View Full Version : Your Experience with Aqua Mira?
I've used Aqua Mira for the last three years or so and have good luck with it. I'm wondering what the experience of others has been: specifically, has it kept you healthy?
Does anyone know of a case where, beyond a reasonable doubt, someone has gotten sick from water properly treated with Aqua Mira?
Colter
my experience is all sort-term/long weekend type trips. but i've treated some pretty gnarly-looking swamp water with it and it worked fine.
Cool AT Breeze
11-26-2008, 16:55
When I treat my water it's all I use. Never been sick while hiking.
garlic08
11-26-2008, 17:18
I've used AM very sparingly since 2002 and never been sick. I don't use any other water treatment. I only treat questionable water, only if I can't find a good spring, so I don't use it very often. I used less than 1/2 set on my AT thru this year.
I've never heard of an AM user getting sick.
daddytwosticks
11-26-2008, 17:37
I use AM and always treat my water (sorry LW!). But then again, I'm just a section hiker down here on the southern end of the AT. AM works great for me...never been sick. :)
No problems whatsoever throughout numerous overnighters and section hikes. AM is a wonderful product!
Hikerhead
11-26-2008, 19:08
No problems here. Beats pumping a filter any day, in my book.
nitewalker
11-26-2008, 19:15
dalso no problems here. AM seems to work fine when i do use it. i often roll the dice when it comes to drinking water. no filter / no treatment most times; although i do make sure that the water looks mostly clear. another thing is to never draw water down stream of a farm. just asking for something if you try that..
BookBurner
11-26-2008, 19:37
I've used AM 100% of the time for at least 1500 miles. No problems whatsoever!
I've used AM very sparingly since 2002 and never been sick. I don't use any other water treatment. I only treat questionable water, only if I can't find a good spring, so I don't use it very often. I used less than 1/2 set on my AT thru this year.
I've never heard of an AM user getting sick.
I have logged over 7000 trail miles in the last 2 1/2 yrs. in the U.S. using only AM sparingly as garlic08 has with no problems. I used less than 1/2 bottle on the whole PCT this yr.
walkerat99
11-27-2008, 09:35
I have used Aqua Mira since 1999 and never been sick while hiking. I first learned and tried it as I hiked the AT, since the outfitter did not have replacement parts for my PUR Hiker filter. I bought the AM up north and used it all the way back to Virginia with no problems. I have never gone back to a filter, and it is all I ever use, if I use anything. As most of you know the water through the Mid-Atlantic states is very questionable, but I was never sick. I have since used it in the southern sections of the AT and throughout Ohio and still have never been sick while hiking.
Kerosene
11-27-2008, 14:03
I switched to AM about 6 years ago, after realizing how easy it is to cross-contaminate the hoses on a water filter.
I always used Potable Aqua,
http://www.potableaqua.com/
Panzer
StubbleJumper
11-27-2008, 14:15
In general, it's hard to ever know why people get sick while hiking. It could be a flu bug that you picked up 4 or 5 days previous. It could be that you used the privy and your hygiene measures for your hands were inadequate. It could be that you encountered another hiker who passed a bacterium to you through direct contact. It could be a food-borne illness.
Or maybe it's the water that gave you beaver-fever. Personally about half of the water that I drink in the woods is untreated, and I like it best that way. Just can't beat the taste. However, if there are obvious sources of contamination (ie, a beaver lodge in a small lake) then I'll use AM. I've never had any problems with AM...but if I ever became sick I would not automatically attribute it to water.
I used it regularly on both of my long thru-hikes and use it for many other trips. I'm a bit concerned about putting the chemicals into my body but I haven't noticed any long term health problems, so far.
Sure beats filtering. I did get sick once in the Sierra pretty bad while I was using it most of the time (did drink some unfiltered water when it was 11,000+ ft and melting from snow. I suspect I picked up whatever I had from another hiker as many others were sick, but I did have all the symptoms of giardia. Remains a mystery....
[QUOTE=StubbleJumper;730962]In general, it's hard to ever know why people get sick while hiking. It could be a flu bug that you picked up 4 or 5 days previous. It could be that you used the privy and your hygiene measures for your hands were inadequate. It could be that you encountered another hiker who passed a bacterium to you through direct contact. It could be a food-borne illness.
Or maybe it's the water that gave you beaver-fever.
WELL SAID! Unless, one gets tested and confirmed positive by an MD for an intestinal parasite(Giardia, Cryptosporidium, Leptosporosis, etc.) one can not be positive what one may have! I have heard many a hiker on the trail who have experienced diarehaha, nausea, or fatigue claim they have this or that. NOT NECESSARILY SO!!!
I used it for the majority of my PCT thru this year. As StubbleJumper said, it's hard to know why people get sick. I didn't treat much in the Sierras, and used a gravity filter for the first 700 miles, so I guess I used A.M. for 1600 or so miles this year.
I don't think that really says much ... as most or all thru-hikers would likely tell you, there are a surprising number of thru's that seldom and sometimes even never treat water and yet don't get sick.
Brian Lewis
http://postholer.com/brianle
garlic08
11-30-2008, 16:17
I just read a disturbing post on another thread. Apparently some people think it's fine to let dogs play in water sources. Great.
I used to only use tablets but I've used AM with success. I also tried a filter in the past and imho it is just so much trouble. Sometimes when using the AM with really icky water or right after a rain I will use a bandanna to "filter" out leaves and other muck. I like it better than both tablets and pumping.