Steripen for Foreign Travel?

Have you tried the Aquamira Tabs. It takes a little longer but no after taste. Also Klear Water which is like Aquamira but no after taste. BPL sells both on the website. GOODLUCK

The steripen is billed as a water purifier. It uses uv bombardment to kill all the living matter in the water as well as virus'. They will still be in the water, just not able to do you any harm. You get to drink all the dead bugs. The efficacy of the light is hindered by particulate matter however so cloudy water is suspect. The reason for this, to my understanding is that light penetration drops off dramatically if there is stuff in the water. Radioactive water sources will still be bad, as well as any polluted/overly treated waters.

> Will a Steripen handle whatever baddies might be in suspect water in foreign countries?

All bugs, yes, but cloudy water may interfere with this.
It won't take out chemicals though.

Cheers

I didn't have cloudy water as an issue in the cities or in the backcountry but I know that would affect performance.

I carry a Steripen Adventurer and Katadyn chlorine dioxide tabs as a backup in case the Steripen decides to quit. I also use the tabs in my hydration bag every few days to keep mouth bacteria from migrating up the drink tube and into the reservoir.

I'd recommend both the Steripen and chlorine dioxide tabs. Aqua Pure now has them in the same strength as Katadyn. Also carry two extra non-rechargable lithium AA batteries.

Eric

I've used both Steripen and Aquamira chlorine dioxide tablets. Between the two for urban use, I would choose the Steripen.

Aquamira requires a minimum 30 minutes of treatment time — longer if the water is cold — up to 4 HOURS treatment time if water is just above freezing. Overnight treatment aside, that's pretty impractical. Steripen, on the other hand, requires only 90 seconds (or thereabouts) of treatment time — which is much more practical.

Steripen is effective if water ranges from clear to slightly cloudy. Not good for water that's brown with rust. But most hotel and restaurant water will be reasonably clear — so Steripen should work very well.

Unless things have changed in the last 3 years, you should be pretty safe with the Steripen. My wife and I used one for just about our whole trip to treat tap water when we were in the cities (Lima, Cuzco, Urubamba, and a few others I forget). We just reused the bottles from bottled water we bought/were given or treated it in bigger bulk in a Nalgene bottle.

Hiking the Inca Trail while you are there?