Filter vs Steripen

[Rick Dreher]

No compelling reason as far as I know. You can use a larger container and run multiple cycles if you can ensure you've stirred properly and have adequate contact time with all the water. This will be much easier with a smaller container.

Cheers,

Rick

[Stephen Barber]

Some of us use multiple water containers with the Steripen because we don't want to carry "heavy" Nalgene wide mouth bottles. Platy bottles or commercial water bottles are so much lighter, but have tiny mouths that the Steripen won't fit into. So I carry a Nalgene "canteen" with the lid cut off, making it just a one liter heavy plastic bag. I use that to dip water out of the sources and treat with the Steripen, then pour it into my Platys. Still much lighter than the Nalgene bottle.

On another note, I picked up a Sawyer filter. Lighter (dry) even than the Steripen, filters quickly, 0.10 micron filter, very long life. I've used the Sawyer filter before and liked the results as a gravity filter, but it was a lot of fussing to get everything set up, and then took awhile to do the job. This seems very quick, no fuss, quicker even than the Steripen. So far I've only tried it with tap water, but it'll go on my next hike!

[Michael Davis]

Another Steripen (Adventurer) failure here.

It failed just past the warranty period but with only about a dozen outings. Bummer!

I learned my lesson not to count on electronics in the field.
I went back to my ULA Amigo Pro gravity filter and have been quite confident with it although it weighs too much.

So, I recently bought the Sawyer Squeeze filter and WOW! I do love it for it's ease of use, packability, and it's 2.5 ounces!!!

[Bryan S]

One question I've had for the Steripen is, what do you do about the water around the rim of the (for example) Nalgene that doesn't get treated?

That is, if you submerge a Nalgene and fill it, then treat it with Steripen, the water inside is presumably safe to drink. But if I now want to drink directly from the Nalgene, isn't the rim/threaded area contaminated with untreated water? Does wiping it off with a bandana clean any bad stuff enough to be safe? Or is it just such a small amount of water that it isn't a big deal (although I thought I read it only takes a couple drops of bad water to get sick from giardia or something else…)?

Thanks!

[Rick Dreher]

Hi Bryan,

If I follow the guidance correctly, you're supposed to put the cap on loosely then invert and rinse out the threads with treated water.

Alternatively you can pour the water in using a funnel from another container, being careful to not splash raw water on the treatment container. The same precautions hold for chemical treatments.

Cheers,

Rick

[David Lutz]

I drink the water from the small hole on the MSR cap I use. Or the MSR hose attached to the cap. So I don't actually drink from the rim.

So I just call that good and get on with it.

[Mike M]

After several years of using ClO2 tablets, I recently switched to a Steripen Opti. I didn't really mind the taste of the Cl2 in the water, but the wait time- 4 hours (although I rarely waited the full 4 hours) was a bit of a hassle.

I'm really liking my switch, I use a 2 liter platy cut ~ 3" above the 1 liter mark to treat the water (less than 1 ounce)- the cut platy is VERY easy to fill (unlike a non-cut platy) and readily stands on it's own- hit the switch on the Opti once and agitate (stir) until the light goes out (~90 seconds) and you now have drinkable water- where I hike (the Rockies) water generally is very clear and also tastes very good. I haven't had any glitches with the Opti thus far and appears battery life is very good (I also switched to a CR123 headlamp to keep batteries interchangeable)

I do keep a few ClO2 tabs in the unlikely event something were to go awry.

If your filtering for a large group a filter might be a better (quicker) option, for a couple of people I think it's going to be tough to beat the Opti

one other scenario where a filter might trump the Opti is you have very turbid water, although that's likely going to prove somewhat problematic for a pump as well- a pre-filter would be beneficial for either in those waters

[Andy F]

I very seriously considered the Steripen, as shown in my posts above. I decided to go with the Sawyer Squeeze 0.1 micron. It's simpler and more reliable because there are no batteries or electronics. Also, prefiltering is necessary with the Steripen if you're concerned about worm eggs, like I am.

Andy
"worm-free since 1971" (as far as I know anyway o.O)

[Mike M]

curious what kind of worm eggs you have in your water?

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