Sawyer Squeeze

Sonnie:

Would help to describe your preferences and what you want your filter to do. For example, how important is weight and bulk to you — versus cost or effectiveness or ease of use — that sort of thing. Also, which of the five things do you want your filter to do — or is it "all of the above"?

1. treat bacteria
2. treat protozoa (crypto, giardia, etc.)
3. treat viruses
4. clarify water – filtering out sediments, brown water…
5. improve water taste

Give it some thought and we can help narrow down. Otherwise, you'll just get a bunch of posts from people about their favs — which may not be yours.

or, you could google "sawyer squeeze site:backpackinglight.com"

or "sawyer mini site:backpackinglight.com"

summary: a lot of people think mini plugs up easier so squeeze is better, sawyer bags break, evernew bags are better, or my favorite is use PET soda bottle because it's much stronger and less likely to break

Ben,
Yea. All of the above. Effective and easy would be nice. Having not used any yet, I don't have much basis to compare or really know what I want/need. I realize I'll have to use it and test it out to see what works for me of course, but I have to start somewhere.

There's not really much to practice. fill a bag full of dirty(ish) water, run it through the filter and either pour it into your mouth or into a water bottle. Just be patient. I found that squeezing the bag really doesn't make it go much faster and your hands get tired.

"…squeezing the bag really doesn't make it go much faster and your hands get tired"

You are not supposed to squeeze the bag – folding its bottom and then rolling it like a rolltop closure is the correct technique to pump the "dirty" water into the filter, and is much less tiring.

I was pretty underwhelmed with the mini last summer. I've gone back to the Steripen but for trips where I would want the filter, I'd go back to the squeeze. Here's my setup for filtering:

Sawyer squeeze
2l Evernew bladder for carrying and filtering dirty water as there's a thread compatibility issue with the newer platypus bags
Mountain house food bag as water scoop
1l Aquafina bottle with smart water flip cap as primary drinking bottle
1l Gatorade bottle or empty peanut butter jar for mixing drinks, food prep, and extra water carrying capacity.

That gives me a total of 4L / 1 gallon carrying capacity which I use when dry camping from time to time.

I saw a few Sawyer bags fail this summer so I wouldn't pay extra for a Sawyer kit that has extra bags or use those bags at all when backpacking.

normal Squeeze for me too.

1.5L evernew, 2x 1L powerade bottles, 16oz Sawyer bag as backup in case something happens to the Evernew

sit down with powerade bottle between feet.. use sport bottle cap on Squeeze into the bottle. It fills faster than my old MSR pump and I can do it away from buggy water sources so i'm happy.

@ Sonnie, who wrote, “Yea. All of the above.”

Just to rehash the five things that a “do it all” system can do:

1. treat bacteria
2. treat protozoa (crypto, giardia, etc.)
3. treat viruses
4. clarify water – filtering out sediments, brown water…
5. improve water taste

Know that the Sawyer filter will NOT treat viruses, and it does NOTHING to improve water taste — where viruses might be a concern and wherever water tastes yucky.

A device that will do all the above reliably is the First Need purifier/filter. It is certainly not as cheap, light or compact as the Sawyer — but it is still “reasonably” light as compared to other quality filters — such as MSR Miniworks. The First Need also pumps faster than many of its competitors.

Some hikers would rather “cut corners” on #3 and #5 and settle for less intricate but lighter/cheaper filter options. You will have to decide on your preference / tolerance. Hope this helps.

I like the Sawyer Mini, but I'm quite willing to discuss it's limitations.

But first I'll talk about viruses. It's important to keep in mind that NONE of the common hiking filters will remove viruses. You need special stuff like the one Ben liked to, or Sawyer's PointZeroTWO (which is like the normal Sawyer but has smaller pores, and thus much slower flow), so this is not a criticism specific to the Mini. This is why many filters come with a small dropper bottle of a chemical- to appease their lawyers. Most people around here don't worry overmuch about viruses- human viruses aren't terribly common in the remote back country, and most of us seek remoteness. But they would clearly be a worry in more impacted areas. Because people suck, and they do stupid stuff like pooping too close to water sources, and hepatitis is no joke. Chemical purification works extremely well with viruses so it's easy to include a dropper bottle of bleach or something if you're worried. (But conversely, chemicals alone can be suboptimal for treating protozoans).

So, the Mini. It does have limitations, primarily flow rate. But it is very small and light, which means that it appeals to us gram weenies who are usually willing to accept a fiddly system. That said, most of the water sources I use don't have a lot of particulates and I have used the Mini in a gravity filter setup quite effectively- no squeezing needed. You just have to be patient. If your usual sources are like mine I suspect that it would work for you just fine. But if you're going to only carry one water bottle and plan to fill it half a dozen times a day then, yes, I'm sure this gets old. In that case you might consider something else.

I've heard that the Sawyer bag issues have been corrected, so you don't need to buy an Evernew to use instead. I have Sawyer bags and never had a rupture. But maybe I heard wrong.

Frankly, the full-sized Sawyer is still a very light option. I have long touted them, and this would avoid the flow rate problems; a gravity or in-line rig is more realistic with the full sized filter. They are awesome filters. Years ago I used to say that I was surprised that more people didn't use them. But then Sawyer marketed the Mini very aggressively, and now everyone does use them, but unfortunately lots of people who should have picked a more idiot-proof (ahem) system got them and are now loudly denigrating them everywhere, when in fact what they are complaining about are user errors. I also have read a lot of complaining about how careful you have to be not to let them freeze, when in fact you have to be careful not to let ANY filter freeze.

But then those are also probably the same people who are pooping next to water sources… :)

Ha ha! Oh my Dean! Great stuff!

OP,

The bags work for a lot of people so feel free to use them if you feel so inclined. What I can say is that on the Wonderland, I saw three of my hiking partner's Sawyer bags rupture and he hasn't had any issues with the Evernew bag I gave him. He is a Marine so take all that FWIW. My reommendation would be to take whatever money you would have spent on the upgraded package with extra Sawyer bags, and buy a 2L Evernew bag. It's superior to the Sawyer bags in just about every way. I'll go ahead and say that's a fact and not opinion.

I DO like to poop in rivers upstream from campers and my eyes are a lovely shade of yeller so…

I don't like the sawyer bags because they're opaque. I like clear bag so I can see any sedimentation. If there is, I avoid it going into filter. Leave maybe 10% of water with sedimentation in bag and then toss it.

If you're getting drinking water from area without viruses, there's no advantage to treating water for viruses. I avoid taking water downstream from Ian.

I can't believe that there's anything new to say about this on this, the 100th thread about Sawyer filters. (100 taken from thin air).

Plus one for sawyer regular, I didn't make any user errors with the mini but I won't take it again on any trip where I'm relying on a filter for most water, ie, no piped in water. As noted above, the mini is totally fine as a gravity or inline filter, it just flows too slowly no matter how perfectly you treat it for stop and fill water container on trail type filtering, but gravity I found it to be completely fine, it just gets boring waiting for it, I had no issues with flow in terms of clogging, just too slow. I'm putting the mini in the category of stupid light for my uses because I found myself carrying more water than normal to avoid stops to filter water, which makes it clearly stupid light since it caused me to carry more weight.

I'm going back to the regular, which I will also treat well.

Note that failure to use syringe then doing something like using a bag to force water through it will probably create a channel internally, sawyer warns explicitly about that, and once that channel is formed, I believe that's basically it for the filter.

I like the evernew bags, they are solid. Bending back and forth pet plastics in my experience forms bend lines which eventually crack, so I don't see any benefit from using those as dirty water bottles, the bags are fine. I wouldn't use a sawyer bag for dirty water/squeezing, but I do use their old .5 liter bag with the top cutoff as a scooop that wraps neatly around the squeeze body, so that's a fine use of it. They might also be good for very light water carrying bags as well I think, but I wouldn't use them to squeeze.

"Bending back and forth pet plastics in my experience forms bend lines which eventually crack"

I have been using PET bottles for many trips. There are some bend lines. After maybe 20 days of use, I just replace it.

To minimize bend lines, squeeze 1/4 of the bottle, unscrew filter enough to let air in, squeeze another 1/4,…

But, as always, many different techniques that work. That's what's so good about BPL. Maybe too many techniques? : )

BPL Search comes up with 1320 results for Sawyer Squeeze.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/search.html?q=sawyer+squeeze&x=15&y=10

Some familiarity with these filters was gained from working on a MYOG pump filter and contacting a BPLer who had posted frequently about experiences with them. The result was posted at: http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=99643

Nearly all of the many posts on this site talked about using the filter till it clogged wholly or partially, and then trying to remedy through backflushing. But as discussed on the above thread, by then it may be too late. Also, the many posts reveal very little about the condition of the water, or how it is collected. So it comes as no surprise that there are many problems with both the Mini and the Squeeze.

By far the most important use of a filter for me in the Rockies and North East is to avoid giardia and cryptosporidia. If concerned about vires or bacteria, there is boiling and iodine tablets, like Potable Aqua, that weigh next to nothing and are always carried in case of emergencies.

I'm going to try backflushing the filter every couple days, before there are any signs of clogging. That, and using a prefilter and care that the water used is not 'dirty,' but clear to the naked eye. Also, the filter will be backflushed before storage and kept moist during storage.

If the above is not reliable, it will be time to spend more for the Platy Gravityworks or one of the slightly heavier RapidPure filters that Roger Caffin wrote an article about here. But the Mini may work fine if used in the above manner. We'll see.

Is it possible to connect two soft bottles via Sawyer Mini and actually filter water on the go? Have anyone tried it?

"I'd like to get a Sawyer Squeeze, but not sure which setup?…Thoughts?"

Squeeze + Evernew bag + a couple of water bottles + a cutoff bottle for dipping and filling the Evernew bag is about as simple as it gets.

-You can add a "water tornado" for attaching the Squeeze to appropriate bottles(or Platypus/Evernew bags). It has to be cut or ground down on one side to fit the outlet of the filter, but also allows you to backflush without the syringe.
-You can also use a cutoff Sawyer(or Platypus/Evernew) bag with for dipping. Stores more compactly, since you can fold or roll it, but doesn't work as well as the water bottle, so it's a tradeoff.
-You can also use a fuel funnel with a screen to prefilter when filling the Evernew bag if the water you collect typically has a lot of crap floating in it.

Though I prefer the Squeeze, generally speaking, the Mini isn't bad for a solo hiker.
This is what I carry a lot of the time.

I like how the Mini, straw, and Evernew bag all fit in a cutoff 1L water bottle, and it all fits in a little stuff sack I had sitting around. I don't actually carry the screened funnel any more, because it's just one more thing to fool with.
btw, the Mini can be backflushed via the fliptop Smartwater bottles.

"Is it possible to connect two soft bottles via Sawyer Mini and actually filter water on the go? Have anyone tried it?"

I use a Platypus Hoser 3L as a dirty bag connected to the Sawyer Mini by about 3 feet of tubing. When I attached the Mini directly to the dirty bag it filtered 3 liters in about 10-12 minutes. Adding three feet between them increased the flow rate to 3 liters in 4-5 minutes. Otherwise my setup is almost identical to this:

http://whatsinyourpack.com/my-sawyer-squeeze-mini-setup/

–Charles

So what we're all trying to say is: If you use a filter that doesn't remove viruses like the standard Squeeze or Mini, and you poop upstream of campsites, make sure your trip takes you upstream rather than downstream.

:-)