HELP - Water Filter!

imported
#21

hey Dog Tag I don’t taste that aqua mira taste cause i filter…hehehe

Burn

#22

I’m with you, Dogtag – I don’t taste Aqua Mira at all, and I never felt I needed to treat it to cut the taste. But my wife, who even filters the water we drink at home, claims she can taste it.

I’m also with Skeemer. On a 600-mile AT section hike, I carried a Safewater G2 bottle filter for water during the day and Aqua Mira for the water I needed in camp. I didn’t mind the mixing and waiting at the end of the day, and if I wanted to cook right away, I’d boil the water and not worry about it. (They say if your water is bubbling at all, the giardia are toast.) I don’t remember seeing anyone using a gravity filter.

It really was a weight issue to me. I think the weight of the Aqua Mira bottles and the filter component of the bottle filter together was about 8 ounces. To me the convenience of the bottle filter was worth a few ounces, and I was still well under the pound or so a filter weighs. If I were hiking with another person, I could probably rationalize a filter.

I’m also with 30-30. Everyone has an opinion and no one does it quite the same way or for the same reasons. Experience will teach you what you need and what you’re comfortable with.

Snowbird

#23

Hello Bunchberry! How do you feel the Safewater Anywhere inline compares with the Seychelle and the older Sweetwater inlines? Thanks for your opinion!!! - Eileen

Eileen

#24

Eileen, I was wrong about the other inline manufacturer. There’s not a Sweetwater filter that I know of, the two manufacturers are Safewater Anywhere and Seychelle. I haven’t used the Safewater, so I can’t comment on it. As I said, I like the Seychelle because it doesn’t need to be primed, but you probably will want to modify it to add some sort of prefilter. There are reviews of the Seychelle on www.backpackgeartest.org.

Earlier this month, I did a four-day trip in cold weather, where the temps dropped in to the single digits at night and were in the 30s during the day (some days they didn’t get above freezing). My filter did freeze one night, because I left it out without thinking. After that I slept with it and carried it inside my jacket, and didn’t have any problems getting water. My theory on this is that running water is (duh) above freezing, so if the filter is warm and it’s not frigid cold out, you have enough time to filter before things freeze up. If the filter had stopped up, I would have just boiled. For deep winter, probably not the best setup, but other filters or chemicals will also have problems in biting cold.

After all this discussion, I’m getting curious. I’ll have to weigh my setup and report back.

Bunchberry

#25

Backpacker has a good article about water in the December issue. Sass and I started with an (expensive) MSR filter and ditched it after using it three times. We used Aqua Mira and never noticed the taste. Never got sick either. We felt it was better to be safe than sorry. I won’t treat water as often when I hike my gap next year. Probably a bigger concern is practicing good hygene–a few drops of Bronners and hand sanitizer go a long way.

Cricket

#26

Keep in mind when using filters that the output hose can easily be contaminated. Do you store your intake and output hoses together? If they touch, they can pass the big G. Then the next time you fill you bottle up, it could be contaminated with the G. Just some food for thought.

Rocket

Oh yeah, I use chemical treatment

Rocket 03

#27

When I started out, I had a filter (sweetwater guardian), and swore to it that I would not use chemicals, because I did not want to taint my water with chemicals while I was hiking.

I had problems with my filter, though, and replacement parts can be expensive (on a hiker’s budget). So, I ended up switching to Aqua-Mira.

Aqua-Mira had a bit of an aftertaste, but it was the least noticable of all the chemical treatments I had been exposed to, which really only consisted of iodine and bleach. You get used to it, though. Filter your water through a bandana, and throw in a few drops, and you’ve got clean water. Of course, I was thankful that I had chemical drops when I got to New Jersey. There were a few days through Northern PA/NJ/NY that I would have risked dehydration if I only had a filter.

The gravity filter sounds like an inefficient filter to me. The only time you are pressed for water is during your hike, and I thought that waiting 5 minutes before I could mix the aqua mira with my water and go was a bit of a wait. I would seriously reconsider the filter you are speaking of getting.

bearbait

#28

Hey, AT-junkies,

I emailed Ray-Way and this was his suggestion:

http://www.timberlinefilters.com/

I’m thinking this could work…

Happy Turkey Day!!

Dawg

Dawgtrekker