what does everyone think of the katydyn pocket

[harvcore]

pros?
cons?

good?
bad?

yes?
no?

[stranger]

It's expensive, heavy, slow, expensive, heavy, slow...get a PUR or Aqua Mira.

[ganj]

I think PUR let Katadyn pick up their line of water filters. The new REI catalog was selling PUR Hiker under the name Katadyn Hiker now. Also I think bleach is a better alternative.

[RagingHampster]

It's the PUR Hiker. Katadyn bought them. It's also a filter that can crap-out in the woods, forcing you to use your stove-fuel to boil water, and eat crunchy uncooked rice. I'd carry a back-up chemical treatment, like Aqua-Mira. And while your at it, ditch the primary filter, keep the pump and add a Sweetwater Siltstopper Pre-Filter. Oh yeah, and strip the pump mechanism to the bare functional pieces.

See my First Need version in the Photo Gallery.

By the way, the Katadyn Hiker only filters Cysts & Bacteria. So you'll get to roll the dice with Virus', unless you have a chemical treatment.

Do I smell something burning? Here comes the flames to scorch my theory...

[tlbj6142]

I, too, use Aqua Mira as my primary water treatment as long as the water doesn't have too many floaties (I don't like to chew my h2o ). Not sure why I didn't think of making a simple floatie filter like RH and just use Aqua Mira full time.

A few questions for RH...

Why two inline filters?
What filters are in your replacement kit?
Short of buying a First Need just for the pump, I wonder if simple handheld pumps are available??

[RagingHampster]

The 1/2oz first need pre-filter filters all the cooties you can see pretty much, and prevents the siltstopper from being clogged by large media (leaf & algae bits, bugs, etc). The 1oz siltstopper is a 5 micron filter which filters out even more junk (including some large cysts). This allows the aquamira to work more thoroughly as the water has been prefiltered, and there are less cyst and bacterial globs (either filtered or broken up). The plastic tube contains 3 replacement siltstopper filters. The tube & three filters weigh just under an ounce. Obviously by name, the siltstopper also removes fine sand particles from cloudy water, and glacial runoff if hiking out west. Having extra filters really gives you some security. Although if worse came to worse, you could always just use the aquamira and be ok. The 2 pre-filters just increase the effectiveness of the aquamira, and improve color/taste in water that may not be perfectly clear. 1.5oz (+1oz more if you carry the 3 replacement filters) is a small price for aesthetically pleasing water. The pump obviously makes drawing water easier from almost dry/odd/deep water sources.

You can probably get hand pumps at hardware stores or department stores. There were a few threads about this before.