What water purifier for hiking?

I want to get one for Mrs SR for her forthcoming birthday. What would you suggest? What do I need to consider?

The obvious answer for Mrs SR is an MSR surely!

I’ve had one of these for years… but whenever we’ve hiked somewhere we think we might need it we’re either in an uninhabited catchment or there’s good tank water available.

The obvious answer for Mrs SR is an MSR surely!

I have the little bulb pump one – MSR Trailshot

It’s alright, though takes quite a lot of pumping to get much out. It would be a pain (literally) if you were doing more than a couple of litres in one go. Priming it can also be a bit fiddly. You can use it like a straw, if need be. Easy enough to clean/back wash etc.

Active Bottles

Katadyn BeFree Filter 0.6L

This is what I have, very easy to use.

I’ve had a sawyer mini for years but never used it. For some reason part of me still thinks it’s incredibly risky to use unless I was dying in the field and had no choice. Water borne illnesses are really no fun and can cause lifelong complications if you get unlucky and the disgusting state of our watercourses in recent years fills me with dread.

Am I being over cautious?

I’ve got a platypus quickdraw which I am very impressed with. Very simple to use and quick, it is very light too

Ive used it a lot, especially in areas with lots of sheep and cattle and it’s been great.

It’s quite clever, they have given a lot of thought to it so it attaches to various containers if you want

The Water2Go bottles are very easy to use and claim to filter viruses, unlike most others. If you’re day hiking in an area with easy access to streams they’re perfect.
For overnights and longer I use a Sawyer and replacement bag, the supplied Sawyer ones are rubbish.

the disgusting state of our watercourses

You’re not meant to fill them from lowland rivers near towns and cities.  In those areas you’ve probably got a shop to go to. They aren’t pumping sewage into mountain streams.  The sheep might be though.

Yes you are being over-cautious. The places I fill my bottle up with the filter are probably safe to drink anyway.

Yes you are being over-cautious. The places I fill my bottle up with the filter are probably safe to drink anyway.

+1

I’ve had the MSR one for 20+ years and never actually used it. When on the Coruh River in Turkey, that I bought it for, I wouldn’t have drunk the water even if you put it through a UK grade treatment works.

And in other areas I’m either near a shop or high above everything apart from deer, sheep and rabbits… so I just stick a bottle in and drink.

The Water2Go bottles make the process simple enough, and are convenient enough, that I now take one with me on any longer trip. Previously I’d just take my chances with mountain streams and the like but there’s no harm in a little added protection if it’s not inconvenient.

Do the bottles not just give you drinking water?  I wanted a filter so I could fill a couple of bottles to use for cooking, washing up, cleaning teeth etc.

You can squeeze water through the filter. It’s a normal (soft) plastic water bottle. It’s not as fast as squeezing water out of a normal bidon but then all filters take a while.

For some reason part of me still thinks it’s incredibly risky to use unless I was dying in the field and had no choice.

I don’t think they’re risky to use, but I don’t see why you’d use one if you had the choice of clean tap water.

Am I being over cautious?

It’s kinda weird to not use one and wonder if you’re being overcautious. Using one as a matter of course on all water regardless of source might be overcautious.

I’m happy with a trailshot fwiw. Easy enough to fill up a couple of water bottles reasonably quickly, although I wouldn’t want to have to pump more than about a litre in one go – but that’s typically all I want to carry, I’d rather fill up little and often than carry a lot of weight around.

Hose is a bit easier for filling up in some places than scooping with a bottle/bag would be.

Am I being over cautious?

Arguably yeah, if you don’t think something’s fit for purpose, then what’s the point of it? I used to carry a cheap-ish Russian titanium ice screw, but never really trusted the thing to hold a proper fall, so only used it once or twice as a back-up to a bomber anchor, eventually it was relegated to the role of pineapple corer, which it did brilliantly.

As far as which filter/purifier, I think it depends a lot on how it’s going to be used. Various filter bottles – Lifestraw, Water2Go etc, are great for use on the trail / trekking etc. If you want something for larger quantities, MSR and Katadyn are both good. As a leftfield solution, I have one of those Camelbak units that uses UV light to kill living stuff, though it’s not great with sediment etc, so you need to use a pre-filter and preferably clearish water to start with.

But mostly, MSR would be a good, reliable call. Bear in mind that once you’re pitched up, boiling water kills the obvious nasties anyway.

Edit: don’t think the Camelbak AllClear UV thing exists any more.

What filter kinda depends on where you’re intending to use it / what you’re using it for though.

The Aqupure Water bottle filter is another option, similar to Water to Go.

Used hiking and biking.

Fits bottle cage and you can easily decant into other bottles if you want to replenish a few bottles .

First one lasted really well. Now on my second.

Trailshot here. Used it once in the lakes when I ran out of water halfway up a valley in the middle of nowhere, plenty of sheep around (no visible dead ones) and I survived.

I would always add a chlorine dioxide tablet regardless of how good the filter claimed to be.

I’m a fan of the Katadyn Be Free for hiking, and I have a Life straw for running in the mountains.

The Lifestraw is a bit of a pain, but light and packable, the BeFree is excellent and would recommend.

The BeFree is great because it acts as a secondary bottle when you need one, but rolls up very small when you don’t. I always carry one on longer rides in the Dales.

Sawyer Micro here, it’s good but the pouches aren’t. Get something else e.g. Cnoc Vecto.

IIRC this does viruses whereas many others don’t.

Sawyers don’t filter viruses. I don’t think viruses last long in running water so it’s not as much a concern as things like guardia.

MSR’s are the best in my experience.

The MiniWorks is a real workhorse, but it’s quite bulky. It’s easily serviceable in ‘the field’ and is well made. Parts are easy to source and you can buy new ceramic filters (though one should last a long time!).

My experience with trail shots was not as positive — they clog easily, once clogged, I could never get it working fully again. The first one froze and died (a problem with many filters) and the second one started leaking and I gave up with it.

I’ve had Saywer straws and after a while it just stopped working so it got binned.

I have a Grayl bottle. Really simple, full bottle purified in about a minute.

We use the Katadyn BeFree and find it quick and easy, the MSR Holeshot works well if you can get it primed ‘just so’ but we switched to the Katadyn and wouldn’t go back.

Re. the ‘should you filter’ question – we’ve filled a bottle from a fast flowing source at 3500m in Kyrgyzstan and seen little wiggle things in it. If you have to ask you should probably filter.