Water Filter

[didnothingfatal]

These look a like they could be a good lightweight solution. Sawyer Squeeze Filter

[Taylor]

Looks good that does.

[pedalhead]

yeah that looks interesting. For me, these types of filter are all about flow rate & I'm wondering how good it is on that one. I've got a Travel Tap which is pretty light...only 57 grams for the filter bit over & above the weight of a normal bottle lid, which is even lighter than the Sawyer - though you are stuck with the included bottle on the Travel Tap (only 600ml real capacity). The flow rate gets a bit painful though if you're filtering frequently so I'd happily add a few grams to be able to use a bigger bottle and get a faster flow rate.

[pedalhead]

bugger, I may be trying one of these out soon. Just realised I left my Travel Tap in the car for a few nights & it's frozen solid

[Matt]

I think that gooses them

[Taylor]

What a good excuse to buy new kit.

[pedalhead]

yup, freezing a filter like that is instant death (or at least, can't trust it any more). Always a silver lining though, as you say flatfishy :D

[Bearbonesnorm]

These screw on to any flexible Platypus (or I assume other make) bottle, result is pretty much the same as above.

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/dalesman-fr ... er-p143744

[pedalhead]

Cheers for the link. I wonder if 3 micron filtering is enough...I don't think it'll filter out bacteria at that size. Certainly is inexpensive & lightweight though.

[Ian]

Are puritabs not the lightest (and cheapest) option?

Added bonus is that you can leave them to freeze in your car and they work in any size bottle/ bladder etc

[Bearbonesnorm]

The Aquamira website says it filters 99.9% of Cryptosoridium and Giardia, which would be my two main concerns.

http://aquamira.com/consumer/frontier-p ... technology

[pedalhead]

ho ho Ian :D I've never used tabs, only a filter. I've heard they make the water taste grim, take a while to work and you still need to filter out the crap anyway. What do you think?

[Dan_K]

I hadn't really thought much about filtering water. Is it likely to be that much off an issue on the WRT?

I used the tabs in cadets and I remember them making the water taste of chemicals.

Would pouring it through a buff and then boiling it not be enough?

[pedalhead]

I'm not really thinking of the WRT, more for travelling & riding abroad. I've heard of people using a buff as a filter & I'd imagine combined with boiling you'd be ok. Again, I'm more thinking of needing frequent refills & for when I'm not carrying cooking equipment so wouldn't have the luxury of boiling.

[Dan_K]

Living in South London anything will probably taste better than the crap Thames Water send through our taps.

[gairym]

the website says:

"This filter does not remove dissolved solids, including chemicals and heavy metals."

in my opinion Giardia ain't all that! in the UK i only ever really worry about industrial and agricultural contaminants (i.e. chemicals and heavy metals).

we lived in Malawi for a year running a backpackers lodge on the lake (6 hours by boat to the nearest place with electricity/running water) and drank filtered/treated lake water the whole time and eventually gave up taking the treatment for Giardia as we'd only get it again straight away (we swam and washed in the lake every day too).

then again, only now (7 years later) is my stomach finally back to normal (i developed a weird Vitamin B12 absorption problem which almost caused Anemia and stumped many many doctors!) and so maybe don't listen to me so much???

i usually just judge the situation and if i'm not downstream of anything man-made i drink the water and if i am i use a chlorine tablet (they weight nothing but do make the water taste like crappy london water).

but.....this filter would remove the majority of crap.

[Dan_K]

I figure that if I need to treat water on the wrt, I'll carry tabs or boil it.

[Ian]

Personally, I don't mind the very mild taste of puritabs, and I use the Lifesystems ones. Avoid the use of the ones that claim to neutralise the taste - these just make it taste utterly revolting.

When I did the Wales Coast to Coast trip, I used bottles and took water from streams along the way - something that numplumz observed with great curiosity. I tended to be quite selective on where I got it from, sometimes stopping quite abruptly to top up even if I wasn't empty if I saw a good source. Only on two occasions did I feel I was caught out by lack of water. Sometimes I treated the water, usually at lower elevations even though I looked clean, but if I was getting the water from in a large forest (where the source was likely to be in the wood and contamination from livestock not an issue) I drank it as it was. Not once did I take water that I thought I would need to filter to remove anything visible.

Also, if I treated the water and added a hydration tablet like Nuun, I couldn't taste the puritabs at all.

[Nick]

I use Lifeventure Chlorine Dioxide Tabs, can't taste them at all.

[Ian]

Lifeventure Chlorine Dioxide Tabs

Cheers Nick, them are the ones wot I meant. I was nearly there with Lifesystems...

[Bearbonesnorm]

The only time I've made myself ill wasn't due to water. It was caused by something (you can guess what) getting thrown up onto my bottle and me injesting it ... uhmm nice.

[Nick]

I got a particularly nasty bout of campylobactor after a very wet solo ride over the Long Mynd, pretty certain it must have come from water/spray muck as no one else in my family was affected, was ill for two weeks.

[didnothingfatal]

Only one's I've used are Steripen and MSR Miox. I hate the taste of the tabs

[numplumz]

Great topic, looking with interest after my travel tap escaped from me during my last trip....you do need some industrial strength suction to get water out of them it's true.