Any reason why people are not using this 1oz water filter setup?

[YoPrawn]

Three years ago I purchased this water filter setup that only weighs 1 ounce. What I did was took a Aquamira Frontier Pro (GRN Line III bacteria rated) water filter and used only the filter and the pre-filter. The rest is just a giant fancy plastic mouthpiece, in a way. I don’t cook and don’t need to use large volumes of water in short periods of time, so the flow rate has been fine for me, just drinking water.

The Frontier Pro Filter kit comes with felt pre-filters that squeeze into the pre-filter screw-on section. I find this system to be a lot more robust and less leak prone than the Sawyer Squeeze systems I have. I also carry one used filter and a backup, fresh new one. Since the pre-filter can be swapped, the total weight of two filters in less than 2 ounces.

They screw onto Smartwater and Essentia bottles perfectly. I just crack it open a bit to burp the air.

Now, I can’t possibly be the first person to do this exact same thing, so why hasn’t it caught on at all? Is it because this filter had a bad reputation of lower filtering quality back in the day? Isn’t this addressed with the new filters? I would think UL backpackers would be all over such a light and compact system.

I can get new filter cartridges for around $15 each.

[Alex Wallace]

I tried it a few years ago and found the flow rate too slow for my needs. Also, I didn’t like that I would need to replace it 1-2 times a season. “Certified filtration for 50 gallons (over 180 L).”

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

On sale for ~$24 and rate to 50 gallons ~50 cents/gallon.

Squeeze ~$30 for 100,000 gallons seems a lot more cost effective and less of a bother

Is the 2 oz savings worth it?  Maybe to some, but not for me.  My 2 cents.

[Bruce Tolley]

If you search the postings on BPL before the Sawyer squeeze came out you’d find that a lot of folks were using Aquamira Frontier Pro products.  The company lost the market to a superior product from Sawyer.

BTW if you upgrade to the Backcountry Plus, you’d get a product specified at 1000 gallons

[YoPrawn]

The initial unit is more costly but the filters themselves are $15. They also have a bit of an activated carbon filtering component to them as well, but probably not enough to matter much?

I can see why people are turned off by the price. I personally find them far less bulky and less finicky than the Sawyer Squeezes, for which I have the mini and the regular models. They are a nice size for putting in one’s pocket to keep warm in freezing temps.

At $15 it’s 30 cents a gallon if you stop using it at 50 gallons. Much less than any bottled water or even R.O. water from vending machines. Now, I am not sure if that 50 gallon rating is for bacteria removal or the life of the activated carbon function? Anyone know the answer to that?

Anyone here know if the 50 gallon rating means it must stop being used at that point, or can it be backflushed and continued using? I don’t use filters often, and even then the water in my area is usually pretty clean and doesn’t clog things up.

[Sam Farrington]

If weight were the prime consideration, suppose a tablet would be best.  Carry a few anyway as a back-up.  The reasons why I’m willing to carry almost 7oz were noted here:

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/99643/

They included:  “A pump filter can save a lot of fooling around with filling and compressing water bags, and can lift water from shallow springs, or from the surface of pools without disturbing algae, silt and other stuff that can gum up the works.”

In short, water sources can be problematic, and certainly not given to transferring water to a bag for gravity flow.  The filtered water is fresh, with no cooties as in a UV set up.  The MYOG pump filter will suck just about anything, and is very fast.  I do use a tiny prefilter in the water source though.  The fresh water goes right from the pump into a Ti coffee pot that holds enough for a meal for three (one human, two dogs).

After a long day of hiking, the dogs and I enjoy sitting by a water source to collect water.  The have their own built-in pumps, so can do some serious slurping while I’m pumping for a couple minutes.

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