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I have been asked why I use the mini instead of the squeeze, so I bought the squeeze to test out on my last trip. Here is a video I put together with a comparison of the two, and some tips on keeping them working like new while on the trail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXqrjZNLbPg&t=257s
Okay that is the wrong video, here is the correct video ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0oXO_6s0Zo&t=10s
Subject: Squeeze Caps
If you want to keep the Squeeze capped when not in use, but you don't want the weight of the push/pull valve, and if you don't use the Sawyer bladder...
Steal the cap from the enclosed bladder as your Squeeze Cap.
Hmmm That Mini seems faster than mine.
Like many others I found the mini to slow for me. So I went to the full size sawyer squeeze. And to me the squeezing part and time it takes is no biggie.
If you're on a weeklong trip, and the water turns out to be silty, you may get a rude awakening about that Mini(like I did!).
With the advent of the Micro, the Mini might as well not exist as far as I'm concerned.
I've been using a Katadyn BeFree for a while, since one was gifted to me. Very good initial impression, though it's proven a bit inconsistent over time. You can shake it, swirl it, dip it, and all that, like they recommend, and sometimes it will speed up. Others, it will slow down even more. The good news is that you can just shake it some more, and voilá, it speeds up again.
After quite a bit of use, I like the filter itself about as much as I do the Squeeze and Micro. The wider mouth of the containers that it uses are a big advantage when filling up, though.
The flip side is that with a Sawyer, if you're using an Evernew bag for dirty water/collection and Smartwater bottles for drinking, and mess up the bag, you can still screw the filter onto the Smartwater bottles(which is how some people use it to begin with), and carry on.
My failsafe for both is to carry an extra 2L bladder in the bottom of my pack(Everrnew for Sawyer, HydroPak for BeFree), so I don't even think about it.
For me, that makes the BeFree a keeper due to its wide mouth containers' ease of use.
One of my hiking buddies passed along to me a Sawyer Squeeze (full-size) that she replaced because it wasn't flowing well anymore. I came to learn that she had backflushed with tap water, not distilled water. So I suspect some minerals built up inside and reduced the flow.
This morning I soaked it in white vinegar for a few hours, then backflushed with distilled water. After a bit of initial resistance, the backflush water squirted out about as well as when I backflush my Sawyer Mini. I also checked the filtering flow with distilled water, and it seemed to do that about as well too. I then shook out the excess water and have it sitting out to dry further (I store mine dry, but if I think I'll need to use it, I'll soak it in distilled water before I leave. The Mini, at least, is really hard to get started if it's bone dry when you need to use it).
Is there anything else I should do? I have not run bleach through it. Should I? And if so, at what concentration or dilution?