Sawyer Inline Filter

James,

Like you, I do all/most of my backpacking in the Sierra where I find the water great tasting as is.

I having been using the Sawyer in line filter for a few years now and I wrote one of the reviews that you read.

The only time that I have used and wanted active carbon is at Big Basin Park by the ocean….the water in the trickling streams was nasty looking and I did not want to take chances.

I took a Katadyn Carbon Filter Attachment and simply added it to my Sawyer inline filter with a short bit of tubing to connect it to the output portion of the filter.

It worked great to improve the taste of the water, but it is bulky and heavy…maybe adding 3 to 4 oz of weight.

I would say that the active carbon can improve the taste of bad tasting water due to chemicals and minerals…the inline would take care of the organic particles in the water. My experience at Big Basin was that the water tasted "less" bad…brita filter is was not to make the water taste like spring water.

I think you will be fine without active charcoal in the Sierras….source of the water. If you were in the low lands where the water has had plenty of distance and time to soak up polutants, I would advise for active charcoal.

For me, the Sawyer inline filter it a great lightweight solution, but it's big failing is not having an active charcoal attachment.

-Tony

Another big drawback: the need to "prime" prior to trip use!

When I had the Sawyer purifier — I first primed and tested it at home. Great water flow. After that, it went into the gear bin until trip time. To my surprise, water flow was extremely slow/sluggish!

Back from the trip, I called Sawyer and was told that the purifer requires priming before use — in other words, once it's stored dry, it needs to be primed again. Also, priming requires the force of a faucet (attachment included in package) — you can't prime by gravity or by manually forcing water through the filter from one bladder to the other.

But carrying a damped purifier means signifiantly added weight! Not liking what I heard, I sold my Sawyer after that first use.

While my experience is solely with the purifier, I believe this also applies to the filter. Perhaps Tony can add further insights to this.

"…priming requires the force of a faucet…you can't prime by gravity…But carrying a damped purifier means signifiantly added weight!"

Ben, this would be a deal-breaker for me also…and I'm just about to buy one. Tony, any thoughts?!?

Ben,

I did not know that about the purifier…shocked that you can not prime it in the field.

I was thinking of getting one for my Earthquake kit.

With mine, there is a little bit of priming that has to be done to get the filter started.

I generally suck on the "end" of the filter to draw water into the filter's hollow tubes to start the syphoning effect….not difficult at all….even gravity can get the process started with a hanging bag of dirty water.

I am lazy, so I usually squeeze the dirty water bag to force the water through it…..I have even been known to sit on the dirty water bag to increase the rate of flow while the gravity filter process is going.

I rarely hang a dirty water bag….I usually lay my dirty water bag on its side (4 L Platy Water Tank) up on a rock or fallen tree and put my Platy hydration bag (1.8 L Hoser) down below to act as my clean water catch bag.

Again, I can put pressure on the water tank/dirty bag to increase the rate of flow.

I like the inline filter thing for the psychological aspect of no chunky water or bugs and the instant gratification of drinking water on the go without waiting for chemicals. (see my review comments of how I use a pint size water bottle for on the trail filtering).

Again, it works for me, but I do realize the drawbacks and limitations…not a perfect solution for everyone.

-Tony

It's true, the Sawyer purifier needs to be primed and packed wet, just before a trip. That's the price we pay for the extra filtration, I guess. That being said, I have previously used other filters and found that once the filter was used in the field, it stayed wet (read heavy) for the remainder of the trip.

As to carbon filtration, I use a GSI coffee filter that screws into the top of a large mouth Nalgene, into which I place a homemade noseeum net bag holding 1 ounce of aquarium charcoal. I filter the water into the Nalgene, screw on the top and shake like a Martini! Then I remove the GSI Coffee filter and charcoal. Here is a link ….
http://www.rei.com/product/750397

Hello. I purchased the Sawyer Inline filter along with an inline Katahdyn carbon cartridge to use on my camelback for a 110 mile hike next week. Is it best to put the carbon cartridge before the Sawyer inline filter, or the Sawyer inline filter first ? I thought the carbon should go after
the Sawyer inline filter, thinking the carbon would work better (taste)if the water was already filtered through the Sawyer first. My brother thinks the carbon cartridge should go first, to protect the Sawyer inline filter, by filtering out the biggest particles before the water gets to the Sawyer.

I didn't get any instructions on how to backwash and how to prime the Sawyer filter and can't find any online manuals. Does anyone have a link to online manuals or quick instructions on how to backwash and prime the Sawyer filter?

Here is a link to the two filters I'm using.

http://www.rei.com/product/778041
http://www.rei.com/product/709006

Thanks!
Pam

Pam,

Good question.

The one time that I used the carbon cartridge that you have was with it after the filter.

Two things that I can think of:

If you use the carbon before the Sawyer, then it will act as a prefilter, but might be fouled up by the organic material from the dirty water, which might slow the filtering process and you probably would have to replace the active carbon sooner.

Using the active carbon after the filter would improve the taste of the water, but you would lose out on using the carbon cartridge as a pre-filter.

My choice would be to use the cartridge after the Sawyer, unless I really was dealing with some muddy water….if that were the case, I would sacrifice the carbon cartridge to help prevent the Sawyer from clogging up due to heavy silt.

As for backwashing, I just did it on a 9 day, 174 mile trip on the Tahoe Rim Trail.

I added information on how to backwash the filter to my user review.

Basically, I used my clean water bag and rolled up the Platypus bag to force water back into the filter to backwash and clear it.

I went about 6 days without backwashing and noticed a significant decrease in the flow rate.

Took a surprising amount of pressure to backwash, but once I did it, it worked like normal/new.

My suggestion on a long, multi day trip is to backwash it with less than a cup of clean water every few days….would require a lot less pressure than what I had to apply if it were cleaner, less clogged by more frequent cleaning.

Priming the filter is easy….I just suck on the output side of the filter like a straw while it is connect to a dirty water source to get the process started.

Anyway, hope that helps.

-Tony

Thanks for the info Tony. I emailed Sawyer and asked them which should go first, the Sawyer or the Carbon, and they said put the Sawyer first, which is what my guess was.
The info you listed about backwashing it is helpful…thanks. Someone also wrote that they backwashed their Sawyer on a hike, by taking clean water into their mouth, and then blowing it back through the Sawyer and back into their Camelback/Platypus. Might keep it from getting clogged if you do that once or twice a day during a hike. I had primed my Sawyer the same way you did yours, using gravity, but someone in this forum mentioned that per Sawyer, it has to be primed using the faucet adapter. Not sure why that is.
Thanks again. Pam

Pam,

I think that the Sawyer filter that they are talking about that needs priming is the one that filters out viruses.

I don't have that one, but I have heard that it does need priming and hence needs to be carried wet, which would make it unacceptably heavy.

If I were concerned about viruses, I would filter and then chemically treat with Aquamira.

Glad that I was able to help.

I have used water in my mouth to backwash the filter while using a plastic pint bottle as my dirty water bottle on the trail. (See my user review for a photo of what I am talking about).

-Tony