Sawyer SP120 inline filter

That is really interesting. Claims a flow rate of 1.8 litres/minute. Here is the manufacturer site: http://www.sawyeronline.com/sawyer_products/pages/water_filters/index.htm

Doug

Interesting. Filters are bad SUL technique it seems but for certain racing endevors they might be just the ticket. At least for me having water ready to drink as soon as I get to a source is a big deal. 4 hour wait times are long and even 30 minutes is hard sometimes.

I disagree with your assessment about filters being bad UL technique. Quite often, it can lead to better hydration with a much lighter load. For example, assume you are on a 10 mile hike up a river to your campsite. You can drink water before you leave and once you get there. With a filter, you can drink and go the entire time. With treatment, you are forced to wait or carry water. Even a tiny bit of water (half a cup) weighs more than a filter and the adapter for a platypus. Using a filter means never carrying more water than you will drink before the next time you cross water. I don’t know if you can say that about treatment. Then again, it may depend on the type of hiking; if you hike to a really nice lake, lounge around and then onto another nice lake, then the treatment approach sounds lighter; if you hike the way I described in my example, the filter approach seems better.

I started this Thread here back in Sept 2005 for a
MYOG Gravity (Bag Type) Water Filter I started out with a stock ULA Amigo and remade the complete system:

Home Made Gravity Feed Water Filter:

Cuben Water Bag – 0.54oz
Fittings – 0.176oz
Hose (25″) – 0.95oz
Modified Hiker Pro Filter – 1.9oz

Oh I wasn’t saying it’s bad technique. I think that most people view it as bad technique. I’m not a big hiker but applying it to mountain bike racing in the back country I think the filter shows a lot of promise with the right setup!

Has anyone done a comparison of the Seychelle and Sawyer filters? That would be a good BPL article topic. Hint.

I’d like to know how they compare in flow-rates, for example.

I’ve googled to try to find such a comparison but haven’t found anything relevant except this thread.

I’m also curious about the sawyer vs seychelle vs hiker pro or sweetwater.

I notice most standard pump filters have a pore size of 0.2 microns, but the seychelle has a 2-micron pore size.

how can the seychelle be as effective? Is it a media property? what is the pore size of the sawyer?

Or am I looking at the wrong spec to determine effectiveness of filter?

Thats about the way it goes. Small pores catch more bugs. And small pores can clog more easily, so a pre-filter is a good idea– more weight and complexity though. From everything I have read 2 microns will get most of the giardia and cryto and so are okay for most North American wilderness water sources. If you go smaller, you need to start pushing harder, so a pump is needed. If you tried to suck water through a 0.2 micron filter, your ears would be touching real quick like :) Even with the Sawyers and Bota “dunk and drink” bottle-style filters, you need to squeeze the bottle rather than being able to just suck it through. I was really dissapointed when I bought one.

IMHO, there ain’t no free lunch. I’m voting with chemicals (Aqua Mira) for UL use and I boil water whenever possible. I use a 0.2 micron filter for group/family camping with chemical backup if the filter fails.

It would be great to have an integrated bladder/filter/hose system where you could dunk a bladder and screw a filter and hose into it and drop that into the hydration sleeve in your pack. Maybe someone could make a small battery-operated pump– you grab the hose and push a button and water flows. Whirrrrrrrr guk guk guk! Ahhhhhhhhhhh.

that’s good to know.

Unfortunately, my water source is usually a river as I’m usually expedition kayaking. so no pristine springs or lakes … and sometimes agricultural runoff.

Sounds like I’m stuck with a .2 micron filter and chemical treatment to be safe.

I know little about water filters other than the SweetWater filter I used in Europe 11 years ago. Here in Japan water filters just aren’t needed. You can find clean natural water sources almost everywhere in the mountains.

But I came across the MSR MIox pump free water filter at an outdoor store here about six months ago and have been intrigued by it, though I’ve never used it. It’s called a “mixed oxident” purifier, whatever that means.

Would this be an alternative that you might find does what you want?

I’m not UL yet and take an MSR Hiker and sometimes the Miox which I’m trying out. The Miox has worked fine, I think, way better than tablets imho and doesn’t taste like chemicals. I’d like to take the Miox along with a coarse, low-pressure filter to get sediments and big stuff out. Most of my camping is on the coast and some of the streams can be kind of gross.

Cheers,
Bob

I just recieved my Sawyer inline filter … ordered from Just Drink …

It weighed in right at 2oz …. my 2 L platy Hoser with the filter in line is right at 5.5 oz.

The flow rate is excellent … but they do give a warning about the flow rate dropping if you don’t pre-filter.

So … I’m staying away from the Zipper Platys and using a fine mesh filter to prefilter the water going into the platy through the output hole.

and … pull of the removable bite valve and you have an instant gravity filter!

Mark, you say you’re “…staying away from the Zipper Platys…”. I assume you mean the “Big Zip”s, but I don’t get why one should stay away from them when using the Sawyer. Couldn’t you put a pre-filter between the outlet from the Big Zip and the Sawyer filter? I’ve seen in-line pre-filters; I think. Can you elaborate on your point there? Thanks,

p.s. I’m expecting mine in the mail this week.

Several reasons ….

1.) I’ve had the zipper come open on my in the pack before on my 2 L zipper platty.

2.) the prefilter adds more weight …. 5.5 oz for the bladder, hose, and filter is just right for me.

3.) Some of the places I fill from the water can be a bit “chunky”.