Steripen reliability

[Robert Blean]

I am OK with the hassle and delays of Aquamira, at least for the most part. But sometimes I wish I had the advantages of Steripen, including its immediacy. My problem is that, when I read the reviews of Steripen, I am struck by the number of reviewers who say it has been unreliable for them.

So my question to this group — just how reliable is Steripen? Is reliability enough of a problem that I should let that stop me from getting one?

— MV

[EndoftheTrail]

I'm going on a 7-month trip myself — and just bought a Steripen Traveler. I too am curious.

[Mary D]

It certainly was unreliable for me! It worked fairly well when tried at the kitchen sink, although after getting out in the field I wished I had spent a lot more time with it under conditions a little more closely related to the back country than my kitchen. I had lots of trouble even turning the thing on and off (female, not much hand strength here). When I originally posted my adventures with the thing last summer, I got half a dozen responses from other women who had the same difficulty with the on/off switch. Plus when I did get it turned on, it kept cutting off before the cycle was complete so I had to start over. Plus a widemouth bottle is required. Plus extra batteries. The weight of these "accessories" eats up any weight savings over my ULA Amigo Pro gravity filter. Sitting by a buggy creek stirring and stirring is also not my idea of an easy way to purify water, especially after being accustomed to a gravity filter.

YMMV, of course. The Steripen I bought went back to REI and I would never consider purchasing another. Even pumping (which puts my back into spasms) or "better living through chemistry" is far better than this gadget, IMHO.

[EndoftheTrail]

Mary:

The units have metal sensors to ensure that the entire light tube is always and completely submerged in water — and the split second that even a teeny tiny part of the tube is exposed out of the water, the unit stops. Curious, were you using a narrow mouth water bottle — which makes it awkward to completely submerge the tube and stir?

For my upcoming travel use, I am pairing it with a 16oz. hard sided wide mouth Nalgene. I figure having this will be cheaper than buying bottled water for the next seven months.

For "real" hiking where weight is much more of an issue, I use narrow-mouth Platys — and treat the water with a tiny bottle of chlorine and then filtering through the AM Frontier Pro filter.

[Ken Thompson]

I have been real happy with mine. Got mine in '06. Only problems were with the included batteries that died without the steripen getting a chance to say they were. Others I know had this problem as well. Upon putting in Duracells there has been no problems at all. Love it! I fill my bladders and bottles and treat them back in the comforts of camp. I do keep some tablets on hand, and will teat a bladder full once in a while, if I'm really lazy.

[Robert Blean]

Mary,

I hear your basic concern — that is the sort of thing I was wondering about. As to weight / accessories, though:

"Plus a widemouth bottle is required."

Can't one take a light-weight wide-mouth water container, such as a Nalgene Wide-Mouth Cantene?

"Plus extra batteries."

Weight depends on whether it uses the same size as other things you carry — light, camera, GPS, etc. Aren't there some that use standard cells so they could be shared?

— MV

[Jason Smith]

I use the Steripen Adventurer all the time and love it. I pretty much bring it on all my hikes and it has never failed to work. I do carry one HDPE nalgene, with I like to carry as it has no difference in weight than my old hydration tube, and I trust it as a hot water bottle. I am also currently using the 900mah Tenergy rechargeable batteries with unit, which I know others have reported working well with the unit. Only difficulty is sometimes the light is hard to see,and you need to shade the unit to see that its working.

[Robert Blean]

Ken,

"I fill my bladders and bottles and treat them back in the comforts of camp."

Can you treat large bladders (e.g. 3L Platypus), or do you have to arrange to fill a large one from a smaller one, one liter at a time? I understood the latter to be the case.

–MV

[Mike W]

…

[Robert Blean]

Mike,

"I really like the fact that I can carry a smaller amount of water and refill frequently without having to wait (lots of water in most of the areas where I hike). To me, this is the real weight savings."

That would also be true of a filter, assuming there is not something to do with water sources tending to be large enough to fill water containers from, but too small to realistically use a filter.

–MV

[Darren McClintock]

I think the key with the Steripen is using good quality batteries. I too had a problem initially when I was using the rechargeables. Steripen support couldn't have been any more helpfult to me or treated me better. They admitted the batteries were bad and sent me new ones. I've since used them, but mostly use the Surefires you can buy pretty cheap at Lowes. I've never had any problems since and completely trust it. I take some Micropur's just in case I drop it like a clutz, but with good quality batteries I'm not worried about it failing.

[EndoftheTrail]

Jason (or others):

Can you recommend (and provide links) to good rechargeable batteries and compact/lightweight chargers for the Steripen Adventurer? Thanks.

[Mike W]

…

[P. P.]

Interesting comments.
I've had my Steripen for almost 2 years without issue. I use lithium batteries for weight savings and they seem to work flawlessly.
I've used them in many countries, under many circumstances and have never experienced a product failure or illness.
The water I have most often purified is at least fairly clear (even though I KNOW it is teeming with bacteria) but I have used the prefilter on a few occasions.
I still have my trusty old MSR miniworks that I take kayak camping but I wouldn't want to haul it on the trail
YMMV.

[Frank Deland]

Used it on a 10 day hike along the AT. No problems. Bought the battery at a camera store. I put the water in a 2L pot than poured it through a funnel into the water bottle. I attached a piece of mosquito netting over the funnel to act as a filter or strainer for "floaties". I bought the funnel from Hennessy Hammocks. It screws onto the top of a platypus bottle.

Scroll down to "Line tensioner and drainage system".

http://hennessyhammock.com/catalogue.html#Anchor-ACCESSORIES-49575

[Kevin Egelhoff]

I posted this before and I'm posting it again! I WISH they worked for us as I love the light weight but it was not the case!

Hmmmm … for once I'm not even close in agreement to anyone ???
Having purchased two brand new units in Sept 08 after reading several positive comments, I can't wait to RETURN them both. First I want to write to the manufacture and ask a lot of questions but after reading peoples post on REI's web site I'm guessing they won't respond. Here are the problems we encountered. We needed to steri approximately 2 gallons of water each night for our group of 5 people. Worked great the first day at 7,000 foot elevation. Day two climbed over 10,000 feet and BOTH units got red lights aprox. half the time we tried to use them. We thought maybe the brand new Lith. batteries were the problem and exchanged them with another set of brand new Lith. batteries AGAIN ONLY to find the same problem immediately. Temp was about 50 deg. and I had warmed the batteries in my pants pocket prior to using them. Still, no luck getting a consistant reading. It was so bad that I was considering walking 14 miles back to the car to get the HEAVY First Need to use as the back up and then would have to hike all the way back to the group. A 28 mile tough hike in one day …. We decided to keep using the pens and we would end the trip early if we couldn't get them to work or we ended up burning up the batteries due to so many cycles trying to get the elusive green light. The instructions are very vague on the red light problem. Is it the sensor being dirty ? Elevation? Amount of salt in the water? Are we supposed to clean the sensor after each use? Is the pen not intended to be used for longer periods of time or at higher elevations? Most of these questions were described on other web sites after doing some research when I got back. I still don't know what the problem was but the pens seemed to work a little better each day as we began dropping in elevation down to 5000 feet. Highly disappointed in something that seems so finicky on something so critical as clean drinking water.
I can ASSURE you that we were using the pens correctly and the sensor was NEVER out of the water yet we still had problems with BOTH brand new units. Hope others have better luck then we had.
Kevin

[Roger Caffin]

Hi Bob

We do have an in-depth review of the Steripen here.

Cheap rechargeables and cheap non-rechargeables will fail very reliably. They cannot support the current drain imposed. Good non-rechargeables and the Tenergy 900 mAh rechargeables give reliable performance when the Steripen is correctly used.

Some people have claimed the button is hard to press. Well, I am sure that, if the button really is hard to press, Hydro-Photon will replace the unit. But in many cases the real problem is that people press the button and expect the green LED to light up, but it doesn't. In fact, it won't light up until you release the button! You have to press *and* release.

Some people have reported that the unit will stop working half-way through a cycle. In some cases this is because of battery problems. In other cases this is because they have not kept the water-sensor studs immersed ALL the time.

On our recent 11 day hoon trip through the Australian Alps I used my Steripen a lot, because there are many wild horses in the area. I used it in my MSR Titan 1.5 L pot with non-rechargeable batteries. It worked flawlessly. On other trips I have used it with the 900 mAh Tenergy batteries, with the same success.

Cheers

[Roleigh Martin]

I have used the Steripen Adventurer for 2 years ( 31 days in the high sierra) and the Steripen Classic prior to that. Other hikers in our group used the same items. Junk the Steripen Classic, we all did, for it was not waterproof and moisture got inside the glass chamber and it stopped working; REI refunded our money. The Steripen Adventurer has worked just fine with one problem that I suspect may change in a future design. Their is a need for a power-off lock switch, because if you pack the steripen wrongly, pressure from adjacent items could power the steripen on and drain the battery prematurely; that happened with me once. You do need to use high quality lithium batteries, Steripen support recommended I believe the Duracell or Panasonic brands. I'll try and find their email. In our group, each person has a water treatment system and if one fails, the others serve as backup.

[Dondo .]

I had reliability problems at first with the Steripen Adventurer. My first trip was in winter and the batteries included with the unit (I forget the brand) wouldn't let the Steripen complete a cycle. My backup Energizer lithiums saved the day. Since then, I've been using Energizer or Duracell lithiums without a problem. Still, I've seen enough reports around the web dinging the Adventurer for it's reliability that I wonder if there are some bad units out there. In any case, I always carry some chlorine dioxide tablets as a backup and for camp use.

[Mary D]

Why is it that when a gadget malfunctions everyone hastens to pile onto the user? Do you suppose it possibly could be the gadget that's at fault? Do you suppose that the user could actually be following the directions to the letter and that perhaps it's the gadget is at fault? Or is that too difficult a concept to grasp?

I was extra careful to use the SteriPen exactly according to directions! I practiced in my kitchen and also took the directions with me and reread them carefully each time I tried to use the gadget. I used the mandatory wide-mouth Nalgene bottle (never mentioned, of course, when people talk about weight savings with this gadget). I was extra careful to keep the UV bulb submerged at all times. The batteries were brand new–the lithium batteries that came with the unit. I did change to the extras I bought which were standard brand (Energizer), to see if it made any difference. The signal I kept getting when the thing aborted mid-cycle was NOT the low battery signal but the specific signal it's supposed to put out when it aborts (the signals are different). I am not so stupid that I cannot follow directions, thank you kindly! Contrary to a lot of gadgets I've encountered, the directions for the Steripen were quite clear and easy to follow. Considering that my son (an electronics engineer) also could not make the thing stop aborting mid-cycle–and he also read the directions carefully–this was definitely not our fault.

Then there was the big problem that out in the field (where the temp was in the 50's instead of the 80's F), I had to get my son to turn the switch off and on at least half the time, and my fingers got really sore from trying to do it myself. The problem was in pushing the switch from off to on and vice versa. My son (a strong and athletic man) stated that the switch was pretty stiff even for him. And, as mentioned earlier, I received half a dozen responses from other women who had the some complaint about the SteriPen switch. So this wasn't just a problem with the unit I bought. My son (an electronics engineer) agreed with my decision to return the gizmo based on the stiff switch alone. We also worked together on the aborted cycle problem.

I was NOT using the Steripen incorrectly and it did NOT work for me. It could be that this specific unit was defective. However, judging from the responses I got when I complained on other forums about the too-stiff switch, that is a widespread fault with this gadget–the makers obviously tested it only on men or on a few women with extra-strong hand muscles.

I suppose I should have bought several units and tried each one, but my retirement budget doesn't run to that sort of expense. My experience is, therefore, limited to one unit. That was more than enough to make me decide that I want nothing more to do with the Steripen. I returned it to REI for a full refund. I figured that REI could take up the problems I reported with the manufacturer.

It seems that the unit (was it also just one?) tested by BPL worked properly. That's fine–nice to know it actually worked for somebody. That doesn't mean that all Steripens are perfect or that anyone finding otherwise is too stupid to follow directions! This is not the first nor the last time that I and others have had experience quite contrary to a BPL review.

[Joshua Billings]

I have had mine for about a year. I love mine.Its pretty light and doesn't taste bad like chemies.I filter through a bandana if the water is cloudy. I now use the tenergy rechargeable batteries also. They don't last as long as the duracells but they aren't wasteful. I just take an extra set.I use my BPL 1100 pot to stir the water in then pour into a plati so there is no extra weight.The bpl 1100 is a great size pot for this unit due to its shape. Nice and deep, yet it only holds a litter. The only trouble I have had was when the water was very cold the batteries started to die prematurely. I held the steripen in my jacket for a minute then it worked long enough to do one litter at a time. I guess that I got a good one because I haven't had any trouble though I can see that it could be possible to get a lemon.

[Dondo .]

Mary, I just reread the thread and I don't see a lot of people piling on. Most of us are just telling about our own personal experiences with the Steripen. As I noted above, it's possible that there are some bad units out there which would lead to the variation of responses to it.

[Jay Wilkerson]

Mr. Billings how was the Rim to Rim to Rim with your Steripen? I think you need to save weight and use AquaMira! Any Pictures????

[Roleigh Martin]

Mary, I wanted to send you some information you might appreciate about the steripen via a PM, but your profile is not setup for PM. Email me at roleigh @ pobox [dot] com if you want that information.

[Jim Yancey]

I have been using a Steripen classic for over a year now. It certainly has its quirks, but I love the light weight and simplicity WHEN IT WORKS. I have had trouble with the unit not going into "ready" mode after pressing and releasing the switch. I have found that it only takes a brief push and release (something like a single mouse-click.) It does seem less reliable in cold weather, and this past winter I was having a lot of difficulty getting it to work reliably. I found if I shook the unit before use, it apparently moved the small droplet of mercury in the glow tube and helped it vaporize. The unit worked flawlessly after that. The only other problem I have noticed is that after each use, the sensor pins have to be scrupulously dried off or it won't immediately treat a second batch of water. It apparently thinks you are trying to turn the unit on while the tube is already submersed. As long as I dry off the pins, one brief push of the button readies the unit (blinking green light) so that when it is submerged in water the tube lights up and it functions normally. That is probably the most annoying thing I have experienced with it.

I use lithium batteries, with a spare set for backup, and Micropur tabs for overall backup. I use a 2L platy bottom, cut off at the 1L mark, as a scoop, purifying container and a collapsible and lightweight bowl. I have to carefully pour the purified water into my 1L platys for transport, but I don't find that difficult or onerous.

In general, I like the Steripen because it kills everything, and it is lightweight, fast, non-chemical and very packable. It is a bit fiddly at times, but for the weight and size, I can live with it.

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