This sounds like the best one to come along by far. A total of 1,500 gallons before needing a new filter, all right in the bottle. Hard to find an item more practical than this one.
Great for all those “the world is coming to an end” types we’ve been seeing recently…
Katadyn Pocket will filter 13,000 gallons, though it’s probably a good deal more expensive. I’ve used in-bottle filtration systems while backpacking and have found them to be less optimal than a seperate hand pump style filter.
This is a good system for what it was designed to be, a cheap way to get safe drinking water to people in an emergency. Given how incredible stupid some people can be (especially in America), I suspect they might have trouble convincing stranded cityfolk that they can safely drink turbid ditch water with this thing though.
I am not familiar with that system, sounds fantastic. How much and where can one be found?
This one does say that it uses a new micro-filter that is supposed to be the smallest available pore-wise. It may be superior to any self contained unit before, but I don’t personally know.
The Pocket is around the $200 range. I have no idea where you’ll get the best price, but most backpacking/camping/survival stores like REI and nitro-pak carry it.
The filter pore size is larger at 0.2 microns, but I’ve never had an issue with it (including swamp water in the Okefenokee). Considering most bacteria are greater than 2 microns in size you should be ok. Besides, the ceramic filter is impregnated with silver which is toxic to most microbes.
Very cool but $420.00 is out of my price range.
REI is having a great sale check these out:
Holy snikes, yeah…
For everybody:
http://www.lifesaversystems.com/buy.html
I’d take the Katadyn Pocket anyday over that bottle. I had no idea the Lifesaver was so damned expensive.
try campmor.com they carry a lot of the katadyn stuff. The mini filter is good for 2,000 gal. and runs $89.95. The standard pocket filter is good for 13,000 gal. and runs $199.95. Katadyn also has bottles. Do some searching on the net for larger drip filters if you need more capacity and no pumping.
Does anyone have any experience with MiOX water treatment?
It requires batteries so I wasn’t sure if that disqualified it.
Neither did I. How would it be feasible to ship these in mass to disaster victims over water alone at that price?
Oh well, at least by the end of the thread we will likely know the best option out there for the money. I am in the market, as right now all I have are purification pills.
They’re probably looking at it from a per gallon standpoint.
Compared to costs transporting all that water weight it’s probably just as costeffective.
I bought a miox system, it’s just still sealed in its wrapper. It supposedly kills just about everything and tastes a lot better than iodine. But I’d love to hear how well it works from people who’ve used it.
The Katadyn filters rock. I hadn’t heard about the MIOX filters, but for instance Lamblia Guardia is a spore, and would not be killed, since it is not alive. It must be filtered out. It measures about .4 -.5 microns (if I remember correctly), so any good filter will remove it. Most bacterial and other dangerous organisms also measure at least .4 microns, so any filter at .2 microns is GTG for that. Ones with a charcoal element will also get rid of chemical contaminants and bad tastes.
BTW, none of these filters will sufficiently clean brackish or salt water, for that you need a reverse osmosis unit.
As we live on the coast, pretty much all ground water we can get is at least brackish, so my money is going for this:
http://www.nitro-pak.com/product_info.php?cPath=40_246&products_id=1088?
IMO, The best and most cost effective water filter is the Katadyn Combi for about $120. It’s pretty much the Katadyn Pocket ($200) but made out of plastic instead.
If cost is important I highly recommend this.
I avoid using anything that requires batteries unless there is no effective way around it, like with flashlights or radios. For BOB/emergency use it’s best to avoid using batteries on as many things as possible. As Gunfixr pointed out, there are things that chemical treatment can’t deal with, while a good filter deals with everything. Also, chemical treatment won’t make murky turbid water anymore palatable.
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I did a little checking and actually the literature says it does kill giardia (same as guardia which causes giardosis). Though it won’t help brackish water, our ancestors did quite well without micron filters.
Generally I agree about batteries, but the electricity consumption is negligible, moreover batteries, filters are both technological items…and therefore vulnerable to maintenance issues. In that regard it might be easier to find spare batteries than spare filters.
I have some sort of PUR backpacking pump as well as a SteriPEN UV water purifier for on the road emergency use. As needed I use them together…
At home (for daily as well as emergency use) I have a Berkey Light with black and optional flouride/arsenic/heavy metal filter.
Chad
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As well a vampires…
Why put up with nasty, dirty water if affordable technology is available that can deal with it??? I’m fairly certain that if you gave our ancestors a choice between drinking dirty, muddy, awful tasting water (which, BTW, they didn’t deal with very well, the average mortality age was 40 in the 19th Century, dirty water most likely played a significant role) and using a filter contraption they’d take the filter.
Our ancestors also fought cattle wars and bands of Indians with fragile, low-powered weapons that fired fast-fouling moisture-sensitive blackpowder cartridges. I’ll take advacement in technology over “it worked well enough 8 million years ago” anyday.
In that regard it might be easier to find spare batteries than spare filters.
True I suppose but 13,000 gallons is a lot of water and the filter can be cleaned.
I’ve been in the woods since I was a kid, I don’t think I’ve ever come across brackish water that I couldn’t pass up.
I guess what I was saying was that where are you only going to only find brackish water other than a desert/seaside? YMMV but a choice should depend on what you’re most likely to need/use regularly…not what you MAY need in the most extreme scenario.
I suppose it’s climatic but living in the Ohio River Valley and just South of the Great Lakes I’m not really concerned about brackish water so much. I’ll avoid deserts but if brackish water is all you’re going to find than a filter is probably necessary. Honestly I’d have one of those filter sport bottles if I was desperate…or something for my camelbak if I needed it…but I don’t view a hand-pump filter as anything other than a circumstantial solution.
Yes our ancestors did all that without modern technology…but if we presume a SHTF scenario…access to that technology could be limited hence your point about batteries. Whatever you’re going to use, weight/space is also going to be a factor. There’s an old woodsman’s saw. “The more you carry in your head…the less you have to carry on your back.”
Sigh… Ok.