10-K
04-12-2008, 16:23
In the interest of experimentation I purchased the new MSR Hyperflow filter and plan on taking it with me Monday when I leave to hike Damascus-Erwin.
It came yesterday. Weight is 10 oz, which includes the pump, tubing, prefilter and carrying bag. Overall, I'm kinda disappointed but I'm willing to be proven wrong.
My first impression is that it is going to need more TLC than normal to stay in peak operating condition. For example, they recommend that you backflush the pump/filter 1x per day or every 8 litres of water.
To perform this task you have to take the pump apart in 2 places, reverse 2 check valves, reassemble, pump 10 strokes worth of water (which flows backwards now that you've reversed the check valves) and then take it back apart, turn the check valves around again, and reassemble.
It remains to be seen how practical all this will be.
First off, the check valves are just little pieces of rubber which if even slightly damaged will render the entire thing unusable.
Since this is going to be something that is taken apart frequently I am also concerned about the fact that all of the threads are made out of plastic. It would be pretty easy to crossthread under the right conditions I would imagine.
Also, the prefilter is pretty big and if you have a marginal water source you're definitely going to be sucking a bunch of air.
So, I'm going to take it, but I'm going to take my Steripen too just in case. It'll probably be fine but it's not confidence inspiring out of the box.
It came yesterday. Weight is 10 oz, which includes the pump, tubing, prefilter and carrying bag. Overall, I'm kinda disappointed but I'm willing to be proven wrong.
My first impression is that it is going to need more TLC than normal to stay in peak operating condition. For example, they recommend that you backflush the pump/filter 1x per day or every 8 litres of water.
To perform this task you have to take the pump apart in 2 places, reverse 2 check valves, reassemble, pump 10 strokes worth of water (which flows backwards now that you've reversed the check valves) and then take it back apart, turn the check valves around again, and reassemble.
It remains to be seen how practical all this will be.
First off, the check valves are just little pieces of rubber which if even slightly damaged will render the entire thing unusable.
Since this is going to be something that is taken apart frequently I am also concerned about the fact that all of the threads are made out of plastic. It would be pretty easy to crossthread under the right conditions I would imagine.
Also, the prefilter is pretty big and if you have a marginal water source you're definitely going to be sucking a bunch of air.
So, I'm going to take it, but I'm going to take my Steripen too just in case. It'll probably be fine but it's not confidence inspiring out of the box.