Steripen Pre Filter

[Ken Helwig]

Hey folks, here is something that I found in REI's coffee filter department and this is cool. I use a Steripen and have had to re think how I was going to use it in my platy. Well instead I bought a new Camelbak (similar to the Nalgenes) that is of the safe variety with a suck tube in it. This coffe filter fits on this bottle versus the old Steripen pre filter that does not thread into these new bottles. I was stoked and just wanted to share this with you guys. I think (and I have not weighed it yet) that this is just a tad lighter.

http://www.rei.com/product/750397

[EndoftheTrail]

Ken:

I use platy's as well, and outfitted mine with a fine metallic coffee mesh "bottle cap" prefilter.

What you have here is the equivalent for a wide-mouth bottle. Narrow or wide, the mesh works really well — and doesn't absorb/slow down water flow like cloth bandanas or paper coffee filters. I think you will be very pleased with it.

[Ken Helwig]

Ben the one that knows (and I mean that as a huge compliment!) I agree. Though,I could not find the original thread or I was just too lazy, but I just tried my set up over running water in my sink, and you are right, it did not impede the flow of water into the Camelbak. I would love to use a Playtpus but have not figured out how to do this yet. Do you know where the link is Ben? Josh take note!

[Ken Helwig]

and Ben I did see your idea and it is awesome. BUT, how do I get my steripen in there and agitate the water to make it work?????

[EndoftheTrail]

Ah, but life is full of compromises.

A narrow mouth Platy is not going to be a good match with Steripen. For me, I decided I wanted UL and went with Platy's — and sold my Steripen.

But YMMV. If you like using Steripen, then wide-mouth is the way to go — either that or using a seperate bowl/pot of some sort. Your prefilter looks great — although you might think about replacing its "mesh cup" with just a flat piece of mesh — for easier storing.

Oh, and thank you for the compliment. I blush. :)

[Roleigh Martin]

I use this coffee filter from REI – http://www.rei.com/product/726094

Plus I have a 1 qt plastic cup that I use to pick up the water from the stream. I insert the coffee filter into the Nalgene bottle. I pour the dirty water thru the bottom of the coffee filter and remove the coffee filter and then put the steripen adventurer down into the water and purify the water. The advantage of this method is you can be careful not to get dirty water on the inside lip of the nalgene bottle.

With your method, and I admit it is cool looking, would you not have to put the coffee filter lid on the nalgene, dip the nalgene bottle into the dirty water, and then remove the coffee filter lid, and then sterilize the water, but the inside of the lip would remain contaminated, wouldn't it?

The downside of my method is I have to carry the plastic cup. The downside (weight) of your method is you have the lid attached to the coffee filter weight. The cover to my coffee filter I leave at home, I don't use it or bring it along. ps – the coffee filter I show, fits inside the nalgene bottle just fine though.

I suppose one can assert that something will remain a bit contaminated and that purifying 99% of the water will suffice, I'm not a scientist and can't answer that retort and perhaps its legit. I don't know.

[Eric Blumensaadt]

Like Roleigh I filter W/ a little #1 coffee filter in a small, collapsable funnel into a 1 L. Nalgene bottle, usr my SteriPen then pour it into my hydration bag. Works fine but slower than your mesh filter.

Eric

[Roleigh Martin]

The coffee filter I use does not slow down the process noticeably, perhaps the filter you (Eric) use (the #1) is finer. Do you use a paper or stainless steel filter?

[Peter Fogel]

Try using the mesh cap idea in a top bag and gravity feed down into a second bag thru a Sawyer inline SP125 and then thru a Seychelle Inline Eliminator. Or somehow get a hold of a Platy Clean Stream Inline Filter and just eliminate the Seychelle.
But the Sawyer is by far the most effective filter available against Virus contamination that I know of, .02 microns!. Much better than the Clean Stream and arguably as good or better than the Sterypen, and it's guaranteed for life. No replacement necessary.

Peter

[Michael Davis]

Wow! You guys are on to something for Steripen users like me! Ken, that screw-on filter is da bomb! Can you weigh it and report to us! I already use a wide-mouth 1L Nalgene canteen.

Roleigh, I have the MSR coffee filter which is probably a bit lighter but, I actually use it to make coffee so, I had better use something different to keep myself from switching them. I know my coffee is potent but I'm not sure it will kill all the germs! :)

I am considering buying another 1L Nalgene canteen (2.0 oz)and cutting the top off (saving at least 1 oz) and use it as a collector. I would then pour the dirty water through the filter attached to my clean canteen, detach the filter and use the Steripen. I could store the dirty filter inside the cut up canteen.

Now all that I need is to find a source of "food grade" charcoal that I could put into a little sack made from my wife's hosiery (don't tell her). I could place the charcoal sack in the filter and gain the benefits of color/odor/taste improvement for maybe an ounce of charcoal!

I'm psyched! This is making me thirsty; I've gotta go get a drink of water!

[Roleigh Martin]

Michael, for coffee, I use the coffee singles from folgers that comes in tea bags. I use 2 tea bags of coffee each morning.

[John G]

"Now all that I need is to find a source of "food grade" charcoal that I could put into a little sack made from my wife's hosiery (don't tell her). I could place the charcoal sack in the filter and gain the benefits of color/odor/taste improvement for maybe an ounce of charcoal!"

A pet store that carries supplies for salt-water fish tanks will carry bulk charcoal that is pure for refilling the water filters used on fish tanks. Salt water fish are extremely sensitive to chemicals, and the filter media sold for that market probably exceeds human "food grade".

[Ken Helwig]

I will weigh it when I get home and report back.

As for contamination. The Camelbak has a suck tube so I do not come in contact with the Camelbak. I have a pre filter that Steripen sell but it does not fit onto the new Nalgene and Camelbak wide mouths. It is pretty simple to use. Just screw it on and fill it up, then un-screw and treat and put the lid with the suck tube on it and there you go. Here is the bottle I am using.

http://www.rei.com/product/776896

[Ken Helwig]

Roleigh, to answer your fist question…yes. Actually it is quite easy. The suck tube takes away from me contacting the bottle

[EndoftheTrail]

Michael wrote, "I am considering buying another 1L Nalgene canteen (2.0 oz)and cutting the top off (saving at least 1 oz) and use it as a collector.".

Save a buck — buy a narrow mouth 1L Platypus instead. After you lob off the top, it'll be the same thing. :)

[Ken Helwig]

The pre filter that I purchased from REI weighs in at 1.6 ounces. Just slightly heavier than the prefilter that Steripen makes. I tried to fit the pre filter by Steripen on my Camelbak bottle and it did not fit.

[Roleigh Martin]

Ken, I don't think you followed my point but I need to ask you this. With the coffee filter lid on, do you dip the nalgene bottle with that filter lid on, into the stream to get it full of water that needs purifying? If so, does not the inside of the lip (just beneath the lid), does it not get contaminated then? What the Steripen purifies, it does not decontaminate the inside lip of the bottle, right? Even if you use the suck straw, does not the purified water, as it sloshes around in the bottle (which has had the coffee filter/lid removed after purification) during hiking, does not that purified water come into contact with the contaminated inside lip of the bottle then? Again, I don't know if this makes a health-wise whit of a difference or not. I'm just thinking thru the sequence of motion events and thinking out loud.

[Ken Helwig]

Roleigh, you're right. One can wonder how much the contaminated water would make contact with the "clean" water. Hmmm now you have me thinking. Though, Steripen does sell a pre filter also, I wonder if they have thought of this.

But then again, once the pre filter is screwed on, how much contaminated water comes in contact with the water that is going to be filtered???

[Roleigh Martin]

Ken, my method earlier described avoids contaminating the inside lip of the bottle. I believe you could do the same thing as long as you:

1. used a lightweight plastic cup as a collection device to scoop up the unpurified water and you poured it through the center of the bottom of the coffee filter/lid you bought and you do not have the unpurified water touch the inside lip of the bottle.

2. As you remove the filter/lid from the bottle, you extract the filter/lid straight up avoiding having the filter basket (which is contaminated) from contacting the inside lip of the bottle.

In other words, the only downside I see to your method is dipping the nalgene bottle into the contaminated water source causing the inside lip of the bottle to get contaminated. I see nothing wrong with your combo filter/lid. In fact, if you put the filter/lid into boiling water at night and sterilized it, you could also use it for coffee the next morning (if you had sterilized enuf water for the nite/morning the period before boiling the filter/lid), and I'm wondering how the filter device would work for making "ice coffee" to add flavor/caffeine to your drinking water. Forget about pouring hot water thru the coffee grounds, what's wrong with just filtered, cold water and having ice coffee? (except no ice, just near-ice temperature).

ps, Ken — your avatar, is that at TrailCrest Pass near Mt. Whitney? My avatar is coming up to TrailCrest Pass about an hour earlier from the Western side of the Pass.

[Michael Davis]

The more I read these posts, the more I think this will work with just one container!

If one were to attach the strainer onto the container and then scoop up water from a stream/lake/waterfall, the trick would be to fill the container to the brim. This would be very important.

Then, remove the strainer and sterilize the water (in the same container) using the Steripen. The important thing here is to make sure the water is at the top of the container so that all of it, AND the container is getting sterilized.

Here, I see an advantage of a soft-sided canteen like the Nalgeens or Platys. One can sqeeze these containers a bit to cause the water level to come up to the top, even if a little spills out during the process.

To clean ones hands, as well as the outside of the wet container, simply smear some Purrel hand sanitizer on your hands and then wipe down the outside of the container with your hands.

By Jove, … I think he's got it!!

[Roleigh Martin]

Michael, a couple of issues.

1. the Adventurer by steripen requires being able to see the LED chamber light — with the soft-sided nalgene, the plastic is too foggy to see the LED Chamber light (at least for my own eyes) — the hard plastic containers, one can see the LED Chamber light. the new (but about 2 oz heavier and more expensive) steripen that came out this year, has a LED screen and perhaps could be used with the soft sided nalgene container just well, but for me, the adventurer–I did not like with the soft sided nalgene container.

2. as for the Platys widemouth bags, I forget what Steripen had to say about that type of plastic–I thought they had a concern about this, but I forget the details. I'll try and dig around and look up the info.

Bottom line, I think the latest Steripen would work well with your method and the soft sided Nalgene bottle, and if one has far better eyes than mine, the Steripen Adventurer might work well too (you need to be able to see the LED Chamber light in the outdoor daylight situation one encounters outside in the wild–not what one encounters inside a house experimenting around).

[Michael Davis]

Roleigh,

I agree that bright sunlight hampers seeing the light, much like cell phone screens in the sunlight. However, I have used my Steripen Adventure on a regular basis with my soft-sided Nalgene without problems.

Now that I think about the conditions however, I can see your point if you are completely exposed to the sun like out west. I hike in the heavily forested east and usually take my water from splashing brooks and cascades that have complete tree cover, like a shady grotto. I've simply been using it in perfect conditions and didn't even realize it!

Maybe, you could set your backpack down to block some sun and then hunch over the container so as to block more with your body. If you have hiking partners, everyone could do a "group hug" while while this is going on! :)

[Ken Helwig]

Yep Roleigh the pic is me approaching trail crest in '06. Wonderful hike. Would like to do the hike from Crabtree to Whitney sometime. Maybe even cross country through Miter Basin.

[Mike W]

…

[Roleigh Martin]

Ken, my avatar is from '06 too (can't remember date, about 2nd week of August though). I wonder how close in time we took those pics in '06, only about 1 mile apart there. Did you hike up only from Whitney Portal (not from Crabtree side?)?

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