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- Aug 9, 2007
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SteriPEN Adventurer Opti
MSRP: $89.95
Price paid: $79.95
Purchased from: Amazon
Manufacturer's Website
My Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
I've tried about every type of water filter under the sun. When I first started backpacking, I used an MSR Miniworks. It was a good pump but it was slow, required frequent cleaning and I once lost some parts while on a trip trying to clean the silt out of it. After that I tried the MSR Miox. At the time, it was a revolutionary piece of ultralight water purification gear. I suppose it still is if you don't mind your water tasting like chlorine. Yuck!
After having the Miox kill the wonderful flavor of mountain streams for a season or two, I went back to a pump, but this time I went with the First Needs XL. The First Needs remains my pump of choice to this day. It weighs about a pound and pumps close to 2 liters per minute. You can find a pump that weighs a few ounces less but good luck finding one that is so fast and so easy to maintain.
But then in the spring of 2011, I went backpacking with a friend who brought along this fancy new gadget called the Steripen Adventurer Opti. I'd heard of them before but never used one. It was fascinating but quite nerve racking at the same time. We just dipped his 1 liter pot into the stream, swirled the pen around for a minute or so and drank. No chemicals, no pumping, not a single thing between me and any 'floaties' or harmful organisms that might be swirling around in that water.
For the next few weeks, every time I had the slightest inkling of discomfort in my stomach, I thought "oh crap, here it goes, that damn Steripen made me sick!". But I never got sick. So naturally, I went out and bought one for myself. I have been using the Steripen almost exclusively ever since. Just for reference, I had 51 bag nights in 2011 and 54 in 2012. This thing has been thoroughly tested! I have used the Steripen in turbid rivers, clean mountain streams, high alpine lakes, slot canyons and even a nasty, stagnant pothole in the desert (not reccommended!).
I found that the Steripen's biggest strength lies in high alpine hiking and backpacking. I never really think twice about which filter to bring on those trips anymore, it's always the Steripen. The water is almost always clean and clear with very little to no pre-filtering necessary. We did have one night at a lake where the wind had blown a lot of debris up to our shoreline and covered the surface of the water with tiny debris. At first I would just use my hand to clear the surface of the water. After a while, we had the idea to use a mesh stuff sack as a pre-filter. We have used that a few times since then but it is generally not needed.
One of the clear downsides of the Steripen is the need for batteries. The Adventurer Opti uses 2 qty CR123 lithium batteries. The official specs from Steripen say that you should expect 100 treatments from one set of disposable batteries and 40-50 treatments from one set of rechargeable batteries. A little misleading as they are considering a treatment as 1/2 liter. Sure, the Steripen will do half liter treatments but who really does that? As for whether their estimates are correct, I get about half out of my disposable batteries as they claim I should get, almost exactly what they say I should expect out of rechargeables which I have not had any luck finding in the CR123 size.
Regardless of how many treatments I usually get or how new my batteries were, I ALWAYS carry an extra set with the Steripen. You're asking for trouble if you don't as the batteries die quite suddenly. I also strongly recommend keeping a backup water purification method such as tablets in your first aid kit. I've never had to use my backup but it is always there. And that advice would be the same for a pump or any other filter.
Ultimately, the Steripen Adventurer Opti has become one of my most valued and most reliable pieces of hiking equipment. It will never become my only method of purification, but when clean, clear water is available, it is by far the most convenient and pleasant way to prepare water for drinking.
Pros and cons:
Pros
Super light weight
No pumping
No chemicals
Very small
No maintenance or cleaning
Cons
Requires batteries
Not good with silty or murky water
Won't remove bad flavors
Care must be taken to avoid 'floaties'
Photos:
The color of the bottle you use matters with the Steripen. Blue bottles in particular make it very difficult to see that the light is on and working.
With clean, clear water, it's as easy as dipping your bottle in and swirling the Steripen around in it.
The Steripen in it's case
MSRP: $89.95
Price paid: $79.95
Purchased from: Amazon
Manufacturer's Website
My Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
I've tried about every type of water filter under the sun. When I first started backpacking, I used an MSR Miniworks. It was a good pump but it was slow, required frequent cleaning and I once lost some parts while on a trip trying to clean the silt out of it. After that I tried the MSR Miox. At the time, it was a revolutionary piece of ultralight water purification gear. I suppose it still is if you don't mind your water tasting like chlorine. Yuck!
After having the Miox kill the wonderful flavor of mountain streams for a season or two, I went back to a pump, but this time I went with the First Needs XL. The First Needs remains my pump of choice to this day. It weighs about a pound and pumps close to 2 liters per minute. You can find a pump that weighs a few ounces less but good luck finding one that is so fast and so easy to maintain.
But then in the spring of 2011, I went backpacking with a friend who brought along this fancy new gadget called the Steripen Adventurer Opti. I'd heard of them before but never used one. It was fascinating but quite nerve racking at the same time. We just dipped his 1 liter pot into the stream, swirled the pen around for a minute or so and drank. No chemicals, no pumping, not a single thing between me and any 'floaties' or harmful organisms that might be swirling around in that water.
For the next few weeks, every time I had the slightest inkling of discomfort in my stomach, I thought "oh crap, here it goes, that damn Steripen made me sick!". But I never got sick. So naturally, I went out and bought one for myself. I have been using the Steripen almost exclusively ever since. Just for reference, I had 51 bag nights in 2011 and 54 in 2012. This thing has been thoroughly tested! I have used the Steripen in turbid rivers, clean mountain streams, high alpine lakes, slot canyons and even a nasty, stagnant pothole in the desert (not reccommended!).
I found that the Steripen's biggest strength lies in high alpine hiking and backpacking. I never really think twice about which filter to bring on those trips anymore, it's always the Steripen. The water is almost always clean and clear with very little to no pre-filtering necessary. We did have one night at a lake where the wind had blown a lot of debris up to our shoreline and covered the surface of the water with tiny debris. At first I would just use my hand to clear the surface of the water. After a while, we had the idea to use a mesh stuff sack as a pre-filter. We have used that a few times since then but it is generally not needed.
One of the clear downsides of the Steripen is the need for batteries. The Adventurer Opti uses 2 qty CR123 lithium batteries. The official specs from Steripen say that you should expect 100 treatments from one set of disposable batteries and 40-50 treatments from one set of rechargeable batteries. A little misleading as they are considering a treatment as 1/2 liter. Sure, the Steripen will do half liter treatments but who really does that? As for whether their estimates are correct, I get about half out of my disposable batteries as they claim I should get, almost exactly what they say I should expect out of rechargeables which I have not had any luck finding in the CR123 size.
Regardless of how many treatments I usually get or how new my batteries were, I ALWAYS carry an extra set with the Steripen. You're asking for trouble if you don't as the batteries die quite suddenly. I also strongly recommend keeping a backup water purification method such as tablets in your first aid kit. I've never had to use my backup but it is always there. And that advice would be the same for a pump or any other filter.
Ultimately, the Steripen Adventurer Opti has become one of my most valued and most reliable pieces of hiking equipment. It will never become my only method of purification, but when clean, clear water is available, it is by far the most convenient and pleasant way to prepare water for drinking.
Pros and cons:
Pros
Super light weight
No pumping
No chemicals
Very small
No maintenance or cleaning
Cons
Requires batteries
Not good with silty or murky water
Won't remove bad flavors
Care must be taken to avoid 'floaties'
Photos:
The color of the bottle you use matters with the Steripen. Blue bottles in particular make it very difficult to see that the light is on and working.
With clean, clear water, it's as easy as dipping your bottle in and swirling the Steripen around in it.
The Steripen in it's case