aqua mira water filter

Victoria:

I think it's a great idea to rely on filters to block out the big stuff and chemicals to treat the smaller, easy-to-kill stuff. Doing so, you can make do with a simpler and much lighter filter and also avoid long waiting time.

The waiting time for chemicals (iodine, chlorine, chlorine dioxide) to kill the small stuff — bacteria and viruses — is 20-30 minutes. The long wait time you read about — 30 minutes to 4 hours — is for the bigger, harder to kill protozoa — such as giardia and cryptosporidium. But in your case, you don't need to wait so long because you will be relying on your filter to block out protozoa.

As for treatment order, chemicals work better in cleaner water. Ideally, you should first filter, then treat with chemicals. However, this can mean drinking water with an unpleasant chemical taste. For me, I reverse the order and treat as follows:

1. Scoop water and pour through a fine metallic coffee filter into receiving "dirty water" bladder. This will get rid of all visible particulates — making it easier for chemicals to do their work.

2. Treat with chemicals — and wait 20-30 minutes.

3. Drink water through Frontier Pro while hiking — or use as gravity filter when in camp.

Two more thoughts:

1. If you rely on your filter to kill just the big stuff, why not save some weight by getting the much simpler and lighter Aqua Mira Frontier Pro? It can be used as a straw, an inline filter — as well as a gravity filter.

2. If you rely on chemicals to kill just the small stuff, why spend top dollars on chlorine dioxide (e.g. Micropur tablets or Aquamira liquids)? You can simply carry a small drop bottle of unscented household bleach — and dispense 2 drops per quart or liter. Costs essentially nothing.

I'm no expert, but since you're in a rush I'll repeat what I've learned here and over at PBF.

The four hour wait time on chlorine dioxide is if you're counting on it to kill protozoa and/or their cysts.

These are precisely the things that a 3 micron filter should be filtering out, so using one in conjunction with the treatment tabs obviates the need to wait four hours.

As far as time it takes for the tabs to kill just viruses and bacteria, I've seen everything from 15 to 30 minutes stated around the forums.

As far as treating the dirty or filtered water, I'd be curious what someone more expert than myself has to say.

I believe the trade off there is that the tabs might work better on water that's been filtered, at least enough to no longer be cloudy, which would indicate filtering first is better.

On the other hand, the carbon in the filter could remove some of the taste left by the tabs, which taste some people find to be objectionable. That'd indicate treating first is better.

Maybe it depends on how full of sediment the water is to begin with, or maybe pre-filtering, at least through a bandana or simple screen is the way to go, or maybe the initial cloudiness isn't really much of an issue. I don't know.

I recently purchases a Frontier Pro myself, and am curious what other people who (hopefully) know more than myself have to say about the order of filtering/chemically treating.

Hope that helps some.

YMMV

Edited: because Ben posted while I was still typing. Thanks for the more authoritative info.

For what it's worth, from looking at the antigravitygear.com website it appears that the filter in question here IS the Aquamira Frontier Pro.

Adam:

I don't see my experience as any more authoritative! We need some hiking biologists to chime in.

Reading your post, we're basically saying the same things. As they say, great minds think alike. :)

Victoria,
http://www.klearwater.com/features.htm

"Q. How quickly does KlearWater work?
A. KlearWater is fast. KlearWater's Chlorine Dioxide formula acts within a few minutes to eliminate most common bacteria (such as E-Coli), and viruses. For "tough" pathogens, such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium a longer treatment time (15-30min.) is recommended."

As far as I know, this is the only chemical purification that claims to do it all in less than 30 minutes. All the other ones I've seen recommend 4 hours to kill all the critters. This time should be extended if water is near freezing temperature. I recommend preiltering the water going into your dirty bag, then dosing the dirty bag, then filtering after the wait time is up.
Chris

Christopher:

Not that I really know, but I would be more cautious about the wording of KlearWater:

1. the stated treatment time for bacteria and viruses is identical to Micropur (i.e. not stronger or faster).

2. methinks KlearWater simply chose to state only the minimum treatment time for protozoa — with a vague wording about longer treatment time for colder water… whereas Katadyn simply stated the maximum time.

3. most importantly, both use the same identical active ingredient — so that would lead one to question even more why KlearWater should be so much faster. My strong hunch is that it isn't.

But I should state that I haven't used KlearWater. If you (or anyone else) have one — can you please tell us the percentage of active ingredient? The chlorine dioxide active ingredients are:

AquaMira liquids – 2%
Micropur tablets – 6%
KlearWater – ??%

thanks guys. good advise. why didn't i think of bleach? i am a lab tech, but didn't dawn on me, duh..think i will use benjamins advice. thanks again

Ben,
As far as the wording of KlearWater usage, I quoted the website. That isn't my paraphrase. See the link I posted.

KlearWater is a "proprietary formula" of 0.15% ClO2 and 99.85% deionized water.
As for its fast results, my thoughts are purely speculation. I'd like to see an authoritative source chime in for my own personal enlightenment. I do know it's an active ingredient suspended in deionized water. Other liquids require preparation. Tablets require dissolving to achieve oxidation.
Chris

Victoria,
Those are apples and oranges. You should choose how you wish to treat your water.

Bleach is sodium hypochlorite.
The chemical water treatments discussed above are all forms of chlorine dioxide.

Chris, bleach should work just fine for what i need. i do need more help, though. i just tried attaching my platypus water bottle to the bottom as my clean bag. great..it doesn't fit..so now i need to buy another bag?? tried to find a evernew like the picture in the Japanese directions. it was the only wording in English. anyone know of a site which sells these? thanks wait: it looks like i can disconnect the screw on thing and just have the tubing going into the clean bottle, although it would be better to have a solid connection

I'm finding it difficult to figure out what isn't working for you. Can you describe in more detail or post a photo?

Chris. the hose that comes down from the filter to the clean water bag has a different screw top hose system. it is orange in color and fits the evernew bag featured in the Japanese illustration. i just looked back at the web site and see that they have the bags for sale….guess i should have looked before i posted earlier. thanks for your concern…tori p.s. if you want to see what i am talking about the web site is: http://www.antigravitygear.com under hydration…..

I missed the part about an Evernew. I've got Platys on both sides, so no problems with hose diameter here. I also noticed AGG's link shows two different colors of filters. Maybe the orange is for Evernew and brown for Platypus (or similar). If you go shopping for hoses or adapters, make sure you get measurements and keep track of each items inside or outside diameter as you deem necessary. Let me know if you need measurements of anything in the photo I posted.
Best of luck.
Chris

Just so you (and/or anyone else reading this knows), the Evernew bottles/bags, are also for sale right here at BackpackingLight.

By shopping here, you can put that membership (discount) to good use.

I love Christopher's gravity filter. Mine is almost identical except heavier at 8 oz but I get the 0.1 micron filtration and 500 ga life of the Sawyer inline filter I'm using. I took a the filter out of one of their filter bottles. I used two short pieces of tubing that came with it and a connector to put it between a 3L platypus Hoser and a 2L collapsible bag. I attached the filter with a short piece of tubing to a platypus filter link on the dirty water bag. I then took the bite valve off the 3-1/2 foot hose to connect it to the out end of the filter and screwed the other end to the clean water bottle. With the dirty water platypus hooked on a tree branch and the clean water bag on the ground I get at least 1L per minute filtration rate. I'm really happy with my 8 oz clean water solution. It beats pumping, and carrying the pump weight. If I replaced the 3L platypus with the bag from antigravity gear as in (http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=8994&disable_pagination=1) I could bring the weight down farther.