Water filters

Im in louisiana. Are these types of filtration suitable for slow\very slow moving waterways and rivers? No moutains streams here lol

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It's always best to filter from an area with moving water, but sometimes you have no choice. All of these will work on any water, no matter how fast or slow it's moving. Chunks in the water will cause problems with some filters, so make sure you pre-filter with a coffee filter or a bandanna to get the chunks out. A steripen will kill bacteria on the surface of your particles. If you have big chunks of stuff in your water, the steripen will only kill the bacteria on the outside of the chunks. Using a pre-filter will eliminate this problem.
 
rtavious said:
Im in louisiana. Are these types of filtration suitable for slow\very slow moving waterways and rivers? No moutains streams here lol
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From Louisiana also. I use a Sawyer Squeeze. Rigged it up to gravity flow with a dry bag.
 
If the water is so still why not use a filter like the Sawyer and rig it up to a dirty bag that feeds a clean bag. Then use a steripen to take care of the vuruses, protozoa and bacteria. It won't kill them, but there DNA is so disrupted by the UV they can't reproduce.

It really wouldn't take that long and you would would have pretty safe water. Would taste better than chemicals too.
 
I use a sawyer mini and my understanding is it removes all the bacteria, viruses, etc. Why do you think it would need to be UV treated with a steripen if it already went through a Sawyer?
 
@Vegan.Hiker, I personally love my Sawyer system but It won't kill everything. The majority of us use it in the mountains where the water is pretty clean. I just mentioned it as an option to use a steripen as a secondary purification step or, If you cant back flush the Sawyer, I would have a backup like chemicals to treat water if the sawyer gets clogged. Here's a link about the sawyer squeeze and it talks a little about the steripen.

http://m.outdoorgearlab.com/Backpacking-Water-Filter-Reviews/Sawyer-Squeeze
 
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I gotcha. The article you linked to says the sawyer does NOT filter viruses, only bacteria and protozoa like giardia etc. So I searched around a little more trying to figure out whether I should chuck my Sawyer in the trash and read that viruses are not a threat in North America (unless you were to self contaminate with your own fecal matter). So.. I guess the Sawyer is fine on its own in just about most cases (in North America) but I guess it makes sense to double up with the steripen or chemical tabs like you recommended if the water looks totally gross and stagnant and some other dude's poop could be marinating in it. Honestly though, If it came to that, I would plan my trip elsewhere (with better water sources). Hell, I'd rather carry a 4 gallon dromedary or just find a new hobby than purposely spend a few nights drinking a concoction of mud and insect larvae.
 
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I've heard of people double filtering water that isn't even high risk. I don't really get it. The only thing I might ever double filter in the U.S. would be stagnant pothole water with a rodent or something floating around in it. And really, even that I would probably just do one run through my First Needs XLE and be happy. I tried Steripenning some water like that once - NOT GOOD.
 
would using chemical tabs then filter improve the taste ?

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For funky tasting water, the best method is to use a charcoal style filter such as the First Needs XLE. It's the only filter I've used that truly knocks all of the foul flavor out of water.
 
Lots of ways to purify water. If it was really nasty I would prob do a solar distillation if I was in a swampy area and had the plastic and time. Or filter it thru some old charcoal from a fire with a shirt or something. That would really suck though.
 
I've filtered some funky water with my Platypus gravity filter, and I've only not loved the taste a couple times-black looking compost style tasting.
 
Hurakan said:
Lots of ways to purify water. If it was really nasty I would prob do a solar distillation if I was in a swampy area and had the plastic and time. Or filter it thru some old charcoal from a fire with a shirt or something. That would really suck though.
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I gotta admit, I chuckled a little at the solar distillation idea. It would totally work, but man, now we're talking some sort of super survival or living off the grid thing, not hiking and backpacking! That would be a heck of a good way to do it though. I had this picture in my mind of the guy from Life of Pi floating around with his little desalinization floaty. :)

I know I already said it, but just to further qualify the statement, I've tried pretty much every type of reasonable backpacking-style purification methods there are and the only one that truly knocks out bad flavors is charcoal like that found in a First Needs XLE. Many times I've had the luxury of having two filters in the group so we got to compare immediately the funky flavor from a typical ceramic filter to the charcoal. I haven't done a side by side on the newer hollowfil glass fiber filters like you find in the sawyer and most gravity filters, but I can still taste flavors in water from them so I'm sure it doesn't knock it out like the charcoal ones do. I don't take it with me on all of my trips, but if water has potential to taste like ass, it's the hands down winner.
 
Nick said:
I gotta admit, I chuckled a little at the solar distillation idea. It would totally work, but man, now we're talking some sort of super survival or living off the grid thing, not hiking and backpacking! That would be a heck of a good way to do it though. I had this picture in my mind of the guy from Life of Pi floating around with his little desalinization floaty. :)

I know I already said it, but just to further qualify the statement, I've tried pretty much every type of reasonable backpacking-style purification methods there are and the only one that truly knocks out bad flavors is charcoal like that found in a First Needs XLE. Many times I've had the luxury of having two filters in the group so we got to compare immediately the funky flavor from a typical ceramic filter to the charcoal. I haven't done a side by side on the newer hollowfil glass fiber filters like you find in the sawyer and most gravity filters, but I can still taste flavors in water from them so I'm sure it doesn't knock it out like the charcoal ones do. I don't take it with me on all of my trips, but if water has potential to taste like ass, it's the hands down winner.
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The Sawyer will leave some taste in. Floating Black Creek in Mississippi I could taste the tannin/mud still. Not terrible but could taste it.

Most clear sandy bottoms creeks taste great to me so I don't want to remove that:)
 
Only downside with Charcoal is you really can't do gravity system with it reliably. I was in Oster when mine clogged up. Come to find out you get about 30 gallons before it stops. Same filter in a pump is no problem as you get way more pressure.

I had 3 people with me, and other than boiling water, we shared the life straw on the way back. Worse was I got influenza while up there and trying to use the life straw was pretty painful. I think it's garbage vs the steripen. So now, I always have an alternate water treatment.

Sawyer is just really convenient, but Nicks right charcoal does taste better. It's what we use in our refrigerator.
 
Does someone make an actual charcoal gravity filter? I tried the First Needs XLE rigged up in gravity mode once and it was kind of a joke. Had to give it a pump now and then just to keep it moving. But on the pump side of things, it's the second fastest you can get, only getting beat by the hollowfil fiber filters.
 
I have the katadyn base camp. It's carbon activated with I think glass hollowfill. Its horrible as a gravity filter. What I did was keep the dirty water bag as it's really nice, hooked it to my Sawyer in line and use the sawyer clean bag. Two trips and so far no issues and I'm very happy with it.
 
Apparently I was wrong about the XLE. It isn't charcoal/carbon, it's something called "Structured matrix micro-strainer". Whatever that is, it kills bad taste like crazy. Sure looks like charcoal when you crack one open.

That's kind of interesting on that katadyn base camp. It looks like it's the exact same filter as the Hiker Pro which only moves 1 liter per minute when it's being pumped. No wonder it doesn't do so well in gravity mode.
 
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