Steripen – usage with soft sided container

I use Platy's — and if I were to pair them with my Steripen Adventurer, then I would do it the way you described as well.

In lieu of cutting up and carrying an extra platy, I suppose one can use a pot or mug too; but then, that would lose the platy's "coffee filter" feature.

A gatorade or other widemouth bottle and your mug with a melitta filter or bandanna filter will weigh less than another single-purpose platy. The melitta filters stand up pretty well on their own when wet.

Depending on just how murky the water is, I have rubber-banded a bandanna to a gatorade bottle and submerged it while taking a rest. Either way, it's not a big weight penalty, I just always try to look for the multiple use (and free) option.

I use my cooking pot or eating dish for purifying, and then dump the water into my Vitamin Water bottles. If it's really dirty I strain it through a bandana before zapping it with the Steri-pen.

I use a 4-cup version of one of these for eating from, by the way – I needed something when I went to anReactor, and they weigh almost nothing:

http://www.bestcheapbuy.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/GladWare-Side-Dish-1-34-Cup-Containers-Lids-Case-Pack-Six-5-Count-Containers-30-Containers.jpg

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I use the same type of setup but use 32oz Powerade bottles. Sturdier and 3 of them weigh the same as one Nalgene 32oz Bottle.

A wide-mouth bottle allows true stirring to agitate the water enough to get the baddies swirling all around.

I wonder if one can stir sufficiently with a short Steripen Adventurer type tube in much-narrower Powerade-type bottles?

As well, methinks the first inch or so of the bottle — the threaded part of the bottle — is pretty suboptimal in terms of dispersing UV rays. So how much of the UV tube actually protrudes beyond the threaded part? Not that I know, but I have doubts that the smaller Steripen models will work sufficiently well. Maybe the Steripen Classic? But that adds a lot more weight. Has anyone asked Steripen?

> embark on the Steripen experiment … after finally giving up on the MSR Hyperflow.

Snicker. Transition from frustration to Lotus-land.

No, I haven't used soft-sided containers. I just use my 1.5 L cooking pot. No added mass at all. Then I pour into a 1.25 L PET fizzy water bottle. They are lighter than platys as well.

cheers

Matthew, I also use your method and have been trying to find a replacement push-pull cap since the standard one is so tough to push and pull.

I was really hoping this King Kooker oil pump filter would fit the top of a Nalgene Cantene so I would have a usable water container instead of the cut-off platy.

It's just a bit too big.

I see that Mike uses the MSR coffee filter and I thought of that, too. The only thing I don't like are the plastic sections that will seem to allow unfiltered water to pass into the Cantene.