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Need Lightweight Water Filter for Backpacking

PostPosted: Mon Jul 10, 2017 4:05 pm
by Woodswalker
I want to upgrade my old dinosaur. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Re: Need Lightweight Water Filter for Backpacking

PostPosted: Mon Jul 10, 2017 6:17 pm
by ExcitableBoy
I have partner who uses the MSR HyperFlow Microfilter. Very light and fast: https://www.msrgear.com/water/hyperflow-microfilter. The pore size is 0.2 (0.45 is what microbiologists use to capture bacteria), so it is plenty small enough to filter out protozoa and bacteria. If you are planning on using this abroad, I would add a chlorine dioxide tablet or drops to deactivate virus particles.

Re: Need Lightweight Water Filter for Backpacking

PostPosted: Mon Jul 10, 2017 7:00 pm
by DukeJH

Re: Need Lightweight Water Filter for Backpacking

PostPosted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 2:34 pm
by nartreb
What's your dinosaur and what about it would you like to improve?

My dinosaur is a Katadyn Hiker - similar to the MSR Hyperflow. MSR claims a much faster flow rate for theirs, but that's not enough for me to spend money on an upgrade. I usually pump a liter or two at a time, which takes me one or two minutes. Cutting that to ten or twenty seconds wouldn't improve my quality of hiking.

Re: Need Lightweight Water Filter for Backpacking

PostPosted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 3:32 pm
by awilsondc
I just got a Katadyn BeFree water filter. It's a squeeze filter like the sawyer, but WAY faster and the bag is soft rather than rigid. I used a sawyer last year which was great, super light weight and all, but it's flow is pretty slow and takes a lot of squeezing. I've used the BeFree twice in the field now and I love it. Certainly worth looking in to.

Re: Need Lightweight Water Filter for Backpacking

PostPosted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 3:38 pm
by Woodswalker
nartreb wrote:What's your dinosaur and what about it would you like to improve?

My dinosaur is a Katadyn Hiker - similar to the MSR Hyperflow. MSR claims a much faster flow rate for theirs, but that's not enough for me to spend money on an upgrade. I usually pump a liter or two at a time, which takes me one or two minutes. Cutting that to ten or twenty seconds wouldn't improve my quality of hiking.


I have an old MSR. I believe the model name is "airspring accumulator." It works fine and has served me well. I'm looking for something ultralight. I'm not worried about saving 20 seconds in the backcountry, LOL.

Re: Need Lightweight Water Filter for Backpacking

PostPosted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 8:29 pm
by Jesus Malverde
Woodswalker wrote:I'm looking for something ultralight

LifeStraw Personal Water Filter
https://www.amazon.com/LifeStraw-LSPHF0 ... B006QF3TW4

http://lifestraw.com/products/lifestraw/

Re: Need Lightweight Water Filter for Backpacking

PostPosted: Thu Jul 13, 2017 11:08 pm
by jdzaharia
I want to hear some real world reviews on the MSR TrailShot. You should buy one!

https://www.msrgear.com/water/trailshot

Re: Need Lightweight Water Filter for Backpacking

PostPosted: Mon Jul 17, 2017 9:24 pm
by mrchad9
I don't use one. It's the lightest option I've found.

Makes it so you are less likely to carry the water as well so it saves more than just a few ounces.

Re: Need Lightweight Water Filter for Backpacking

PostPosted: Tue Jul 25, 2017 10:52 am
by Yank-Tank
mrchad9 wrote:I don't use one. It's the lightest option I've found.

Makes it so you are less likely to carry the water as well so it saves more than just a few ounces.


You are quite a rare American. The rest are minions, so if they say don't drink the awesomely fresh clean cold superiorly filtered water that basically flows straight out of the mountain because it will make you sick, then they are not going to drink it.

The lightest weight option is the tablets btw.

Re: Need Lightweight Water Filter for Backpacking

PostPosted: Tue Jul 25, 2017 11:11 am
by Yank-Tank
ExcitableBoy wrote:I have partner who uses the MSR HyperFlow Microfilter. Very light and fast: https://www.msrgear.com/water/hyperflow-microfilter. The pore size is 0.2 (0.45 is what microbiologists use to capture bacteria), so it is plenty small enough to filter out protozoa and bacteria. If you are planning on using this abroad, I would add a chlorine dioxide tablet or drops to deactivate virus particles.


Lol, If you travel overseas the water is likely to get better, you will find that most bar the odd few mountainous regions on the planet are in a far more pristine condition than the USA regions.

Giardia isn't something to fear, I have had it. If it is your time to get it you will get it. Most likely from some place like at home or from bottled water, because unless you have some sort of mega weakness in your immune system or are a little light headed and get water from a swamp or some other no Brainer place then you will be fine.

Re: Need Lightweight Water Filter for Backpacking

PostPosted: Tue Jul 25, 2017 2:41 pm
by ExcitableBoy
Yank-Tank wrote:Giardia isn't something to fear, I have had it. If it is your time to get it you will get it. Most likely from some place like at home or from bottled water, because unless you have some sort of mega weakness in your immune system or are a little light headed and get water from a swamp or some other no Brainer place then you will be fine.

LOL, I'm the last person you need to lecture about Giardia spp. I did my graduate research and dissertation on waterborne pathogens, including Giardia spp., one of only three researchers in the U.S. pursuing that line of research at the time. I worked as a water quality scientist at a pioneering laboratories and agencies in water quality in the United States.

I mention chlorine dioxide specifically for virus particles. Protozoans are large and easy to filter out. The one time I became ill from drinking untreated water was due to a virus. Giardia is all but non existent in municipal drinking water supplies in the U.S., bottled water ditto. Bacteria are a big concern in bottled water, however.

Re: Need Lightweight Water Filter for Backpacking

PostPosted: Tue Jul 25, 2017 11:14 pm
by mrchad9
Yank-Tank wrote:
mrchad9 wrote:I don't use one. It's the lightest option I've found.

Makes it so you are less likely to carry the water as well so it saves more than just a few ounces.


You are quite a rare American. The rest are minions, so if they say don't drink the awesomely fresh clean cold superiorly filtered water that basically flows straight out of the mountain because it will make you sick, then they are not going to drink it.

The lightest weight option is the tablets btw.

This is true... people do not think for themselves. I have encountered people filtering water that literally is coming from a spring right out of the ground. Better safe than sorry he said. I told him to filter what comes out of the faucet then because that has more bacteria than whatever was coming out of that mountain. He eventually got tired and stopped filtering.

Yes tablets lightest. If I am in an area with cows I have taken tablets and they work fine and weigh nothing.

Re: Need Lightweight Water Filter for Backpacking

PostPosted: Tue Jul 25, 2017 11:43 pm
by ExcitableBoy
FWIW, I am very careful about where I get my water. If it is literally melting off a snow bank, then I do not disinfect it. Streams, lakes, etc., I use chlorine dioxide tablets. The ONE time I became sick was when I was drinking snow melt that had collected in a small rock basin. It had just snowed, then melted, so it had to be fine so I thought, so I did not treat it. As I drank, I looked over and then saw mice bathing in the water. I was sick for months, had every test done and the doc concluded it was some kind of virus.

Re: Need Lightweight Water Filter for Backpacking

PostPosted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 3:03 pm
by Norman
Steripen