NEW Style Sawyer Water Bladders 1L and 2L

I don't see it on their site. Do they look different?

http://www.mountainlaureldesigns.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=200

They are new and not yet on the Sawyer site as stand alone products. We have them ready to ship now. Note that they have been shipping with some of the filters for a few months with no problems reported.

How can you tell the difference between the two? I just picked up a filter kit from REI and the weights of my bags are the same as the specs you posted on MLD and have the same printing too.

Dustin,

I would say ask and trust your supplier, they should know these things and that type of info is part of what you are paying for.

I did some google sleuthing instead of relying on a retailer and by looking at the old images on the Sawyer site the water pouches were a black design. The new ones you advertise seem to be all blue. Jon over at Hikelighter.com also seems to confirm the color change.

http://hikelighter.com/2013/01/20/sawyer-squeeze-updated-2013-version/

The ones I have from REI are also all blue and feel really robust with same weights. I hadn't had my morning coffee and missed the bit about coming with a filter. Mine did come packaged with a filter in a kit, they were NOT standalone products. So it looks like the new pouches have made it into some retailers but only when part of a filter kit and are not available separately anywhere but at MLD (or guaranteed new pouches without visual inspection by consumer for that matter).

For anyone else interested, the new pouches are blue. The old craptaculars are black.

EDIT: I did however get a 16oz, 32oz, and 64oz with my "Sawyer Plus" package, not just a single 1L bag.

EDIT 2: I also got an inline adapter kit for free with the "plus" kit. I know this used to be a separate item or required the full blown inline kit but came with my "plus." I'm not positive but so far I've only seen this new kit offered at REI. It's $50 for 3 sizes of bag (just check in store to make sure they're new but since this is a "new" package good chance they all use blue bags) and an inline adapter kit. That's a pretty good value option if you don't have the filter yet.

Thanks for the tip Dustin.

As far as I know- any filter with three bags and one of them is 16oz are the old bags.

My Evernew bag just arrived so it is obsolete before I even open it. Great. Just great.

I bought a Sawyer filter from REI 2 weeks ago.

It came with three blue bags, 64, 32, and 16oz. They look just like the ones in the picture at MLD.

These are not the new, improved bags, despite appearances?

Jeff,

They look the same and they weigh the same, both specs which were changed with the new iteration. I'd say they are the same. Ron couldn't visually tell the difference between the new and old despite a change in graphics but they also weigh differently. My 32oz weighs 28g which is in line with HikeLighter's result of 27.5g and similarly 5g more than the original bags. My 64oz weighs 37g. Mine weigh identically the same as what MLD lists the weight for the new bags.

I'm going to say that the blue bags are the new version. They are shipping with new kits, especially the "plus" kit at REI, although MLD is still the only retailer that is selling the bags individually, for those that want replacements (or just water containers in general).

Weigh yours to confirm but I wouldn't fret over it too much. Plus if you "roll" the bags rather than squeezing them, regardless of which version you own, you'll likely avoid most of the rupture issues that others experienced.

I also recently purchased a Sawyer (old bags) and two 2L evernew bags.

My plan is to use the two 2L evernew bags in the side pouches of my Circuit and then use a 1L Sawyer bag + filter to load them. I haven't used any of the equipment.

Has anyone used the new bags enough to form an option on them? I don't mind returning if there is a significant difference. However, I prefer having clear bags in my side pouches so that I can readily ascertain water levels.

Thanks.

I am confused, I went to order off backcountry.com, but their photos shows the old bags. So I emailed Sawyer customer service,

http://www.backcountry.com/sawyer-squeeze-water-filtration-system
Do you know if they are currently using your new (sturdier) 2013 bags?

here is the response:

The pouches are all the same, there just has been a graphics change.

Ah well, i'll just get mine at the local REI so I can see what I am buying. Sawyer CS needs to read BPL ;) .

Possibly they are waiting until the bulk of the old bags have been sold to advertise the new ones so there isn't a big pile of the older bags left sitting in their warehouses.

I have the old ones and have not had any problems. Are they springing leaks or bursting when too much pressure applied? I tend to be somewhat careful with how much pressure I apply.

Per Sawyer: The pouches are all the same, there just has been a graphics change.

Ok, as one of the guys that announced to the world that Sawyer had updated their bags I am just going to throw out my thoughts and insights into all of this…

I first received word about this claimed “update” from Ron Bell on Tuesday January 15, 2013 on the MLD facebook page. (ref).

Later that same day I checked in with my Sawyer Rep to ask about the bags, because I was rather surprised that Sawyer had actually made a change to the structure of their bags – even though they were catching all kinds of PR hell over them. My Sawyer Rep did not offer any indication that they bags had not been reinforced.

The next day I ordered up a new filter/bags from MLD and when it showed up I put it side by side to an old one, and put it onto my calibrated scale. There was a noticeable difference between the old bags, beyond just the pretty new graphic, so I pushed out my announcement.

Over the last six months I have not once had any of the two folks from Sawyer that I stay in contact with tell me that I falsely posted information about a newly reinforced bag.

I know there are a lot of folks out there being told by Sawyer that they bags are the same, just with a different graphic, but at the same time I am being told by folks at Sawyer that that is not the case.

Within 24 hours of my announcement being posted on my website of the updated bag, one of my Sawyer Reps contacted me and asked me if I would consider updating the article to include the necessity to backflush the filter. All I can say is that if within that short period of time of me posting it and them contacting me, if my information had been false and in error about the reinforced redesign, I just have to think that they would have told me. The fact that I have repeatedly asked if I am in error and they have never told me that I am, I just have to sit here and continue to ponder like the rest of you.

As I mentioned in my article:

From a weight perspective, here is what I have been able to gather from my calibrated scale:

Old water bag: 22.49

New Water bag: 27.50

So this is an increase of 5.01 grams (0.176 ounces) between the old bag and the new bag.

I gotta say, I find it crazy hard to believe that a simple new graphic could add 5 grams of weight between the old version and the new version – Remembering that in the end, both the old and the new had/have a “graphic” on *both* sides of the bag. Is blue ink all of a sudden 5 grams heavier than black ink?????

So, yeah folks, I have to just sit here and shrug my shoulders on all of this… I am as lost as all of you by the utter amount of inconsistency coming from Sawyer regarding all of this.

+John Abela

No Question, Yes, the newest Sawyer bags are quite tough.

I have handled many hundreds of all the bags, old and new, they have offered over the least two years and the newest ones are clearly superior in everyway to the old ones.

I consider them equal or better to any other similar bladder aviallable at that similar weight.

Consumers need to understand that a company is made up of R&D, Marketing, Sales, communications, Distributors, Finance and all kinds of functional organizations. I would image that Sawyer has a lot of inventory of the older style and yet these have a (by most peoples accounts) a design flaw. You solve the engineering problem with a re-design. What do you do about the old inventory? Somebody probably weighs out the balance between incoming revenue, tarnished reputation, returns and such to maximize revenue. Do you identify the re-design? Well, if you did, you would probably kill your sales on the original design (the one that you are over stocked in). So, you say that there is no difference and keep moving inventory. It is amazing to me that someone markets a product called the squeeze and then has the balls to tell a customer that they squeezed it wrong (voided warranty). I would guess that a vast majority of people ARE NOT backpackers and do not put these filters through the same rigors as BPL’ers. Good chances are that Sawyer is playing the odds on this.
Just wait, when the old inventory has been exhausted, expect to see a new marketing advertisement about the new and improved bag. That’s my 2 cents – Jon

I recently visited The Outpost of Holland that is in Holland, and one of Western Michigan's premiers "mom & pop" outdoor specialty retailers. I was told by a sales individual that a SAWYER Rep (I believe the SAWYER VIP had daughter that attended Hope College recently) visited them because they carry many SAWYER products, told him in his conversation, the new BLUE bags were different in material composition, graphics, weight and structurally improved around the cap. When I looked at one the store had attached to a filter it did seem to me that he was correct.

Maybe this is assumed but is anyone using these bladders as a primary drinking bladder (bladder that has a tube with a bite valve fixed to it)? If so what parts are you using as a drinking tube?

I currently use a MSR bladder and a platypus. I fill the platypus with water to be treated, run it through the frontier pro filter into my MSR bladder, then treat with aqua mira.

These sawyer bladders are a touch lighter than my platypus and a lot lighter than the MSR bladder. Thoughts on whether I could switch to these bladders?

Thanks!

I got the package with the "new" bags.

During my 4 day trip the large 64oz bag started to delaminate. The outer clear layer is peeling off and has separated from the other layers.

I can't tell if it's just cosmetic, or structural, either way it's bad design/manufacturing. I have use the bag 15-20 times since new, it shouldn't fall apart that fast.

My "new stronger" Sawyer 2L bag from MLD started delaminating in a similar way on the 3rd day of use. Didn't inspire much confidence.

I just blew out my 1 L Sawyer bag (the old version). But not the way other people are describing. I have found even the old ones to work fine for filtering as long as you roll them to squeeze water through the filter.

Instead, I was using one as a hot water bottle for a backpacking week in which I under sized my sleeping bag and needed extra warmth each night. After a several days of being nightly subjected to near boiling water, the bag delaminated around the opening. For comparison, the Platypus bags we were using for the same purpose held find despite the repeated loadings with near boiling water.