I have the Sawyer Squeeze and added a simple MYOG pre-filter from a circle of gold coffee filter mesh placed under the washer on the dirty end. Many discussions of that idea on BPL and elsewhere on the Net. I found that works well for catching the bigger floaties and leaving the filter membrane to do its job on the smaller stuff.
I recently got the Mini, which I really like, but it has a different design on both ends, the input/dirty end being the relevant issue here — it now has a stub of a tube sticking out where the dirty water goes in:
I know I could re-create the same pre-filter idea I made for the Squeeze by using tubing and an adapter on the Mini, but I got the Mini to save an ounce or two so don't want to be adding materials back in, and my hope is to screw the Mini directly onto my drinking bottle such as a SmartWater. So, I needed a new idea for a pre-filter. Web search came up empty. Here is what I came up with. Basically, I created a small "basket" out of the mesh to fit over the tube input of the dirty end and used a short piece of tubing to hold it in place.
I cut out a small sticky dot that is roughly the size of the input tube, to use as a guide to make sure I didn't cut too deeply into the mesh:
Then I cut "fins" in the mesh so that it can fold over the top of the input tube (this is what the sticky dot is for):
Next I molded the little starfish of mesh over the tubing. When you do this, be sure it is centered so that none of the cuts reach over the top (or that will leave an opening for water to bypass the pre-filter). Also, when you fold down the fins it will create little "corners" in the mesh, use your fingernail or perhaps the side of the SAK housing to mash those flat so that you end up with as circular as possible of a basket of mesh:
Then I took my tubing and carefully but forcefully pushed it over the input tube and mesh basket. Before I did this I boiled some water, let it cool a minute, and swished my tubing in it to soften it up, that really helped to get it on:
To finish I trimmed the tubing down:
Since the Sawyer's input tube sticks into the bottle I want this to be as short as possible because when I turn the bottle up to drink through the filter the water in the bottle can only go into the filter from the level of the end of the tubing, so the longer the tubing the less of the water in the bottle you will be able to get through the filter.
I have not seen any other pre-filter mods for the Sawyer Mini, has anyone else come up with something? Please share, if you have a better idea I would be glad to scrap this and copy yours.
