Water Purification

[Nameless]

Hello,

I'm currently looking at water filters on my gear quest for my southbound thru hike starting June 4, 2005. (Last night i bought a Squall tarptent, soooo excited!) I've always filtered in the past, its quick, easy, and tastes great. But this time i am only hiking with one filter and am worried about it breaking down (I have NEVER had luck with MSR sweetwater, would NEVER recomend one, had ok luck with the miniworks, would recomend if you have multiples on the trip)

Consiquently, i have decided to go with chemical purification. Dont try to convince me to go without purrification, it wont work. I know giardia only effects a few people bad enough to care, but i dont want to learn i am one of those few people and get knocked off my hike (I have had a very adverse reaction before, possibly from water, so i REALLY dont want to take the chance.

I have been looking at both the Polar Pure and the AquaMira. Which would you recomend? The Aqua Mira doesnt leave taste, but the polar pure lasts longer. I believe the Aqua Mira also knocks off cryptosporidium which polar pure doesnt.

One thing of AquaMira treats thirty gallons, how long will that last you on the trail? About a month? A gallon a day for eating and drinking? mabey a little bit longer... They arent that expensive, and easy to put in mail drops/bounce box.

A third question (i think third, or so) I use platypus for my water container. A one quart for flavored water (sugar free kool aid ususaly) and a four quart for around camp and hydration system (i love the extra capacity around camp, never hike with it full, the complete hydration system still weighs less then one nalgean) How do you get the water into the tiny opening? There are playtpuses that zip, but they leak, so i dont want to take them (they also weight a lot more) How do i get the water into suck a tiny opening (i have bandanas to get out the big stuff)

Thanks a lot
Pink

[SGT Rock]

Polar Pure will do fine.

[grrickar]

How do you get the water into the tiny opening? There are playtpuses that zip, but they leak, so i dont want to take them (they also weight a lot more) How do i get the water into suck a tiny opening (i have bandanas to get out the big stuff)

Thanks a lot
Pink

I use an MSR Miniworks and it is not very lightweight, but I have found that it is very reliable and pumps about as good as the next filter. The element lasts quite a while, but is heavy (its ceramic). The filter can be taken apart easily in the field, and a small service kit that weighs little can be carried in addition to replace lost or worn parts.

Not trying to steer you away from using chemicals, but I mentioned this filter for one reason: to fill the platypus all I had to do was pull off the bite valve and push the platy hose onto the barb on the output of the filter and pump from the source.

Chemicals are lighter, and won't break down in the field like a filter might, but sometimes water sources are nothing more than a trickle, and without a pump to get the water into a container you might have to wait until there is a better water source.

[Lilred]

Hello,

There are playtpuses that zip, but they leak, so i dont want to take them (they also weight a lot more)


I have a platy that zips and it has never leaked on me. I filled it up and then stood on it in my kitchen. Not a drop leaked out. They don't weigh that much more and are very easy to fill. If you're not going to hike with it full, the leaking worry shouldn't be a concern.

[Alligator]

If you don't have a zip platy, and the water is not running, use a pot to scoop the water.

I use Polar Pur. Always put it in after the water, as I stained one of my Platys putting it in first.

On a warm day, I drink about 4-5 liters. On a hot day, I have drank up to 8 liters. On a long distance hike, the Aqua Mira will add up much quicker.

[Nameless]

Hello

Thanks for everyone who responded

I've used the miniworks a lot in the past, and have had one break down on me completely, and they cost a lot... so i decided not to go with one.

I've also tried and tested the zipped platy and got so mad at it i never used it again, and swear i never will. It doesnt leak untill you accidently dont close it ALL the way, or bump it wrong to open it slightly...

use my cup to get water into my platy? That sounds like it will take soooo long. Well, for the convience of not having to carry a filter i guess i will have to give something up...

I've looked at costs and the aqua mira adds up! wow! For the trip the aqua mira would be in the neighborhood of $80 and the Polar Pur $10.50. So i think i will go with polar pure if possible. Turns out my hiking partner may have allergies to the iodine, so he will have to check up on that before we invest.

Thanks
Pink

[Youngblood]

I've also tried and tested the zipped platy and got so mad at it i never used it again, and swear i never will. It doesnt leak untill you accidently dont close it ALL the way, or bump it wrong to open it slightly...
I haven't used one of the zip platys, pretty much because of what I have seen from others who have... they seem like an accident waiting to happen.


use my cup to get water into my platy? That sounds like it will take soooo long. Well, for the convience of not having to carry a filter i guess i will have to give something up...
Yes, sometimes when I use my dip cup it takes a while... you have to consider the alternatives and decide how bad you want/need water from that particular source. At least it gives you that option.

Youngblood

[SGT Rock]

I go for the dip cup and iodine version. It has worked for hundreds of miles for me so far without a problem. Heck, bring a straw and just drink out of the pool of water comming from the spring and skip it all.

[peter_pan]

Ranger Joe sells a small black water filter, $ 24.99. It is in their catalog pp14, but not on the web site. It has great flow. I can suck water while hiking up hill. When used on a bladded system with a positive lock switch at the bite valve, if you remove the bite valve it will function as a gravity flow filter in camp. Does a quart in about 2-3 minutes. Weight is about 4-5 oz.

As a back-up ( i've never had a problem with this filter) TFO used to make a mini that fits in the neck of a standard 78 mm plastic bottle or bladder. It weighs 0.2 oz, efficient but slow. Costs about $6-10 when you can find them. They were called the Gatekeeper.

Finally, If you get a 96 oz Nalgene canteen, the one with the large opening, cut out the casting tips on the inside of the opening. The filter element, with gasket, of the old Pur or new katadin Will fit snugly into the opening. Fill the canteen insert the filter, hold the filter in (safety factor), and sqeeze filtered water into your hiking bladder. If you make bag of 1.1 ripstop to fit, you can hang it up side down as a gravity filter, super. Adding about a 2 inch tube to the out spout nipple helps, but is not necessary. Bonus is that the canteen is your camp base water bag. Cuts weight to the weight of filter alone about 6 oz.

Have used all of these over the years. Currently I use the Ranger Joe filter ( this can be also be found else where, found one at Bluff MT outfitter in 2003). IMHO this is the best weight for flow option (much better flow than Safewater model, also a good solution come to think of it).

Fill and drink/fill and go far more convient than waiting for chemicals IMHO and lighter. :-?

Those who say they don't wait they just start with the second quart fill carry that quart 20-30 minutes(often uphill from water). Those that drink the quart they arrived at the spring with, then fill up fresh, carried the extra water unnecessarily and drank it warm(er). The Gateway is even lighter the empty aquamire bottles.

Just some thoughts on water.

[Peaks]

I'll agree that zip tops are an accident waiting to happen. We used them on our Philmont excursion. They were hard for us to get completely zipped closed and tight.

My solution is the Nalgene canteens. They make a 3 liter size with a typical nalgene cap that is large. With a 3 liter Nalgene canteen and a 1 liter bottle, I could make one trip to the spring at night and get enough water for dinner, breakfast, and get me started the next day. Works for me.

[Youngblood]

Gravity filters.

Anyone have good experience with these?

I tried rigging one up a few years back just before they were marketed and finally just gave up. I thought I had worked all the kinks out at home and had water flow rates I could live with. Then when I would take it out in the field and use it, it would clog and clog and clog... it was embarassing! I think what was happening was that any sediment in the water would sink to the bottom of my unfiltered water bag and that was the intake for the gravity filter. Think about that, with a pump filter you try to pump near from the top of a water bag to avoid the sediment that sinks to the bottom, but with a gravity filter you are taking water from the bottom which is where the sediment accumulates. Maybe you let it set for a few minutes and then purge water at the bottom before filtering? How do you get around this?

Youngblood

[grrickar]

I'll agree that zip tops are an accident waiting to happen. We used them on our Philmont excursion.
Ahhhh. Philmont. The Tooth of Time. My first 'real' hike in Boy Scouts. Good times. I have plans to hike it again sometime in the near future. :D

[peter_pan]

Youngblood,

The gravity filter/inline I mentioned above is a super system. Used mine about 75 days without a problem. PP

[Nameless]

Anyone tried using a funnel to get water into a platypus? I'm trying to think of a lightweight one to use, but not quite sure. If i just find a cheap light one at the store it will only have one use in my pack... thats not really enought, but i guess i could deal with it. Any way i can turn my cup into a funnel?

thanks
Pink

[Dances with Mice]

Anyone tried using a funnel to get water into a platypus? I'm trying to think of a lightweight one to use, but not quite sure. If i just find a cheap light one at the store it will only have one use in my pack... thats not really enought, but i guess i could deal with it. Any way i can turn my cup into a funnel?

Cut the bottom off of a little plastic soda bottle. Light and crushable.

It could be a cup, I guess, if you screwed the lid back on. But it'd be a cup that'd be kind of hard to set down....

[peter_pan]

Why a funnel? Just more weight. If some water falls over the platipus sooooo what. It probably needed a cleaning anyway. :-?

[Youngblood]

Youngblood,

The gravity filter/inline I mentioned above is a super system. Used mine about 75 days without a problem. PP

Peter Pan,

How did you handle sediment? I realize that is the trick to even a pump filter, but how do you deal with it on a gravity filter?

You must have figured out something that I didn't. I collected water in a water sack, hung it up, attached the intake hose of my inline filter to the nozzle at the bottom of the water sack and then put the output hose of my inline filter into my water bottle. The prescreen filter inside my water filter would quickly get clogged with the sediment that was in the water. Cleaning the prescreen filter was a real pain, it required disassembling the inline filter.

Youngblood

[peter_pan]

Youngblood,

Because I use the platipus bladders and am carefull in their filling there is little to no stuff to settle. If I see a lot of floaties I pore them out first. Also on town days I open the filter case and backwash the filter element. This inline filter is designed to do that. In fact it comes with a rubber a water spiggot connector. Found that it works as well without the adapter (Weight 0.4 oz) so I discarded it at Hot springs, where I bought it ( Bluff Mt Outfitters).

[Youngblood]

Peter Pan,

I tried to be careful too. I think I gave up on mine after two trips with it and I believe all of the water on those trips were from clear mountain streams where the water was moving pretty good. I couldn't see the sediment in the moving water but it sure found its way to the filter.

Gravity filters sound really neat, I just couldn't get around the sediment when I used mine. Just need to get a little smartier about dealing with water that contains sediment. With pump filters you can use an easier to deal with filter (coffee filters, bandanas, etc) at the intake point or just let the water settle in a water sack and filter from the top. Those methods don't seem applicable to a gravity filter but there is possibly a fairly easy solution that others have came up with.

Youngblood

[smokymtnsteve]

I have never used a gravity filter, but why not put a "silt stopper" in line above the filter and just clean and change that when needed.

sweetwater makes an inline silt stopper.

[Youngblood]

The 'prescreen filter' in my inline filter sounds a lot like the 'silt stopper', its not that hard to clean but you have to unscrew the filter to get to it and then clean it and put it all back together... you also have to stop the water flow while you do this. Problem was that it clogs really fast if there is sediment in the water and it takes some effort to mess with the clogged element. The biggest problem is that sediment in a gravity feed water filter is problematic in that gravity takes the sediment right to the filter, it sinks to the bottom and that is where the filter draws from.

[grrickar]

The biggest problem is that sediment in a gravity feed water filter is problematic in that gravity takes the sediment right to the filter, it sinks to the bottom and that is where the filter draws from.
In that case it I think it would be best to put the water in some flexible container like a platypus, hold the bag upright (hose at the top), let the sediment settle best you can, then squeeze the bag to push the water up and out the hose, and through the filter. Anti-gravity feed I guess in that case :bse

[Nameless]

Is there a soda bottle with a really thin mouthpeice? so it would fit inside of my platy neck... That would probably be in the list of my gear possible to send home after the hundred mile wilderness (i'm a south bounder) Along with either the crocs or waldies i may buy... not totally sold on camp shoes

[Youngblood]

Grrickar,

You may be on the something... maybe lay the bag on its side and sit on it to force the water through the filter? :)

Youngblood

[Youngblood]

Or maybe design the water sack such that the filter didn't take water from the very bottom of the sack?

[minnesotasmith]

I am a big fan of bringing a small food-grade plastic funnel and some coffee filters to prefilter any water that is going to be further processed into drinking water. Boiling and chemical treatment will both be quicker and/or more effective if larger particles are removed (and note that coffee filters have a rather small pore size). Water microfilters (like my Katadyne) will have a longer life and take longer to get slow-flowing.

The only two items needed are extremely lightweight, inexpensive (so it's no big deal if you lose or break them) and readily available (initially or for replacement/replenishment) at any decent-sized grocery store. Also, they have multiple uses, at least for anyone who drinks noninstant coffee/loose-leaf tea while on the trail. Lastly, the filters are readily disposed of in campfires, so they don't necessarily have to be packed out. This should be an easy sell to any hiker that is not planning on carrying in all their water IMO.

[Nameless]

Thats what i was thinking ahout... i guess its what i am going to do. can cut down the coffee filters so they just fit the funnel (dont like coffee, cannot handle caffine because I Never consume it it that large of amounts, last time I did 2.5 years ago i ended up with bright purple hair... Its now hot pink...) Cut the spout low on the funnel...

Thanks
Pink (and some of you now understand the name)

[orangebug]

The bottle cap on a spring water bottle fits a Platypus perfectly. If one really wished to try it, you could screw your hose to the water bottle and send the other end into the Platy and use the bottle as a funnel. Frankly, it's easier to use a Sierra cup and scoop and pour.

The Zips are a problem in that they are used for large volume bags. They can be tough to close with cold hands and mittens. For my personal use, a full 2.4 liter Platy is fine for end of day and breakfast water needs.

Polar Pure is great for washing abrasions and cuts. It doesn't taste bad if you use enough and wait long enough. I only used it once during the last 2 weeks, while getting water near the African cattle on the Humps.

[peter_pan]

You are making this too hard...Get a good in line filter...use care filling the bladder....use the spout in down ( most efficient) position....backwash it in town...it works.