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Post by LowKey on Apr 1, 2017 13:15:35 GMT
Standard blurb regarding INCH Gear- Keep in mind that when looking for gear to go in an INCH bag durability and being bulletproof are just as, if not more, important than weight. Oh joy.
Water Filtration and Purification- Sawyer 0.02 Micron Purifier System, weight 482 grams or about 17 oz.  Pros- According to the manufacture it's good for 1,000,000 gallons if you back-flush it periodically. The 0.02 micron filter is supposed to remove viruses as well as the other nasties.
Cons- Price. It is not cheap.
Weight. It is not light in comparison to many other filters.
The filter medium is subject to damage if water in it is allowed to freeze, and worse that damage is not easy to detect. Carry the filter inside your coat in winter.
Chlorine Tablets, weight 6 grams or about 0.2 oz.
Pros- Inexpensive.
Easy too use, as in even 2nd Lieutenants can manage to get it right the first time.
Light, as in next to nothing.
Con- Doesn't work as well at colder temperatures.
Won't last long in prolonged use, as in one bottle of fifty tablets will only treat 25 quarts of water.
Makes water tastes.....not good.
Potable Aqua PA Pure Electrolytic Water Treatment, 335 grams or about 11.8 oz.
Pros- All the pros of the chlorine tablets except for the imperceptible weight of the tablets.
According to the manufacturer the device should be good for making sufficient chlorine&peroxide to treat 60,000 gallons.
Built in PV to charge the device (slowly).
Cons- Weight. It's not as light as the tablets.
Needs salt to mix with water to produce chlorine, but to keep it in perspective 4 pounds of salt would make enough chlorine to treat 60,000 gallons of water.
Price. Around $100, it's nowhere as inexpensive as tablets.
Boiling
Pros- Always effective.
Uses other gear already on hand.
Cons- Doesn't remove chemical contaminants.
Relatively slow.
Requires fuel.
Currently I'm thinking of the Sawyer system, the Potable Aqua chlorine maker, with boiling as a backup. I very much like that the Sawyer is gravity fed and doesn't require pumping, and the Potable Aqua chlorine generator is like a bottomless bottle of tablets...aside from the price tag whats not to like?
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Post by nxp on Apr 22, 2017 21:17:06 GMT
Personally I've used the Sawyer system and a MIOX unit (similar to the PA Pure above). I still remember the taste of Polarpure, bleh. Here's my thoughts:
1. Sawyer - it needs a prefilter of some kind prior to the main filter unit. I used a coarse inline filter from MSR before the main unit to catch the immediate nasties and general funk of the water before it hit the main filter. It really cut down on the amount of backflushing required in the event that the main Sawyer slowed to a trickle, and the course filters were easy to wash up and didn't add a lot of weight. The "treat/fill" water bag in that system sucks. You really need to use a fill bag that has a super wide opening for a couple reasons - mainly to dry it out and to clean it up once the nasties start to take hold. It's easy enough to swap out, but another reason to just get the filter and build a system vs buying Sawyer's pre-package outright. The system overall is stupid simple to use, and works great because you can do your thing around camp while it's doing it's thing filtering. I know it says the filter can catch all kinds of icky nasties, a couple drops of bleach make me feel better in the final product. If you use it in the winter, make sure to keep the filter in your coat/someplace warm. It will freeze, it will crack, you will have a bad day.
2. MIOX - Mine's an MSR, I got it cheap (enough at the time). It definitely is confidence inspiring, and if you ever really don't trust what's up with the water a double shot will kill everything in it. If you want to play chemistry set, it's got the paperwork with it but usually a single shot does everything I need and I've only double bumped it once just to see. It doesn't filter the water, so whatever floaties you encounter will just be dead floaties. I like to think of it in the capacity of filter, non-potable water. Urban areas. Questionably urban areas - that kind of thing. Batteries are required to make it work, and it loves to munch them. Definitely most useful in a support area where you'll eventually have a restock/resupply point but you're on your own in the local area for a while.
Of the two, the Sawyer is a much better investment provided you get a course inline filter ahead of the main IMO. If you want to chemically treat, bleach is cheap and everyone should have some.
I would also like to add - pumps do work but overall I have a poor opinion of them (MSR Waterworks)- gravity systems are sooooooooooo much easier, albeit slow in comparison.
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Post by LowKey on Apr 23, 2017 7:30:25 GMT
Good point about the treat/fill bag. I should probably look for something like a wide mouth Camelback bladder to replace it.
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Post by nxp on Apr 29, 2017 16:46:36 GMT
Good point about the treat/fill bag. I should probably look for something like a wide mouth Camelback bladder to replace it. I like this style: www.eberlestock.com/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=E1&Product_Code=WXP3L&Category_Code= with the clip on top so that you can easily fill/clean them. Doesn't have to be this one, but you get the idea with the open top/slide combo. You're not storing water in it long term, so I don't really worry about the potential for leaking. On the filtered side I love my MSR Dromedary - mine's been bullet proof over the years, but I only store filtered water in it. Yes I'm an MSR fanboy from way back. Can't help it. |
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Post by LowKey on Apr 29, 2017 20:59:46 GMT
I like the look of the dromedary line, as it seems like it should be able to take a beating. Or serve as a field pillow.
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Post by dannusmaximus on Apr 30, 2017 13:29:59 GMT
I like the look of the dromedary line, as it seems like it should be able to take a beating. Or serve as a field pillow. I can vouch that the Dromedary I've got has proven basically indestructible. |
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Post by LowKey on May 8, 2017 14:05:48 GMT
Well you gents were right, the Sawyer bladders are not high quality.
I'd snatch up a few MSR Dromedary bladders, but they apparently they changed the construction for 2017. Gone is the silicone lining (what I read had been used) and now it's polyethylene. Same stuff as platypus bladders. More research needed.
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Post by dannusmaximus on May 8, 2017 21:20:49 GMT
The MSR mini works is pretty legit, in my experience. That plus a couple of bottles of water purification tablets as a backupand you should be set for just about anything. As a bonus, the mini works threads directly onto the dromedary bag, so you don't have to juggle an additional item while you're pumping. Kind of handy.
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Post by LowKey on May 9, 2017 7:40:55 GMT
Currently I'm thinking about a 4L Dromedary for the clean water side of the system, a Sawyer .02 purifier for the filtration, and a 4L Platypus bladder from their Gravity Works Filter System.
Assuming that the bladder marked "clean" has a zip top opening like the "dirty" bladder in the system, I can pick up a set of replacement bladders from their website for $60, then mark the "Clean" as "Dirty" for my mash-up system.
Wish I knew of a source to get just the 0.02 Purifier. Cheapest way I've found so far is the Sawyer 0.02 Purifier Bucket adapter system, and I wish I wasn't paying for hardware I don't need. Oh well, I'll stuff the extra stuff in a drawer just in case I need to purify water from the tap.
So the set up would be a 4L zip top Platypus feeding into the Sawyer which in turn feeds into the 4L MSR Dromedary.
Then we top off our two 1 liter canteens, run another 2 liters through the system, rinse, roll up & pack the "dirty" bladder, and strap the full 4L Dromedary to the harness system or pack.
If it looks like the net water source will be far off we could always run with the "dirty" bladders filled with untreated water as well, for a total of 10 liters of water per person.
*Edited to add*
Well crap, the "Clean" bladder doesn't have a zip top. I'll have to see if I can source two of the "Dirty" Bladders.
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Post by LowKey on May 30, 2017 7:56:00 GMT
Just for S&G I tried out the PA Pure Electrolytic Water Treatment gizmo.
Worked like a charm. I didn't time it but in about a minute or so it made a sodium hydrochloride solution sufficient to treat 10 liters of water.
Potency was something around %2.
In the interests of "SCIENCE!!!!" I ran a batch and dumped it on an old blue t-shirt I'm not fond of. Bleached a white spot in less than 5 minutes.
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