful to squeeze the &(*^ bag.) I didn't ease into it, just sat down.
The young man who taught this to me said he'd been using the filter for 1500 miles and never thought of it, but saw another hiker using the sit technique and immediately adopted it.
The sit technique looks, um, well let's just say you don't want anyone shooting video for youtube. It's somewhat disturbing. But I don't care.
You do get your shorts wet since the dirty water bag is often wet from filling.
rocketsocks
08-11-2014, 14:46
The only thing I'd add to this technique is if you unknowingly bleed the air out of the dirty bag before sitting on it, you can achieve terrific pressures that could/would likely pop your bag. If you leave a little air in the bag it will allow you a certain level of protection from popage...still gotta go easy though.
Just a random data point.
I just completed my third trip with the sitting technique, original Evernew bag still going strong (maybe 30 quarts total).
I still like the idea of "leaning into it" gradually. I really think I'm not putting much more pressure on the bag than the "rolling the toothpaste tube" method, it's just a lot less physical effort and attention to a task I have always found tedious and unpleasant.