#Platypus water filter problems portable#
#Platypus water filter problems free#

Using a portable water filter is like hitting two birds with one stone: you get to reduce the weight of your pack while ensuring a supply of clean drinking water during your backpacking trip. Unlike other methods, these filters take as little as five minutes to do the job and don’t affect the taste of the water, either. These lightweight water filters are designed to be taken on the road and filter out contaminants like particulates, bacteria, and parasites through hollow fiber technology. The solution is simple: take an ultralight portable water filter with you. So, how do you get a cool drink without risking an upset stomach? Even the clearest water sources could be riddled with bacteria, parasites, and other nasties. While there’s always a stream or spring to quench your thirst along the way, outdoorsmen know better than to trust a water source just because it looks clean. Closest competition, Platypus GravityWorks would be an admirable alternative, tho slightly heavier, bulky, and more geared toward basecamp gravity work.You can’t carry gallons of H2O without compromising the weight of your pack. Not for weight fiends and true ultra-light hiking, but pretty close Blowing back water in the filter directly after use has been suggested as a way to help keep filter clean and reduce frequency of backwashing in field if handling high-sediment water. Alternative filters recommended for regular high-alpine or four season use. Cannot freeze (damages filaments), store deep in pack and sleep with it in a pinch if you get caught in the cold. - Provided bags can be difficult to fill and have been known to burst, use a disposable water bottle (same thread size) Super easy to maintain (backwash with included syringe in field if flow slows, and after trip). Greater flow rate than others in Sawyer family allows gravity filtering at basecamp Ridiculous lifetime capacity (tho how ridiculous is under debate) Fast set up, filtering, and disassembly Highly adaptable (inline, direct-to-mouth, gravity, to container) Lightweight (3 ounces), well regarded, backcountry water filter While heaver than other Sawyer systems (Micro, Mini, etc) these are too small to allow gravity filtering, which I see myself buying larger reservoir bladders to take advantage of when base-camping (tube and two attachments in picture above, not yet carried or used). Neither remove viruses but they are of minimal concern in North American back country. It also has a 0.1 micron filter where the GravityWorks has 0.2, although both do filter out bacteria, cysts, protozoa, and microplastics. It is lighter than the GravityWorks, and costs less than half the price (however the Gravity works comes with two larger reservoir bags).

It had an astonishing claimed life of 3.8 million liters of water (since reduced to 100,000L), and while there is considerable debate on how true that still is, it is generally agreed it is one of the largest capacities on the market, and if properly maintained, will likely outlive me.

The system is lighter than the platypus (3 ounces vs 11.5 ounces, although depends on peripherals), and can filter a liter of water in less than a minute. However it's work-horse function is as a quick-stop squeeze-through filter from water just scooped from the river, into your bottle of choice.

#Platypus water filter problems free#

The Squeeze is more versatile (it can be used in-line as part of your in-pack water bladder, filtering water as you suck it), you can drink directly from the dirty water bag via the filter with a pop valve like a regular vapor bottle, or even as a gravity fed system for supervision free basecamp use - the primary domain of the GravityWorks. As always, I agonized over which system (of the dozens out there - comparisons of which are across the hiking-web), and settled on the Sawyer Squeeze over the Platypus GravityWorks for the following reasons: Usually I tuck a few water purifying tablets in my pack, but the taste and time-to-work has always bothered me, so I decided to sacrifice a little weight for a filter. This last weekends backpacking trip was in an area somewhat famous for having an oversupply of water, so I decided to bite the bullet and invest in a water filter to reduce my dependency on hauling in all I required (I still humped plenty just in case).