Aquamira

[astafford]

How about a discussion on the use of Aquamira. I am not familiar with it and wonder if this is what I should be carrying hiking from Katahdin to NY. Are most water sources in this part of the AT clear enough to justify not taking a pump? Thanks.

[peakbagger]

Its been covered many times, use the search function and I expect you will find plenty of threads. The water sources need treatment, plenty of mammals around

[CalebJ]

For what it's worth, I actually prefer Aquamira over the Sawyer system for speed and ease of use. Both are perfectly adequate for getting safe water, however.

[garlic08]

I carried one set of AM drops for the entire AT and used about half of it. There's plenty of clean water along the way.

[Lyle]

I've carried AquaMira for quite a few years - works great and is light and compact.

The last couple of trips I've used either the regular Sawyer Squeeze or the Mini. I like the fact that I can drink immediately when I arrive at a source, no waiting for the reaction before moving on and no waiting to drink. While not that huge of problem, the Sawyer is more convenient in that regard.

I'm not entirely decided, but I'm leaning toward preferring the regular Sawyer instead of the Minim. Faster flow and less back flushing, but neither is a bad experience, either will work. I just got used to doing a daily back flush when using the Mini.

[colorado_rob]

I used AM on my AT hike, works great, easier (and lighter, all said and done) to use than the Sawyer, but I do use the Sawyer here out west because I want to not only purify the water, but also clean it up a bit. The water along the AT is good quality, so just making sure the little buggies are gone is what AM is good for.

One 3-ounce set lasts about 3.5-4 weeks for me. Buy two sets so you have two mixing caps, take both along with first set, that way you can prepare two bottles simultaneously, if you follow. Or use some other cap for your second mix.

At night when I get 3-4 liters, just mix up 3-4X the drops, let it sit 5 minutes and pour it in, voila, 30 minutes you're done.

[CarlZ993]

Stuff works great. Two separate dropper bottles of solution (Solution A & B). I used some electrician's tape to bind them together for compactness. One mix cap per set (save additional caps as your resupply). Add 7 drops of Solution A to the mix cap. Add 7 drops of Solution B. Wait 5 minutes. Add to water bottle. Wait 15 - 30 minutes (depending on temperature). Drink.

On my thru, I also had a small mini bottle (1/8 oz or so) that I would pre-mix the solution that I would need in the next few hours. When I got to the water source, I'd simply dip water into my bottle, add the solution, & hike on (note: the manufacturer doesn't recommend doing this).

Just be sure to screw on the caps to the bottles securely. You'd hate to be days away from anyplace & not have any water purification capability.

[RockDoc]

I've used it for 10+ years. The pumps and gadgets are subject to all kinds of problems, breaking, plugging up, etc.
Keep it simple.

[strogiyogi]

We used aquamira on our hike and loved how lightweight and easy it was. We never had an issue with waiting a few minutes for the water to be treated. We started with the sawyer mini and were so frustrated with how hard you had to squeeze the dang thing that we switched to AM and never looked back. We even made up an aqua mira song to celebrate our joy :)