cleaning Sawyer Squeeze filter

[Mouser999]

I managed to really get a lot of dirt in my Sawyer Squeeze. Is there a more efficient way to clean it other than the backwash syringe? Everytime I think I'm done I find more small dirt particles coming out. Thanks

[colorado_rob]

You can press the backflush end tightly against your kitchen faucet and turn the water on low, moving to medium once it flows, that always works well for me. Prepare to get a bit wet... hold it tightly and you'll stay drier. Or find the right size rubber washer to make a seal.

[SteelCut]

I use a Smart Water bottle with the "sport" top flip cover (rather than screw on cap). The nipple on the sport top interfaces nicely with the outflow port of the filter. Fill with water and hold the Smart Water bottle upside down and give a gentle squeeze. Easier to pass a large amount of water back through the filter.

[Mouser999]

Thanks. I just watched a Sawyer video ref hot water and also using the bottle coupler. Gotta get it really clean for this weekend

[Another Kevin]

If I'm in the field and have my Camelbak, I'll put the Sawyer on the hose and backflush from it. I never use the Sawyer as an in-line filter, so only the 'clean' nipple is ever attached to my drinking tube.

[ADVStrom14]

You can press the backflush end tightly against your kitchen faucet and turn the water on low, moving to medium once it flows, that always works well for me. Prepare to get a bit wet... hold it tightly and you'll stay drier. Or find the right size rubber washer to make a seal.

I just had a thought about this. Has anyone tried (I'm sure that someone has) taking the screen/filter thing off the end of the faucet and using the bottle attachment or tornado tube or whatever to actually attach the filter to the faucet. It may not be that the threads will match up...and come to think of it, you may just be shooting in more particulates since you took the fine filter off at the end. Just a thought.

[Hangfire]

If you are lazy like me you just blow through the sports top end after every use and call it good.

Not to hijack the thread, but how do sawyers hold up after sitting for say 2 years without use. Anyone have experience with a sawyer squeeze of mini that you have maintained for multiple years?

[colorado_rob]

If you are lazy like me you just blow through the sports top end after every use and call it good.

Not to hijack the thread, but how do sawyers hold up after sitting for say 2 years without use. Anyone have experience with a sawyer squeeze of mini that you have maintained for multiple years?

There is one aspect of this that I have found to be important: If you're using house water to flush the SS, make sure you do a final couple plunger flushes with distilled water. Our house water is very hard, and if you leave your filter wet with this water, when it dries you will have calcium deposits that inhibits the filter, in my case, it ruined it. Lesson learned! "Natural" (outside water) should not have this problem. So, at the end of the hiking season, thoroughly flush with distilled water for longest life. My large SS, take two, has lasted over 3 years now, whereas my original one was ruined by flushing with our house water (I think).

[saltysack]

There is one aspect of this that I have found to be important: If you're using house water to flush the SS, make sure you do a final couple plunger flushes with distilled water. Our house water is very hard, and if you leave your filter wet with this water, when it dries you will have calcium deposits that inhibits the filter, in my case, it ruined it. Lesson learned! "Natural" (outside water) should not have this problem. So, at the end of the hiking season, thoroughly flush with distilled water for longest life. My large SS, take two, has lasted over 3 years now, whereas my original one was ruined by flushing with our house water (I think).

Interesting.....never thought about that...sure wish the sawyer had a freeze indicator...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JumpMaster Blaster]

I bought an adapter kit on Amazon which has a coupler on it. I backflush it using one of the bags. At home I do the same thing, run 2-3 bags of clean water through it, bang it on the side of the tub if it's really nasty. Then I'll run a bag of bleachy water throught it, let it sit, then another bag of clean water.

As for the freeze indicator, here are some stickers. https://qasupplies.com/freeze-check-temperature-labels/

[saltysack]

I bought an adapter kit on Amazon which has a coupler on it. I backflush it using one of the bags. At home I do the same thing, run 2-3 bags of clean water through it, bang it on the side of the tub if it's really nasty. Then I'll run a bag of bleachy water throught it, let it sit, then another bag of clean water.

As for the freeze indicator, here are some stickers. https://qasupplies.com/freeze-check-temperature-labels/

Neat...never seen those...thx


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[theinfamousj]

My Sawyer, from before the Squeeze and Mini were on the markets, came with a faucet adapter kit for backflushing.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[theinfamousj]

Oh look! It still exists!

https://sawyer.com/international/pro...queeze-filter/

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[-Rush-]

If you've clogged the filter with debris and sediment, it helps to lightly tap the bottom of the filter against a rock or surface a few times before each backflush. You'd be surprised at how much debris will get flushed out that would otherwise still be in there.

[Uriah]

If you've clogged the filter with debris and sediment, it helps to lightly tap the bottom of the filter against a rock or surface a few times before each backflush. You'd be surprised at how much debris will get flushed out that would otherwise still be in there.

This is pretty much it. I've used my Sawyer for many miles now (10,000-ish) and the trick to keeping it going isn't just back-flushing but choosing the best source of water to be filtered (when possible) and then this...

1. Use a clear squeeze bottle, like a 750ml 'SmartWater' bottle or a 500ml tall, skinny bottle. I use the tall, skinny 500ml bottles because they're easier to hold and they fit in my pack's side-pockets well. That the bottle is see-through is important, so you can observe the effect of this method. Remove the bottle label to help see the effect. Also, be sure to use an air-tight 'pop-top' lid, screwed tightly onto the top of the filter.

2. Fill the Sawyer Squeeze with water (unfiltered H2O is fine: just fill its filter element). Be sure when filling the filter chamber to leave the water bottle half-squeezed, so that it creates a vacuum effect (in which it is trying to suck water back from the filter into itself). In other words, run enough water through the filter to leave the bottle half squeezed.

4. Now, here's the real "trick" that we Sawyer Sultans use. With the half-squeezed bottle in your dominant hand, and the filter screwed onto it, with the filter's pop-top shut (so that the vacuum effect remains in effect), begin to hit the filter onto the palm of your other hand...as hard as the fat of your hand will allow. (I usually wear a glove in that hand while doing this.) Hit it repeatedly...over and over for 20-30 seconds. Hard! Rotate the bottle in your dominant hand to be sure to hit all sides of the filter. I hit the filter near where that round ring surrounds it...that is the thickest part of the Sawyer Squeeze.

5. Now, "un-pop" the filter's pop-top and, as hard as you can, blow the water that's in the filter chamber back into the bottle, allowing the bottle's vacuum effect to assist. You'll be surprised how nasty (brown) this water is, even after you've flushed the filter the way Sawyer recommends, via syringe.

6. Repeat these steps as necessary, and do so often. Use different water each time, rather than the brown, nasty stuff you've just blown back into your bottle!

I hope this can be visualized. I'd post a video, but I am afraid don't possess the technical skill to do so! Ask questions if necessary, and I'll attempt to clarify.

[Odd Man Out]

There is one aspect of this that I have found to be important: If you're using house water to flush the SS, make sure you do a final couple plunger flushes with distilled water. Our house water is very hard, and if you leave your filter wet with this water, when it dries you will have calcium deposits that inhibits the filter, in my case, it ruined it. Lesson learned! "Natural" (outside water) should not have this problem. So, at the end of the hiking season, thoroughly flush with distilled water for longest life. My large SS, take two, has lasted over 3 years now, whereas my original one was ruined by flushing with our house water (I think).

When I am putting my filter away for long storage, I will flush with white vinegar. Also let the vinegar set in the filter for a while. This helps dissolve hard water scale (calcium carbonate, mostly). Then I flush with distilled water.

[DuneElliot]

I also use the Smartwater bottle coupler and backflush with clean water. The couplers also make it so easy to filter water without spilling anything. I'm only had to clean it once, but I will be sure not to use my house water again without some vinegar in it since we have hard water in our well.

[Rain Man]

Oh look! It still exists!

https://sawyer.com/international/pro...queeze-filter/

Works like a charm. Have not thought of using vinegar, but then our water isn't "hard." I do a final flush with highly diluted bleach, thinking that will keep micro-organisms (think mold too) from growing in there.