Squeeze Filter Twirler

[Daryl and Daryl]

Draining water by shaking and waving my Sawyer Squeeze Filter was making my arm sore and wasn't working all that well. Twirling the filter from the end of a string would work but my filter has no place to attach a string. Here's one way to attach a string.

Green thing is the cut-off top of a 7-up bottle. Red thing is a string. Black thing is the filter.

Screw bottle top onto filter. Attach string with a larkshead knot. Twirl.

Use caution, David. If filter slips from string or string from your hand you might hurt or kill someone (Goliath?), put out an eye, break a window, damage the filter, increase UFO sightings, etc.

The string also allows the filter to be hung up for drying.

Severed bottle cap could be multi-used as a napkin ring for a formal backpacking dinner.

[Jerry Adams]

In three weeks, Daryl will post that he lost his Squeeze somewhere in the bushes after it came off the twirler : )

[Daryl and Daryl]

Jerry,

Hadn't even thought of that possibility. With my luck it will launch itself over a deep lake.

My next project will be a twirling enclosure fashioned after those things they install around the Olympic hammer throwers.

I think you are just jealous because my filter is now faster than yours.

Daryl

[Jerry Adams]

If your filter twirls off into the unknown, then will it be faster or slower than mine?

[Rob Daly]

"Severed bottle cap could be multi-used as a napkin ring for a formal backpacking dinner."

Too funny. :)

[Harald Hope]

REI sells the squeeze filter screw in tube / hose fittings, I use those on the clean end, with a short piece of hose attached, makes filling bottles easier too, to get it dry, I just suck on the hose, works pretty well, and doesn't add anything since I use that screw in hose adaptor anyway. And it's very simple, and the filter won't launch into the ether on some adventure, or bang against a rock by accident, all things I could see myself doing on a hot tired day at some point if I were twirling it with enthusiasm, heh.

[Daryl and Daryl]

Harald,

I like the hose fitting idea and can see how it would help with filling bottles too. Glad I didn't waste time/money trying to get a patent on my filter twirler.

Perhaps I'll keep my filter twirler for prtection from vicious puma attacks.

Daryl

[Harald Hope]

no no, you aren't approaching it right, by all means patent the twirler, that way you can build up a patent portfolio and use it to defend or attack other MYOG types, the ideal is to have so many that nobody can really do anything without making a licensing deal with you. Make them as general as possible, that way, for example, if someone uses a cord to hang the sawyer or suspend it, it would be in violation.

The hose plus fitting works well, plus you get that last fresh drink of water before putting it all away, I liked it, didn't weigh the thing to see how much water was left after, but everything I can suck out is out. I used about 4" of tubing.

Sawyer squeeze is my current favorite new piece of gear, both lighter AND better than the pump filters I used. And the water tastes just like it does from the stream directly.

If I can find a cap with a hose fitting that fits an evernew bag, or old platy, then you can attach that to the clean end, and I think you can skip the syringe backflush system, with almost no extra weight, though maybe that would be too much pressure on the bag you squeeze to backflush.

[Daryl and Daryl]

Harald,

"then you can attach that to the clean end, and I think you can skip the syringe backflush system"

I like your idea. It is difficult to use the syringe without getting an unexpected squirt of water in the face. A threaded syringe would also be an improvement.

Daryl

[Harald Hope]

I agree re the syringe, the first time I used it, I really scratched my head, since the end didn't fit into the recessed part of the outflow, the narrow center thing, it was like sawyer had forgotten a piece.

Then I realized you were just supposed to press it against the outside lip, and make the seal manually. That's very bad design, the only thing I do not like on the sawyer to be honest. It's workable, but it's certainly not well designed. A screw in back flush, as you note. or hose tube connection, would be far more efficient, and it would work better.

I'm thinking maybe the fitting for a evernew/platy hose? I'll see if REI has anything like that.

That I think would also remove one of the only legitimate complaints people have about the sawyer, having to carry that syringe on any longer trip, not that it weighs much, but it is something.

Oh, checked, after slapping my head a bit to get it working sort of again.

What is needed is, sadly, two sets of the adaptors, since they are male and female. That will give the required platy/evernew to hose to clean end for backflush. And much more elegant. And leaves two male adaptors, but the problem is then solved, I think I'll do that, it's probably not a good idea to go for more than 4 days with a sawyer without being able to backflush it, just in case.

For me, such things are fine, because I always compare the complexity and weights to what I _was_ carrying, not 0.

I also like one of the guy's here suggestion to use cut out metal coffee filter under gasket on dirty end as a prefilter, sad to waste a metal coffee filter, but the screen would be good for other stuff too.

I have to say, the sawyer is so far the best upgrade I've made, it has better functionality, way better durability, filters what, a thousand times more water than a katadyne? No, if the million gallons is right, it filters 5000 times more. And, by weight, even with adaptors, call it 4oz, it filters around 40,000 times more than aquamira (assuming 3oz for the two bottles, average of 25 gallons treated – rating, 15-30 gallons per set, ie, 8 gallons per ounce total, compared to sawyer's 250k gallons per ounce). And it's fast, it's clean, it's efficient, it's pleasant to use, it has no batteries, it's easy to use. I'm looking for something not to like, and the syringe was it, but once that and the prefilter is resolved, I'd give this the best product of the past few years award.

Man, this amazes me, even dropping the sawyer life rating by an order of magnitude, 10x, that is, you'd need 4000 sets of aquamira to match it. 4000 sets of bottles that will go to land fill, 8000 ounces of industrial chemicals entering your body, 4000 sets of packaging to be tossed into the trash. Ok, I'm convinced. That's not what I call light weight, man, that's hundreds of pounds.

[Jerry Adams]

I don't think you have to bring the syringe unless you're going many nights, or even weeks

Just use it at home between each trip

[Daryl and Daryl]

Harald,

After reading your last post I'm convinced you'd do a good job of selling this on late night TV.

My favorite part of those presentations is the "but wait there is more". Johnny Carson was very good at it.

Daryl

[Harald Hope]

yes, I could use a new revenue stream, maybe I should call sawyer! I actually did a video to demonstrate its use on my last backpacking trip. Obviously we'll need to reshoot it, heh.

I can see, it, a huge dump truck filled with 40k aqua mira bottles and their packaging pulls up the dirty dump site, they scatter over the ground, forming a small mountain of waste, the camera pans over the pile of 40k aquamira bottles, pausing for a moment over a single used and discarded sawyer filter, ok, it would be a fake shot, obviously gathering that many aquamira containers would not be practical, then pans back to the sawyer being used by some healthy looking person at a clear mountain stream. Then pans back to the Dow chemical plant, or wherever the actual active ingredient of aquamira is produced, then back to the mounds of packaging and containers, then back to the stream, with chirping birds, silence, except for the babble/tinkle of the brook, and the steady flow of the water into the clean container. Then maybe a shot of a huge water tank being filled via a sawyer filter. I think it has potential. Maybe some shots of a hot, sweaty hiker, with an empty water bottle, coming to a stream, mixing the solutions, waiting 5 minutes, pouring them into a quart bottle, then watching the sun overhead as they sweat more and more, until the stuff is ready finally to drink. Then the same stream, another one comes up, looks at the first hiker curiously, filters his/her water, takes a long, refreshing drink, offers a swig to the hot sweaty hiker, chuckles, then leaves.

that would be like the intro short film clip, then the actual show would start.

I have to admit, I will never even contemplate using chemicals like this again, the numbers are staggering when you actually consider what is involved per gallon over time. Good job sawyer, I'd say they also get the actually green product (as opposed to green branded only in name) compared to the chemical and replacement filter alternatives award hands down here.

Jerry, I think sawyer recommends backflush every 4 to 5 days, and I tend to go at least that long, so a solution where I don't have to worry about that is a good solution, I don't like the syringe much, and I'm already carrying a female adapter plus tube, so it's just one more female adapter, easy fix.

By the way, bandanas to prefilter don't work at all, the weave is too dense. Need a mesh, screen.

[Andy Jarman]

Having Read a few of the dozens of threads on the topic of the Sawyer Squeeze filter, and having come into a supply of cheap ‘no-name’ brand squeeze bottles ($1 each from a local supermarket) I decided to see if I could do away with the need to carry the syringe backwash filter, and to make the package even lighter.

The backwash syringe weights about 33grams and whilst it is not VERY heavy it is one more object that you need to decide whether to take with you.

In this solution I have ‘mated’ two bottle lids on my no-name bags socket this will enable you to affix your clean water bottle to the outlet of the filter – thereby enabling you to back wash the filter using your clean squeeze bag without having to bring along a syringe.

These are the no-name brand of water bottle I am working from (from Kmart stores in Australia). They come in metallic pink (dirty water) and metallic blue (potable water), and contain about 0.5L. They also come with a nice little caribiner, always useful.

This picture shows me cutting off the pop-up sliding stopper on one lid, whilst being careful not to dmage the ‘nipple’ over which the sliding stopper slides.

I will cut both the pop-up ‘sliding stopper’ and the ‘nipple’ it slides over off the second bottle lid.

Between the two bottle tops in this picture is a piece of 13mm clear plastic tubing I found in a large hardware store’s irrigation supplies section for a dollar.

This very poor photograph shows the nipple stripped of its sliding stopper on the lid on the left, and a second lid with the nipple AND the sliding stopper removed on the right.

I have cut a piece of the clear tubing to the length of the retained nipple and placed it between the two modified lids.

Force the clear tubing over nipple, then force the nipple with its clear tubing collar into the hole in the second lid.

 
One of those special things that only comes from playing around with stuff has now happened. The nipple with its clear tubing collar has been forced through the hole left by cutting off the second lid’s nipple. The clear tubing collar has been forced through the hole and now forms a water seal between the two modified lids nd holds the two lids together in a vice like, waterproof grip!

I now carry a Sawyer filter with the original outlet cap removed and the backwash outlet screwed onto the filter in its place – no need for a syringe. I can backwash with every use of the filter if I wish AND save 24g and lose another bit of kit from my ditty bag.

The only drawback with this device is that I have lost the ability to plug the end of the water filter when it has a full dirty water bag screwed in place.

On reflection this is something I have never wanted to do, but the fact that Sawyer enable you to do this on the unadulterated filter they supply gives me the sense I have lost something in the functionality of the filter.

I could always bring along their outlet cap and only put the new backwash device on when the filter starts to clog – but then this looses some of the advantage of having one stand-alone piece of equipment.

This ‘apparent’ loss of function could be restored IF I could locate a length of threaded tubing that would join the original filter outlet cap with the new backwash filter outlet pipe.

[Sam Farrington]

You guys know so much about this filter, maybe you can help me out here.
The Sawyer Squeeze Filter unit seems to be the best thing out there; but the one thing I would miss with it is the ability to pump water out of small seeps and tiny pools. We get a fair amount of this in high elevations in the northern NH mountains where I like to backpack. There are great campsites at the higher elevations, but water is often very scarce up there. I've run into the same situation on the Continental Divide in Colorado also; so it is not just a sometime need.

Do you know if anyone has come up with a small pump arrangement to use with the Sawyer? My Walk-About weighs over half a pound, and is so yesterday, but I keep it just to be able pull water out of the seeps and to camp at high altitudes. Of course, it is always possible to carry several quarts of water up a mountain; but I try to avoid it whenever possible.

[Andy Jarman]

Samuel

Our rivers here in Western Australia are often polluted with dissolved salts and we generally drink from recent rain puddles or local springs and soaks. The Aboriginals lived of soaks they are called 'Gnammas' here, and it is a saying among our local Aboriginals that you are never more than a couple of hours walk from water- if you know where to dig.

The thing with the Sawyer is the floppy bags can't be used to collect the water, even from rivers or large pools, because they simply are too floppy to force under the surface.

I use a small PET mineral water bottle that I have crushed flat so that when I lie it in a puddle it lies flat against the bottom of the puddle.

The narrow screw top of the PET mineral water bottle is handy because it will screw onto the end of the sawyer squeeze should you want to drink straight from your scoop bottle, it is easy to hold your bandana over it to filter soak water as it is entering your scoop bottle, it packs tightly into your pack as a flat pack AND if you blow hard into it will pop open to give you almost the original volume of the bottle in its pre-crushed state.

PET is pretty tough and it takes a lot to crack it, try to keep the top and the bottom of the bottle free of deformities these are the areas that least like being crushed.

Personally I find it reassuring to have a couple of iodine tablets in my first aid kit as back up. Miraculous as the Sawyer squeeze is, I don't like relying on something as finely engineered as microporous voodoo fibre (or whatever it is inside that black tube) to get me home when I find myself in a tight spot! A bit like carrying a compass along with your GPS.

[Jerry Adams]

If you want a small pump arrangement, just get a filter with pump.

I have the bottom cut off a PET water bottle and use it as a scoop. It weighs 0.5 oz. I also put marks on it and use it as measurer. I can scoop water out of pretty shallow pool. Sometimes I'll excavate a hole, let silt settle, and then scoop.

[McDowell Crook]

Samuel,

To deal with very small pools of water, I carry a Guyot Designs squishy cup (the smallest one you see here: http://kk.org/cooltools/archives/3944) and use it to scoop water into my Evernew bag. Then I squeeze the water from my bag into my Platypus. The squishy cup is virtually indestructible, weighs 1.7 oz, and makes a great camp cup.

[Sam Farrington]

Thank you folks for your suggestions.
Jerry, I do have a pump filter – that was what "Walk-About" referred to. It was a Sweetwater product before they got bought out by a larger company.
I can set the collector/prefilter in less than an inch depth of water and pump away.
Maybe there is a tiny water pump out there somewhere that could be adapted to the Squeeze filter unit.

Daryl, please forgive me for deviating from the subject of your thread.

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