Any lightweight bladders with a wide mouth opening?

Have you weighed the zip lock mechanism? I suspect that is the majority of the weight of the 2 liter Platy bag.

You could cut the top off of a 1 liter Platy bottle and use that as a scoop to fill the Sawyer bottle or the SmartWater bottle. My old 1 liter Play bottle weighs 0.75 oz without its lid.  Backpackers Pantry sometimes offers a 3 liter “pack bowl” that could serve as a scoop but it weighs over 1 oz.

Funny you should say that…I was using a 0.4oz cut Platy bag to scoop and fill my Sawyer bladder…still really a pain IMO.

Maybe instead of the zipper, I can just fold the top over and pinch it closed…I’d have to look into lightweight chip clip style mechanisms…

Zack, why not try a gravity system for the side of your backpack using the Sawyer mini and a 1.0 or 0.7L bladder? It only takes 10-20 seconds to fill the bladder with dirty water and fit the gravity system to your pack, then you can let it filter hands-free while hiking. Filter speed becomes irrelevant because you’re filtering while hiking. Here’s a photo of my system, which worked perfectly on a 2 week JMT section hike this month:

“Any lightweight bladders with a wide mouth opening”

I think I qualify but I’m not sure this is the right forum to discuss it.

The real problem is that the Sawyer filters are just far too slow. Try a RapidPure
or a Steripen such as https://backpackinglight.com/steripen-classic-3-review-caffin/

Cheers

I do not know of any lighter weight than the Platypus (Big Zip). Another alternative method that I use is:

1 – 700ml smart water bottle with flip top (serves as my quick access clean bottle and the filter backflush bottle.

1 – 2L platypus bottle, serves as the dirty bottle

1 – Cut  plastic bottle bottom used to fill the 2L Platypus

1 – Saywer (the medium size I guess)

I only filter into the clean bottle the rest when I need to carry it just stays in the dirty platy (when I need more water I filter it our then (which is generally when I’m cooking dinner or breakfast). It takes maybe 60 seconds to both fill and filter into the 700ml bottle at a water stop and the complete weight for the system is 5.62oz.

-Michael

Nalgene Cantene widemouth bottles are fairly light (three sizes, 32oz size = 62g), and can be lightened a bit more with careful trimming. It’s a rugged option that works well with a Steripen, and could be adapted to other systems by adding a hose barb to the lid.

http://www.nalgene.com/travel-and-home/

Definitely an interesting approach.

Is it critical that the dirty bag have the hose coming out at 90 deg? Is this something to do with sediment?

Because I could potentially use the 2L Platy bottle (1.1 oz), and cut the bottom off, and use a cap adapter:

A lot of companies are trying to do this type of closure…but they’re all pretty heavy:

And realistically, this is probably the lightest option:

I used to use a hydration bladder with hose…but my BPL Absaroka pack didn’t have an opening, so I transitioned to using dual 1L Smartwater bottles, in the side pouches.

After I switched to the Z-Packs Arc Blast, I kept the bottles even though there is a port for a bladder hose.

The issue I have with them is that it’s so difficult to clean the only lightweight option: Platy Hoser. And I have to take it out of the pack to get new water (shifting my pack contents around and opening the roll top closure). And it would limit me to 2L, where as with 2 bottles and the bladder, I could technically carry 4L if I wanted to. And it’s harder to fill up, and almost impossible to clean.

So, what I currently prefer is I set my pack down, and pull out the mesh ditty bag with the Platy kit, scoop up 2L of water, zip the lid and hang it, then simply pop the rubber adapter into the tops of each of my 2 1L water bottles, giving me 2L of filtered water in just a couple minutes. I pack it back up and stow it in the external pack pouch and go. This makes water stops very short and painless.

Granted, I have to pull the bottles out and drink out of them while walking. Which, if I’m using my trekking poles means that my hands are pretty full. But it seems to work fine for me.

In my gravity setup I use a repurposed and stripped down 2L Big Zip as a dirty bag that weighs 2.04 oz after removing everything you don’t need which includes the big blue plastic sliding clip  Total system weight is 5.5 oz. See this thread for details and several clever DIY gravity setups from other BPLers.

And yes, the hose not exiting directly out the bottom allows sediment to collect below the output hose connection.

I’m playing around with the Katadyn BeFree filter with a Hydrapak 2L Seeker as my dirty water reservoir.  I will also use a 1L aquafina bottle as my clean water bottle.

I was not happy with the flow rate of the Sawyer Mini, and I was not happy with the weight of my Sawyer Mini gravity setup.  I was also not happy with the small opening on the sawyer water bags.

The hydrapak seeker has a larger opening which will make fill up slightly easier, and the BeFree flows faster and weighs less than the Sawyer Mini.  Lifespan is shorter though, and there is yet some question on how quickly the BeFree clogs up and may not recover its initial quick flow rate.

The dirty side of the Befree threads only into the Seeker water bags (1L, 2L or 3L) and a few of Hydrapaks other smaller bottles.  The 750ml Softflask threading is a softer plastic and does not seem to work really well with the Befree without leakage through the threading.

The clean side of the Befree is standard water bottle threading, so it would be compatible with some of the sawyer fittings.  It comes with something like a standard Smartwater flip top cap that can be easily removed and replaced with a Sawyer tube fitting so you could easily convert this to a gravity setup with a sawyer tube fitting and a length of tube.

Just another option.  The 2L seeker with a dry Befree filter weighs in at 2.9oz.

If you are keen to keep a bladder hose method then the “Hoser” with a cut cup is the lightest option. Still its heavier than the method I describe (my kit is inclusive of drinking vessel) and less convenient in some ways (cleaning the filter is more of a pain. Having said that I have a Hoser set up as well as the hybrid bottle setup I described earlier. I would use either depending on the type of trip. For short weekend trips the Hoser works fine and its what I typically will use on bikepacking trips as its much lighter then having to have all the bottle cage mounts though a tad less convenient as I have to dump the contents of the frame bag everytime I need to fill up.

Where can I find a lightweight mesh ditty bag to carry the kit in? I prefer to keep it in the mesh pocket on the outside of my backpack, which means I Want to keep it all together and allow for it to potentially air dry as I hike.

Or do you recommend rubber bands or cord to keep it all together?

Lot of options out there

I took a look at the RapidPure. It’s 2.7 oz for the smallest option which claims 1.2L/min filter rate.

The Platypus GravityWorks is 3.3 oz for a claimed rate of 1.75L/min

I’m not sure 0.6oz is a significant enough weight loss to necessitate switching. Are there any other gravity filters out there?

MSR: same as Platypus?

Not necessarily gravity filters but:

Sawyer Squeeze is 2.7 oz for a claimed rate of ??

Sawyer Mini is 1.6 oz for a claimed rate of ??

I took some things apart and weighed them:

a 7 oz kit:

3.3 Platypus filter
1.5 long hose
1.3 Platypus 2L Platy bottle w/o cap
0.15 Platy cap with hose barb
0.25 short hose
0.4 rubber bottle adapter
0.2 lightweight mesh carry bag

Missing: no hose lock to cut off flow, no cord to hang it, no device to pinch the top closed.

The idea here would be to take my Hoser bladder kit, and cut the top off so I can scoop water, but leave enough so I can fold it over for carrying. I’m not sure yet how I would pinch it closed or if I need to do that at all. Then attach the right angle barb with cap and a short hose to the platy filter, then a long hose to a bottle adapter to my smartwater bottle. I could skip the bottle adapter if I’m willing to risk spilling or contamination.

I could leave the whole kit connected, roll it all up and put it in the ditty bag. The only question is whether I need to protect the clean end in some way from cross contamination. Also, I would want to attach some cord for hanging and/or carrying. I also didn’t include a hose crimp lock because the one that came with it is heavy. I still need to consider this. I may just fold it to pinch the flow off and put a rubber band around it. Otherwise if there is a lighter weight hose clamp I could use that instead.

One 2L scoop of water will fill both my 1L bottles. The system also lets you backflush with no extra components.

Alright, this is where I’m at right now:

I would use this in-pack and just pull through the filter as I go. It would certainly save me some weight. But trying to fill that tiny cap with creek water and then trying to clean the bag out later sounds like a nightmare to me and doesn’t account for silt.

So, for now, this is what I did:

Total weight is 6.0 oz without the scoop bag (and 6.4 oz with it)

Sawyer mini only saves me 0.4 oz over the Platypus with rubber end caps removed.

If I add in my two 1L Smartwater bottles, that’s an additional 3oz for my water setup.

I decided not to cut my Platypus Hoser bladder, as the weight savings was about 0.5oz and it would be without a zipper, and no easy way to install cord for hanging.

I still need to add spectra cord to my kit for hanging or carrying from the creek to camp.

My current “work process” is: stop at creek, take pack off, grab mesh bag out of outside mesh pocket and remove the dirty bag using the quick disconnect, scoop 2L into the dirty bag, zip and walk back to my pack.

Then hang it on a tree branch or just hold it or put it over my shoulder. Snap in the quick disconnect and put the rubber stopper into the first 1L bottle, un-pinch the hose and go. When full, pinch the hose and switch to the second bottle. Twist caps on bottles and stash in pack pockets.

Then dump any remaining water, roll up the kit and stash in the mesh sack and put back in the mesh pocket of my pack.

It’s definitely a fast and easy setup. If I don’t need 2L in-between water breaks, I will just have a slightly unbalanced pack. Or I can do 0.5L per bottle. The water bottle stopper makes it a virtually hands-free event unless I need to hold up the dirty bag. I have no fear of contamination falling into my water bottle or having it tip over and spill.

Hi Zack

Your system seems to add up to ~180 g. My Steripen Classic3 with batteries weighs ~140 g. Interesting.

Cheers

Hi Roger, I haven’t used a steripen in many years. I wouldn’t mind a new one for international travel.

For me, I realize that my impatience, and desire to drink out of water bottles does impact my total weight for this kit. I wanted ease of filling, because I fought tiny little spouts on the Sawyer squeeze bottles a few times and called it quits.

And I do like to add electrolytes to my water bottles, or sometimes green tea extract. And I’ve been experimenting with protein shake breakfasts in the bottle…still not sure about that one. Quite a challenge to get the powder into the bottle and then it tends to stay “flavored” and look cloudy for a couple refills.

Batteries can be heavy and I tend to use the high quality rechargeable ones. I’m considering dropping my GPS with extra batteries and relying solely on my phone + charger. I haven’t been able to get away from carrying spare batteries for my headlamp though…

I love my Steripen. BUT on my recent week long trip it died on day two and I was left with my backup Aqua Mira which ran out fortunately only on the last night.

Now I’ll probably go back to a filter as much as I don’t usually need to filter water from most sources in the Sierra where I hike. I have a collection of Sawyers and a Platypus filters in various rigs.

What Mike said. BeFree filter, Hydrapak seeker bottle, a Tornado Tube and a little cord and you have a very light, very fast, very flexible system. Drink from the bottle if you want, or hang it up and let it drip (very quickly) into a clean Playtypus. The tube weighs 14 grams (or half an ounce) which is a lot lighter than a typical connection system (and doesn’t have the issues with pulling out).

Can you explain how the tornado tube converts a sip drinking filter into a gravity filter?

Read a few mentions of the RapidPure filter

I have a RapidPure Scout 1.9L/min.

It’s absolute garbage.

Even new when filtering tap water i don’t get anywhere near 1.9L/min, after 2 litres of river water it blocked up almost completely, i left 2 litres to gravity filter while i did camp duties, 1 hour later maybe 100ml had filtered.

My brother was using the Platy filter and it was filtering 2 litres in a few mins.

Sadly it’s not just the filtering performance of the RapidPure that’s the problem, the cover is also junk, it comes apart if you knock it.

I ended up having to put tape around the cover.

Other thing i don’t like is that it holds a fair amount of water, so if you’re filling your “clean” water bag to the brim you HAVE to then blow all the water out of the filter otherwise it gets heavy.

Both the Sawyer and the Platy filters are light years faster, better made, more reliable, cheaper and lighter.

The RapidPure filters are absolute junk.

Hi Mark

That’s very odd, and completely opposite to our review of the RapidPure filters. We found they worked much faster than the Sawyers – consistently.

Have you been back to the company to ask what went wrong? If not, why not?

Cheers

Hi Roger,

Pains me to say it, but that “review” is not worth the kb of space it takes up on a server.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say there are statements that rate as downright lies, but the entire review paints any negatives as inconsequential to the point of being deceitful.

There is no mention of the poor quality of the filter housing in that “review” and how it’s closing/latch system is about as effective as a sieve dam.

Mine opened on it’s own several times, each time dumping dirty non filtered water into my rucksack, i have spoken with 3 more Rapidpure users and they all have exactly the same problem.

So we have a known fundamental design flaw, but not one mention of it in the “review”

Where is the mention of the water that stays inside the filter?

Again a fundamental design flaw for those of us that want to save weight, again it’s glossed over.

The water left inside the filter is even worse because to use the filter backpacking you really have no choice but to tape the filter assembly closed.

I’ve tried leaving to drip out, i even blew down the dirty end, still it stays in the filter.

My other problem with the “review” that even when the writer admits it’s throughput was slowed dramatically, they then try and gloss over it by stating “My tap water has a small amount of very fine algae in it” as if that makes it all ok again.

We’re all interested in buying a filter for outdoors use here, a bit of algae from tap water is pretty much a best case scenario for most of use as far as water quality goes.

Where are the real world hiking results?

Where are the long term results?

Putting a few litres of home tap water through a filter is absolutely pointless and to my mind reads more like an advertisement and sales pitch rather than a actual useful review.

Sorry to have to say all that, but i based my buying decision on your recommendation, i did not have access to the sites reviews then so couldn’t read it all, needless to say i’m very disappointed a feel that i’ve been recommended a filter simply because it was sent to the tester FOC.

In my mind the integrity of the site and ‘the usefulness of it’s reviews takes a massive hit when sales pitches like that are posted and labelled as reviews.

In real world use the filter slows down to the point of being useless after as little as 10 litres.

I’ve tried 2 different filters and both were exactly the same.

I have not spoken with Rapidpure as the problems i had with the filter are fundamental flaws in the design and build of the filter, unless they completely redesign the filter housing and filter media there is no way it’s going to be any use long term.

Plus i really do not want to deal with a company that is so deceitful in it’s marketing.

My filter was sold as the “1.9 litre/min” yet even on the first use with good clean tap water i saw nothing like that sort of throughput, after 10 litres i wasn’t even seeing 1.9ml/min never mind litres.

I’m usually happy to try and give companies feedback if i think it would be useful, in this case if they sent me a free replacement i wouldn’t even walk to the post office to collect it, as unless there is a fundamental redesign of the entire filter it’s of absolutely no use to me.

Cheers

Mark