water purification?

[PAPA BEAR]

whats the best buy for your buck on a pack size water purification system? brand and where you get them.thanks.

[PAPA BEAR]

any water drinkers on here?

[Jason Hansen]

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

[calgarychef]

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.

[PAPA BEAR]

thanks guys

[Lost Arra]

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.

[PAPA BEAR]

think i'll be ordering the katadyn base camp.

[dnovo]

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.

[ArkyBob]

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

[AkDan]

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.

[DaxE]

Katadyn is good stuff. I have not used the base camp, but I have used a few of the smaller ones with good results.

[John Scifres]

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.

[PAPA BEAR]

how does the water taste using the tablets?

[onewhohasfun]

Tablets make the water taste like crap. Add gatorade powder or lemonade powder to make it palatable.

[wbyrd]

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.

[PAPA BEAR]

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.

[kevgsp]

Papabear check these out,

http://aquamira.com/military/frontier-pro-filter-system/

[Dave Lay]

another vote for the msr   after breaking 2 diffrent pur filters

[AkDan]

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.

[NYStickhunter]

I like the hiker. Mine is going on ten years. I find reliable and easy to use