I’m considering buying an MSR Trailshot for water filtration on longer walks and was wondering if anyone has used one or or any of the other alternatives?

Reason for purchase: I’m struggling to carry enough water for those longer days walking in the hills along with an already heavy rucksack but don’t know how useful it would be or whether I should just get fitter and carry more water…

I have one, works really well.

Won’t get rid of muddy water taste, but I am still alive, so must work.

Yes, I’ve got one. Better (IMO) than the Sawyer as you can use very shallow water sources, so long as the end of the hose is submerged you can extract water whereas the Sawyer you have to be able to fill the pouch. It’s quicker as well though I’ve not managed to get the claimed litre a minute. A bit bulkier and heavier than the Sawyer.

You do need to regularly back flush the filter otherwise the flow rate decreases dramatically, about every eight litres depending on how cloudy the water is. If the water is very cloudy then consider a muslin cloth or similar to pre-filter the bigger particles.

All that said, on UK hills unless the water source looks particularly dodgy I don’t bother filtering water. YMMV

Do you drink enough before you go out?  Not sure how long your “longer days” are, but if you’re drinking that much while you’re out, I wonder if you shouldn’t drink more before you set off.  Perhaps that’s not possible for some reason, but worth thinking about if it is.

Thanks for the replies. Looks like its going right in my basket..

I’m out for 6+ hours walking at quite a fast pace (or so i think) and also have a Spaniel that has to run everywhere at a million miles an hour and he requires a fair bit of water as well as my usage.

Trailshot here too, quite a few bikepackers use them. I had a traveltap before this but I don’t trust it anymore after a dodgy tummy following a trip – I left the filter out in the open and I think it froze

Anyway, trailshot is good. Packs up pretty small, the nozzle fits a camelbak hose if that’s of any use to you, plus it’s good for dangling down into a stream or narrow little gap in the ground to get at the water. I used it a LOT on a snowdonia trip, couldn’t have survived without it

I bought mine last year for the Divide, definitely much faster than people using Sawyers, I’ve used it extensively in this country too, it does what it says. I’m just back from 2 weeks in Canada and used it there to filter water for 4 people, they had Sawyers and have now bought Trailshots.

However, if you’re trying to filter water from something like a tap in India then Sawyer is the way to go. If you’re a Camelbak user another option could be to fit an in line filter and fill the bladder with dirty water.

Whatever you get LEARN HOW TO CLEAN IT IN THE FIELD.

Don’t know but the Sawyer is also a great bit of kit. Ok, so you have to be able to fill the pouch (unless you are just using the straw and drinking straight through the filter). But having water deep/running enough to fill the pouch makes it a tiny bit more likely to be fresher (not that it should make a difference).

<slide soapbox under feet>

The one thing I would really like to see, though is these devices being priced a fair bit higher so that the manufacturers can make a matching donation of one filter to places without safe drinking water. I love the product, but it just makes me think how little it costs for me to have such a brilliant product just so I can ride my bike in the heat……

</remove soapbox>

Are you filtering water for your spaniel?

Mine will drink any old ditchwater with no probs… they have shorter intestines than us so they have pretty much cast iron guts in my experience.

“Are you filtering water for your spaniel?”

ha ha. No. I’ve seen what he eats so don’t worry about him. It’s more about just having water with me than it being filtered.

eg, the last day I was out it was hours since we’d last seen any water (running or stinking bog) and he was thirsty. I had some with me so we were ok but if the walk had been any longer I would have run out.

Got a Trailshot, great bit of kit that’s relatively inexpensive compared to the competition and packs up nice and small. Only gripe is that it could do with a longer hose for getting into rivers/steams but that’s easily fixed.

Very easy to clean in the field and there is something nice about cold, filtered water from the hills.

The one thing I would really like to see, though is these devices being priced a fair bit higher so that the manufacturers can make a matching donation of one filter to places without safe drinking water.

Lifestraw does something along those lines fwiw:

https://www.lifestraw.com/doing-good/

I had a lifestraw on a long distance bikepacking mission and whilst it did work it’s insanely hard to get anything out of it! You have to suck like crazy and it got a lot worse over time. I’d look at something else.