Aquastar vs. Steripen

Last year we did a 9 day hike of the High Sierra Trail, we had two of the original Steripens. Mine failed after 4 days but my friend's did not. If moisture gets inside the glass chamber it will not work. I contacted Steripen and they were aware of the problem, they said their newer Steripen (the Adventurer) is made to prevent that problem. I am doing a 16 day hike this year, and the two of us are both taking these newer Steripens with us. We are also taking chemical pills as backup in case of failure. The advantage of Steripen is that there is no chemical taste imparted to the water, it is light, and there is no clogging effect (a problem we have had with water filters in the past).

just to further confuse & dismay you, Aquastar will be coming out with a drop-in UV unit that doesn't necessarily have to be used with a Nalgene. no idea what the price will be. backpackgeartest is reviewing it, here's the URL:

http://www.backpackgeartest.org/reviews/Water%20Treatment/Ultraviolet/Meridian%20Design%20mUV%20Treatment%20Device/

Thank you for the lead Colleen. I just read the initial Backpackgeartest.org reviews for the mUV and think that it may be a better choice than the existing Aquastar or the SteriPen Adventurer. Of course that depends on when it will come out. Aquastar has no information about the mUV on its website.

Sherpa Chris

One of the 2 gentlemen at Aquastar told me this unit should be available in August and that the retail price was going to be $49. I told him I was VERY interested and he promised to email me when it was available. Very nice guy. I hope the mUV turns out to be as good as I think it might. It should fit the bill nicely for high country trips in Colorado.

In the initial Backpackgeartest.org reviews for the mUV, two out of the three devices failed. I'm thinking they still have some bugs to work out.

I'm one of the BGT testers and mine failed after I'd had it a week or so. In all fairness it was a preproduction unit that proved to have a failed solder joint. The replacement is working like a champ.

I could say more, but you'll just have to watch for the field report ;-)

>I'm one of the BGT testers and mine failed

With all due respect Rick, one would expect that a pre-production unit being sent out for evaluation would have been assembled by top technicians and thoroughly QC'd before being sent out. Solder joints fail because of poor workmanship or design…ie: cold joint, no strain relief.

Two out of three failed during initial evaluations… not good numbers.

quite interested in this if it works well and the cost is what has been advertized….$45. I use a Steripen and it works like a champ, though it is quite expensive for water treatment

We got the Adventurer for our two week long Middle Fork of the Salmon/Sawtooth hikes. The unit performed very well though the battery life was shorter than I expected (about twenty-five, 32 liter treatments with Duracell Ultra batteries at $14 for a pair).

The top closure failed as the screw was not quite long enough to hold the top on. A duct tape repair fixed this. REI happily exchanged the failed unit for a new upon our return.

We carried much less water with the Adventurer. Since water was the heaviest component in our packs, we were able to reduce our weight considerably.

And no one got ill!

Thanks for the input. I wonder if Lithium CR123 batteries might be okay for the Adventurer. I am going to do a 17 day hike with the Adventurer this year. Last year, we used the original Steripen and one of the 2 units (we each had one apiece) failed after 4 days because it got condensation inside the chamber. Steripen said the Adventurer is much more waterproof than the classic Steripen so I'm willing to give them another try. So 25 – 32 ounces or close to 6 gallons of water. I heard at REI today they heard of one unit only getting 5 gallons of water purified per battery use and wondered if it was an abberation. I'm thinking of using 6 batteries (2 of the 6 inside the unit) for the first 7 days of the hike (we get resupplied after 7 days) and carrying 8 batteries for the last 9 days. Do you think that is adequate?

Ps, tell me how you used the Adventurer — did you just stir it upside down inside a Nalgene 32 oz bottle? Last year, we had the Steripen pre-filter which only works with the Classic Steripen.

If I were to do it again, I would consider the solar charger option. The Adventurer handled our water needs for 4 people over 5 days (then we switched to tablets (yuck) when the batteries ran out).

We just did the Nalgene/stir thing. All of our water was clear before we steripened (new verb) it.

Fascinating! Alas, it's still not small enough to use with my narrow-mouth Platypus. Hopefully, once they mastered the current version, they'll come up with a skinnier/longer version that will fit right through the platy!

my steripen is white with blue accents, unsure of the exact type. Says it does 1 liter per usage. I have used it exclusively with 1 liter platypus bottles. Only used it for weekends so far so I can not really comment on battery life.

I can plug it in the opening and hold the platypus upside down with almost no leakage — just some minor seam bubbles.