Anyone use this H2O filter?

[JoshStover]

Anyone use this Sawyer Gravity filter?
http://www.rei.com/product/786392

It says that the filter never needs to be replaced.
Let me know if you or anyone you know has used this filter.

[Powell19]

I've always been an iodine man. But that looks like a cool filter. Never having to replace a filter sounds excellent.

I want a Steripen real bad. http://www.steripen.com/index.html

[JoshStover]

I was thinking about the steri pen but several of my hiking buddies have them and they break often or the batteries die.... Im still up in the air.

[FritztheCat]

I have a Sawyer inline filter that splices into my water bladder. You should be able to see it in the attached photo. The filter is black, attached to my drinking tube that is hanging down by my waist in the photo.

While the filter doesn't come with a "never needs changing" warrantee, it is supposed to be good for like a million gallons. I seriously doubt that claim but so far it has worked for at least 200 liters.

[YoungMoose]

Anyone use this Sawyer Gravity filter?
http://www.rei.com/product/786392

It says that the filter never needs to be replaced.
Let me know if you or anyone you know has used this filter.


I've always been an iodine man. But that looks like a cool filter. Never having to replace a filter sounds excellent.

I want a Steripen real bad. http://www.steripen.com/index.html


I was thinking about the steri pen but several of my hiking buddies have them and they break often or the batteries die.... Im still up in the air.
The gravity filter gets clogged. I dont care what they say. At yellowstone this past summer we were able to filter water through the bag a full two times before it started slowing down. the water wasnt murky. I have the steripen and it works great. The batteries can be a pain but its worth it. I have a case for my steripen so it doesnt break. Its worth the money. Last year i bought my steripen for REI when it was on sale for 75$. it came with a nalgene and the filter

[JoshStover]

Yea but Im still not sold on the steripens plus you still have sediment in your water. If this filter gets clogged I can unclog it but if the steripen breaks its kinda hard to reverse that. Ya know?

[YoungMoose]

Yea but Im still not sold on the steripens plus you still have sediment in your water. If this filter gets clogged I can unclog it but if the steripen breaks its kinda hard to reverse that. Ya know?
you cant fully unclog your filter. You can clean it off but after a half of bag it went right back to itself

[JoshStover]

That is why you use a Prefilter. That way your actual filter doesnt get clogged.

[Chance09]

i met a guy thru hiking this year who was using a sawyer inline filter. I am planning on using one on the pct next year. I'm a little curious as to how much the filter slows down. It says it filters one liter a min new. After two bags it was what, 2 min a liter, 3 min, a trickle? I'm planning on sucking water thru it. The guy i met with one said it wasn't hard at all to get water out of it drinking out of it like a normal platapus.

[Daydream Believer]

We have one of the Sawyers gravity systems. So far so good but in honestly, we haven't used it that much. You do have to backflush them occasionally with the faucet adapter they include...so if they are clogging that may be why...as well as debris getting down in the bladder.

[Snowleopard]

If the water has debris/silt in it you need some sort of prefilter to strain out the big stuff. The system seems a bit heavy -- my filter by itself is about 3 oz. My homemade gravity filter should be considerably lighter than REI's 11 oz. On the other hand theirs is finished and mine isn't. Also it's kind of a pain to find the bits and pieces like the faucett adapter if you are making it yourself.

[Johnny Thunder]

Chance...my man...best/good trail friend...Don't believe the hype.

I bought a Sawyer from the outfitter at Rockfish Gap and it was toast by Duncannon. And that's after availing myself of all the civilized sources in the Shennies, Maryland, and Southern PA. I think that all told I might have put 10 liters of unfiltered water through it before it became too tough sip. By the time I was doing the 40 I had to squeeze the bag to get water to move through the thing...and not just to start it...I had to squeeze the bag for about 5 to 10 minutes to get it to give up a liter through that damn filter.

It came out of my pack while visiting Brooklyn and never went back. Even on the AT there aren't enough opportunity to backwash the filter. My experience was that you'd need to do it just about every day.

Your ULA thinger seemed to work well enough when I used it....what's wrong with that?

[Chance09]

Well I was a little worried about getting a hole in it and I was also not sure about where i'd be hanging it...from a cactus maybe?

[Johnny Thunder]

How would you use the inline filter if you wanted a little fruity drink?

You'd still need to hang it somewhere.

[Daydream Believer]

We are going on a winter hike in GA just after Christmas. I recalled reading that you cannot let the Sawyer filter freeze or that will ruin it...and obviously that might be problematic for our hike. I also got to thinking about all those tubes and connectors and figured that they were quite likely to freeze and clog up also as getting it to dry out between uses is not going to be easy in those conditions. We ordered an ultraviolet pen as a backup, so I'll have to get back to you all on how we do later this month. I'm not even sure we'll take the Sawyer as I do expect lower than freezing temps and I'm danged if I'm sleeping with it!

As for hanging it, we used a little equipment clip on the end and it was not hard to find a sapling or something to hang it from. In a desert, I'd think it would be more difficult but you could lay it on the side of a large rock.