Water Filter Usage while Traveling

[FlyPaper]

I have a friend traveling to the Philippians soon who has asked about borrowing a hiking filter to filter the local water there.

Anyone have knowledge of the safety and effectiveness? I have a Steripen, a MSR Filter and a Sawyer Squeeze. Would all be fine in dealing with tap water in places where it might not otherwise be safe?

[HooKooDooKu]

The question comes down to whether or not the water source can be expected to contain viruses.
If not (which is generally considered the case when gathering water from most back country sources in the U.S.) then an MSR Filter or Sawyer Squeeze would be fine.
But otherwise, you need something that can kill or filter the expected viruses that might be in the water.
For that you need something like the Steripen (as it uses ultraviolet light to kill pathogens), water treatment tablets (again, they kill pathogens) or the Sawyer Purifier (which uses a 0.02 micron filter rather than the 0.1 micron filter the Squeeze and Mini uses). Note that the pores in the Sawyer Purifier are so fine that the advertised flow rate is 170 gallons/day ( < 2 Cups/minute ).

[nsherry61]

I have a friend traveling to the Philippians . . . I have a Steripen, a MSR Filter and a Sawyer Squeeze. . .

As HooKooDooKu suggests, any are find in typical backcountry water in North America. For front-country water, I'd take the SteriPen and some tablets as backup. Virus filters, with the exception of the MSR Guardian ($350 and a couple pounds) aren't worth the hassle!!

[FlyPaper]

Thanks for the info.

Randy

[FrogLevel]

Unless they're going to be living in the jungle buying water is really cheap in the Philippines. Filtering it every day would be a pain in the butt. If they did I'd think the SteriPen would be the easiest option.

[TexasBob]

...........Anyone have knowledge of the safety and effectiveness? I have a Steripen, a MSR Filter and a Sawyer Squeeze. Would all be fine in dealing with tap water in places where it might not otherwise be safe?

As mentioned before the MSR and Sawyer won't kill viruses but 2 drops of bleach per liter will. I have a steripen and that is what I would take. Way simpler and faster than the filters for traveling.

[FlyPaper]

As mentioned before the MSR and Sawyer won't kill viruses but 2 drops of bleach per liter will. I have a steripen and that is what I would take. Way simpler and faster than the filters for traveling.

Steripen it is. I nixed the idea of even offering a filter. My friend will have to decide for himself when to use it. Probably he'll drink lots of bottled water, but the Steripen will be an option that is at least very light and easy.

[SteelCut]

I would be suspect of "bottled" water in some locations. When I was in Nepal we were warned that in some villages recycled water bottles were refilled with local tap water and re-sealed to look like new bottled water. Supposedly you could tell the difference if you looked closely enough but I didn't take a chance and even treated all my bottled water with a Steripen. Others in my group thought this was overkill but eventually everyone in my group except myself came down with stomach ailments. I don't know if this is a problem where your friend is traveling but thought I'd raise it as something to be aware of.

[Odd Man Out]

Also consider that buying bottled water places a burden on the environment. The fact that is may be cheap for you doesn't mitigate the fact that is places quite a burden on the local population. Empty water bottles are a huge garbage problem and remote areas of developing countries often don't have the resources to deal with all that garbage and it just fouls the beautiful scenery people are coming to see.

As for the Steripen, I recall that when it first came out it had a lot of reliability issues and was thus not widely adopted by US backpackers. Since then, they seem to have become quite dependable, yet they still don't seem to be widely used domestically. Probably because the shortcomings of the filters are that much of a concern for backcountry use in the US. Each water treatment system has its advantages and disadvantages and the best solution will be different depending on the situation. Personally, I don't see that filters would be that difficult to use for travel. But they do have two or three shortcomings which could be more or less problematic, depending on your trip. One (mentioned above) is that most won't remove viruses. That is more problematic in underdeveloped countries than the US backcountry. Another is that filters don't handle freezing. That isn't a problem in the Philippines, but if your trekking to Everest Base Camp, keeping your filter from freezing would be a big pain in the butt. But Steripens have downsides too. For one, they have higher up-front costs (although over their lifespan, the per Liter cost is quite low). Also, they are heavier than some other options (more of a concern if you are a long distance backpacker) although if you are bringing hydration bladders, hoses, adapters, and other gadgets to use with your filter, weight difference may be negligible. Steripens have the reliability concern. While they seem to be much better now then when new on the market, some people don't like relying on electronics (that can fail) for such a critical resource (water). Also, you do need access to replacement batteries or recharging (depending on which Steripen you get), but that would only be an issue for very long very remote treks. The biggest drawback with the Steripen is probably that they don't work well with cloudy water. If you think you are likely to be treating some murky water, then alternate or supplemental methods may be in order.