whats the best buy for your buck on a pack size water purification system? brand and where you get them.thanks.
any water drinkers on here?
Check out the MSR MiniWorks EX Microfilter...I love mine. It screws on to the top of my 32oz. Nalgene bottles and is nice and compact.
http://cascadedesigns.com/msr/water-treatment-and-hydration/expedition-water-treatment-and-hydration/miniworks-ex-microfilter/product
I drink water! I have an MSR pump and it's about 80 bucks or so. Works well but the ceramic filters are prone to cracking if they freeze, not too much of a worry usually. If you combine a filter with a "steri pen" to render any left over bad stuff inactive you'll be safe.
thanks guys
If you are setting up a camp by water a gravity filter works great, especially for more than one hunter. We use a Katadyn Base Camp. Works great. Like having running water at camp without any pumping. Holds about 2 gallons. We will fill multiple 1-3 liter platypus bladders every evening.
think i'll be ordering the katadyn base camp.
I have a Katadyn filter. Not the base camp, but a small one that you have to pump. I'm very happy with it. It's not very heavy for me to keep in the pack and carry.
We use both the Katydyn base camp and the pump type also. Like Lost Arra said, if you are near water, the base camp works great, just fill it up and it does all the work. Nothing wrong with the pumps, just takes some time to fill up jugs.
BOB
I have the sweetwater...love it!!! It's all I've used on backpack hunts, or any hunts up here for that matter.
I do carry a camp 2.5 gal bota bottle, saves on filtering for camp, and I carry the filter during day trips to fill up as I can on the trail.
Katadyn is good stuff. I have not used the base camp, but I have used a few of the smaller ones with good results.
Keep in mind that a microfilter does not work against viruses. A purifier does. I use the Pur (now Katadyn) Hiker microfilter most of the time. If I am worried about viruses, I use purifying tablets. I also carry the tablets in my day pack and use them throughout the day.
how does the water taste using the tablets?
Tablets make the water taste like crap. Add gatorade powder or lemonade powder to make it palatable.
I drank water out of a pool formed by a tiny trickle of water on the side of hill in Panama, used iodine tablets to treat it. Onewhohasfun is right, it tastes like crap. I used orange gatorade powder to make it palatable. We went three days with no water resupply using only the water we found. No one got sick. Now I use one of the Katadyn Hiker Pro filters and carry the Katadyn MicroPur purification tablets just in case the water looks too nasty. I used that filter in the bottom of the Grand Canyon in a small pool filled with dead tadpoles and didn't get sick. Didn't use the tablets. I highly recommend that filter if you're hiking and the base camp filter isn't an option.
i will be camped right next to a mountain stream so finding water is not an issue.i am more concerned with ghardia than filtering.i guess i can run the water through a couple coffee filters and then just use the steri-pen to purify.those little pump filters are spendy and so is the steri-pen.not really wanting to dish out 160.00-170.00 bucks for both the filter and steri-pen.have to stay within my budget for this hunt and i now have to rent a sat phone to call for horses if we get an elk down.i'd rather have pure water than totally particulate free.pure is more important and i'm not about to use them stinkin tablets from what i have read here and elsewhere.
Papabear check these out,
http://aquamira.com/military/frontier-pro-filter-system/
another vote for the msr after breaking 2 diffrent pur filters
if you're only worried about giardia the msr sweetwater will work well...also does just fine with kryptosporidum. If you're not hunting in an area downstream of a toxic waste dump (pun intended lol), you shouldnt have to filter AND treat your water supply.
On that note, due to trying to lighten up a sheep hunting backpack, I've gave thought to the last few years anyways, using aqua mira and not carrying the pump at all, again due to weight. It might be something you'd be interested in. It will allow you to do large quantities of water and is the same type of purfication most city water treatments are using. It does take a little time, I think 1 1/2 hours to full purify, so a little planning would be in order. But for someone not moving a camp around on a day to day basis with large quantities of water near by and you're not going in super light there is no reason it wouldnt work well. And it DOESNT taste like crap!!!!
John.....when are you coming to Alaska!!!!! I've got an extra room for now lol.
I like the hiker. Mine is going on ten years. I find reliable and easy to use
in reality i wont be carrying anything big enough to hold large amounts of water.i bought a waterbottle with purifier and filter both.holds one liter so will have to take the time to fill bladders which means less gold panning and hunting time but it is what it is.shouldnt take to long to fill them.we are hiking in 15 miles on foot.only problem i see with the base camp is if i leave it hanging low and a bear sees it it's toast.guess i better not forget to raise it up along with the food.
An empty gallon milk jug weighs absolutely nothing. We (ArkyBob, Ed, and I) filled a 3 gallon collapsible container and our pack bladders every day we were in Colorado. My Katadyn Basecamp was one of the best investments for wilderness camping. If you're worried about bears getting it from a tree, empty it and fold it up after each use.
If the water is clear ALL you need is a steripen. Extremely light, fast and 100% reliable. Check it out and throw away the iodine tabs forever.
2nd the steripen. Best thing going.
I use Potable Aqua with the neutralizing tabs. It does not taste bad at all. I highly recommend you try this. They are cheap and easy to use and super light. At a minimum, I feel you should have them in your daypack for emergencies. http://potableaqua.com/products-tablets.php
Also, get a Platypus Water Bladder. I use the 2 liter. Hydration is critical. Get the zip kind http://cascadedesigns.com/platypus/hands-free-hydration/big-zip-sl/product
Hi Dan, love to do it now. Need to get rid of these dang kids though. They are harshing my mellow.
I do water treatment for a living. I would not personally use the steri-pen (UV does not kill everything especially if there are any particulates in it). I use a simple filter (PUR) and add a couple drops of unscented clorox bleach (3-5 drops per qt.). This is basically what most cities do. The filter takes care of crypto and giardia and the bleach kills viruses. Typically give it 10-20 minutes for the bleach to work. Bleach is very cheap, proven, more than likely what you are drinking at home and you can use it with one of the more affordable filters. You can let the water stand uncovered and the bleach will go away after it has done its job. I think in the back country that the filter is more important than the disinfectant.
Katadyn makes good stuff, I have one of their world filters ($300.00) and a couple of base camps. I'm not that attached to the base camps as if the water is muddy or high in particulate the filter clogs up fast - under 5 fillings and cannot be cleaned. The best camp style filter I have found in marketed in USA by British Berkshire (Royal Doulton in England) it uses double ceramic/charcoal filters and is used alot in 3rd world countries. As for bleach, I'd be boiling water before I used bleach and drank it.
Lmao John!!! When the day comes, that door is always open!
Papabear,
Try buying one of the boxed wines. Take the liner out of it. works great for water, packs to nothing and weighs nothing. You could make a bag for it or stick it in say a pillow case or something snazzy to hang from a tree. We used one in WY. It's what sold me on carrying the 2.5 gallon bota bottles in sheep country. Normally we'd nix even the smallest 'nicities'. This one saved our butts walking up and down mountains every day once or twice a day to get water. There is some large platypus bags out there also that pack to nothing that can hold camp water and still allow you room in your bag without adding excess weight.
My buddy Dino swears by Polar Pure tablets:
http://www.amazon.com/Polar-Pure-Disinfectant-Iodine-Crystals/dp/B00068M3HY
I bought some for an elk hunt but never had to use them.
* Polar Pure Water Disinfectant
* Portable water disinfectant ideal for camping, backpacking, or traveling
* Unique bottle design deploys pure crystallized iodine into water
* Destroys waterborne pathogens, including Giardia and microorganisms
* Treats up to 2,000 quarts of water per bottle; indefinite shelf life
* Bottle cap measures and decants solution--no other tools required
Sounds like great stuff.
I have a Hiker too, but have not used it enough to give a report on it. So far it works but takes a while to fill a quart container.
Have a great hunt and find some color!! :jumper:
todd
http://www.polarequipment.com/comparison.htm
http://www.alpharubicon.com/prepinfo/waterpurify.htm
http://www.raems.com/store/purifier.html