a life straw for a back country hiking/camping trip in Colorado would be a great idea. can save your life. keep one in your truck, sure.. but i don't know if those things would be useful if you're so thirsty and dehydrated you start eyeing that stagnant water in a tank on a ranch in texas... I think you're going to die at that point.
I have a bunch of mini sawyers that can be used in a pinch. But they are really only for individual use. And they clog fast so you need to figure out and practice backflushing them without contaminating the filter.
I have some larger membrane solutions filters that are more suited for several people. I have them set us as gravity fed.
But if I'm really trying to filter water, and I have a larger group, I'm grabbing one of my MSR Guardian setups. High flow rate, gravity fed, easy and safer backflush design. They aren't cheap, but if I only had to have and rely on one, it would be that setup.
I have a bunch of mini sawyers that can be used in a pinch. But they are really only for individual use. And they clog fast so you need to figure out and practice backflushing them without contaminating the filter.
Mine came with a syringe. You simply backflush with some of the water you just filtered.
I have a bunch of mini sawyers that can be used in a pinch. But they are really only for individual use. And they clog fast so you need to figure out and practice backflushing them without contaminating the filter.
Mine came with a syringe. You simply backflush with some of the water you just filtered.
I also like that the filter input thread is compatible with Smart brand water bottles among others. Just fill up the bottle, thread on the filter, and squeeze into your clean container.
One other consideration I'll toss in there (and if you're asking about filters, you likely haven't given this much thought) is how or where you'll be needing to gather water.
The parts of this are the gathering and transportation part, the filtering part, and the storage and transportation part.
For instance, if you are wanting to suck water directly from a stream with the life straw, great. But you're tied to that spot for as long as you want to suck.
If you're going to have a pump type filter, you are tying yourself to a particular spot to sit there and pump. Then you'll have to transport the clean water.
If you have a dirty water container, you can fill that water container and transport dirty water to another spot that may be more beneficial to filter. Depending on the container, and the water source, that grabbing of dirty water can be 5 seconds or 5 min. Fixed ridged containers can be challenging to fill in shallow streams. Roll top bags are typically much faster.
I prefer a roll top bag, dip and go. Then use whatever filter I have in a gravity feed type format. And I also only filter what we need kinda as an of demand type thing. That way I'm not putting more strain on the filter than needed and I'm not having to carry more filtered water than I need just because it's filtered.
I'll see if I can get a video of my setup and how I use it. I'll likely have a chance next weekend. That may make more sense if you actually saw it.
Until then, here's a video showing a little sawyer mini filter I have setup to use in a gravity feed type scenario, followed by us pumping dirty burn area rain runoff with a hand pump (probably my least favorite way to filter water, and he is pumping too quickly (you can hear the pump cavitating)).
We use Katdyn water filtration systems. I have an older version of this one. Used it on many backpacking and canoeing trips. I can fill bottles and water bladders for multiple people in 30 minutes. Cleanable and replaceable parts.
River trek earlier this year and a buddy got pretty sick from using a Lifestraw wrong. I'm not a fan of them.
We used this setup for 5 years in Zambia and never got the the trots. You can make it yourself, less expensive and the filters are available on Amazon.
I use two: Sawyer filter, dirty water squeeze bag, clean water bag, and a smar****er spots cap for backflushing. Packs in a small stuff sack.
Sawyer filter with large bags for a gravity filter when dispersed camping. I keep a smar****er bottle with the sports cap in my kit for backflushing when packing up.
