water

[Soulman77]

Has anyone used a steripen on the trail and what has the experience been?

[Crossup]

I have and unfortunately am not going to say its completely effective. Thats because a lot of our springs and streams probably are safe anyway, so its hard to know just how effective it is.
But I can say that using a Sawyer Mini AND a SteriPen Classic together, I've drank all manner of nasty water without any ill effect. I carry it as a backup and extra treatment for really questionable water. I have also used it when water was limited and I was not careful with clean and processed water so I gave the potentially tainted water a blast.
Not sure about how well it would work for a thru hike as battery consumption seems higher than rated.

[lkmi]

I tried Steripen in its early days (and my early days backpacking). Twice, I had to borrow my friends' pump filter because the water level was too low to collect enough water (of course, that's the same issue with the Sawyer). And, yes, I worried about the batteries going out. There are so many other/better options: pump filter, Aqua Mira, gravity filter and, yes, Sawyer...

[soilman]

I used one on my NOBO AT thru hike 11 years ago. Only once did I have a problem. Another hiker I was with ditched his filter for a Steripen in Hanover. Neither one of us suffered any water borne illnesses.

[Odd Man Out]

Every water treatment method has its advantages and disadvantages, so it is misleading to say one method is superior or inferior. Instead, evaluate which option's strengths best align with your needs. While I have not used a Steripen, I follow several overseas trekking fora. In some regions, especially Nepal, Steripens are a very popular (perhaps the most popular) device for water treatment. The reason is that the needs of high altitude Trekkers in Nepal align well with the Steripen's strengths, specifically its ability survive freezing temperatures and treat viral contamination. The filters popular in the US do not do well with these challenges. Another of Steripen's strengths is speed and simplicity. Chemical treatments work on viruses, but in cold temps, effective treatment can be time consuming. As for effectiveness, Nepal's water is notoriously contaminated, so the Steripen's popularity there is a testament to it's effectiveness. As for its limitations, I heard a lot of reliability issues early on, but in the past few years, these seem to have been resolved. If you hear about device fails, you may want to determine if these were from older more suspect models. Steripens will have a high up front cost, a need for recharging, and weigh more than other optiions. Perhaps its biggest drawback is that you need clear water for Steripens to work. If your hike will require frequent treatment of cloudy water, a Steripen may not be your best option.

[nsherry61]

I don't remember the model name of the Steripen I use. It's one of the smallest and lightest weight ones and is USB rechargeable. It's probably an older model that has been replaced by something better by now. I like it quite a lot for personal use. As noted above the Steripen deactivates viruses, which filters do not and for which chemicals take more time and yucky flavor. And, I use it in the winter. In areas where water is relatively plentily, I often don't even take a water bottle because it is so easy to just dip, sterilize, and drink whenever I'm thirsty. For me, in practice, it is also a lower "fiddle factor" than the Sawyer squeeze or mini or similar type filters.

However, the Steripen is annoyingly slow for parties larger than one. My Steripen is great for me. But, when I hike or backpack with anyone I am sharing water treatment with, I will take a Sawyer Squeeze or both the Squeeze and Steripen so processing water goes faster.

[Deadeye]

I've used one, and still use it sometimes. I really can't say it's better or worse than any other method, they all have minor cons, and the con for the Steripen is reliance on electricity.