Good lightweight bottle for Steripen use

[Roger Caffin]

@Doug: Going cookless – OK, but also coffee-less? Horrors!

@Ken: the only water stop for us is in the evening. We normally carry a 1.25 L PET water bottle between us (2) for the day. But then, we have stopped bothering about treating the water when up in the mountains anyhow. We don’t travel in agricultural lands around here.

Yes, a reflective Mylar bag would improve things.

Cheers

[BlackHatGuy]

“OK, but also coffee-less? Horrors!”

Cold coffee is a thing. People pay for it around here!

[Ken Thompson]

Good thing there is no one right way.

[Eric Blumensaadt]

I just use a bike bottle that fits in the bottle pouch of my Seek Outside “wet rib” front pouch.

This bottle is mainly for my electrolyte drink. I use Cytomax powder.

[Dondo .]

Like David, I prefer to drink at the source and carry little, if any, water in between.  A  Nalgene HDPE 16 oz. wide mouth bottle works for me.  It’s easy to dip, stir with the Adventurer, and drink, all without taking off my pack.  At  2.4 oz.(with the tether cut off), it’s 0.7 oz heavier than the plastic peanut bottle I tried, but the cap/bottle connection is more reliably waterproof.

[Dale Wambaugh]

Plastic mayonnaise or peanut butter jars work.

[Shelley C]

OK just to show my ignorance. . .  I don’t understand what a “cut down platy” is.

 I use a cut-down Platy bottle as well, like Doug. I keep it handy when I hike so I can use it as a “scoop” in shallow water sources, so it serves as a multiple-use item.

Don’t they have small bottle openings?  Are you talking about a Big Zip? (heavy and why cut down).

Please a picture or explanation

 

[Link .]

. HERE is a picture, although this is a picture of a cut-down Nalgene bladder it is the same idea, you just cut the top off.

[James Marco]

Well, I would sell the Freedom and get an Opti. You get about two weeks on a single set of batteries and it works with a standard Gatoraid bottle. I used to pick up wide mouth 1L bottles but that was changed a few years ago, sorry.

[Greg Mihalik]

^^^

How many liters are in two weeks?

[Greg Mihalik]

Shelly –

“Don’t they have small bottle openings?”

Yes, they do. And so do 1 liter bottles.  Bladders are difficult to submerge and fill. One liter bottles can be difficult if a stream is shallow.  So having a dipper of some sort to gather water and then pour into a small mouth is helpful.

If you are a SteriPEN user you need to purify with a swirling action to expose all of the water to the UV, and that is easy to do in a “cut down platy” before pouring into your bottle/bladder.

[Ben C]

That peanut jar looks like the ticket, Greg.  Just the kind of solution I was hoping to find.  Now to make the trip to Wal-Mart…..ugh.

[Shelley C]

AAhh…  get it!  Thanks Link and Greg

[Greg Mihalik]

^^^

Just back from a two night trip.  As mentioned above, the lid leaks badly after a few uses.

It needs some sort of food grade tape to form a gasket on the inside of the lid.

Or a mayo lid that fits the peanut bottle.

The search is on.

[Roger Caffin]

The Opti is very good, but it uses special batteries. The Classic3 is almost the same but it uses four Lithium AA batteries. Frankly, I think they should have started with the 4 lithium AAs rather than using those other batteries.

(Yes, I have both, plus an original Adventurer.)

Cheers

[Greg Mihalik]

^^^

What makes the Opti better than others? IYHO.

[James Marco]

Greg, I get about 42-45L in two weeks out. This does NOT include coffee, cocoa in the morning, nor cocoa and whatever at night. Cooking usually means boiled water…about 3/4L in the morning and another 3/4L at night. I’ve cut back a lot in the past couple years, from about four cups to two(mornings) and plain cocoa (only one cup) at night instead of two. Anyway, this is around a total of about 4.5L/day. ‘Corse, I always carry the S’pen in my pocket for warmth, and, flip a battery around.

Try a canning jar seal (the old flat rubber ones.) They work pretty well on larger lids. You can cut them down if needed.

The Opti fits into the Gatoraid bottles and will do a half liter at a time. With full batteries, it will last two weeks…about my limit as I get older.

I have had all three, also. The Classic is too heavy, but lasts a LONG time. The old Adventurer worked OK, but some waters require a pinch of salt to make the contacts work right, and, they require the old style large caps to fit into because they have a different profile. The Adventurer Opti has a little smaller profile and fits into the new standard Gatoraid bottle and is more efficient with batteries. (I think the switch required around 90-120ma, the new opti requires around 45-50ma. I always flip one battery, so it really doesn’t matter to me.) It also runs old batteries as a flashlight for an hour or more even after they no longer run the UV. It doesn’t make me carry dead batteries for miles as I head out, because they still are useful.

[Roger Caffin]

We have reviews of four models of the Steripen here at BPL. They are fairly comprehensive. Dare I suggest that they are worth reading? OK, I wrote them. :)

https://backpackinglight.com/steripen_adventurer_review/
https://backpackinglight.com/steripen_opti_review/
https://backpackinglight.com/steripen-classic-3-review-caffin/
https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/steripen-quantum-uv-water-treatment-system-roger-caffin/

The sequence represents the evolution of the Steripen, with a lot of help from customer feedback.
The Adventurer worked very well but initially suffered from poor battery life while not in use. That was a design error and it was fixed. The updated unit works fine, except with very pure snow-melt water (too non-conductive).
The Opti improved the off-state battery life and changed the water sensor to handle snow melt. It uses the CR123 batteries. It is a fine unit, although it has a myriad of LED diagnostic codes which few will ever remember.
The Classic3 simplified the user interface and changed batteries to 4 off Lithium AA cells. If I am to take a Steripen into the field, it will be this one.
The Quantum uses a modified Classic3 (different timing) and adds a large tough plastic bag with an aluminium lining, seriously increasing the treatment efficiency. However, for a single user the added weight of the bag is too high. They had to make the bag super-tough to withstand the loving care it is likely to get from the unwashed masses. That said, if you have to treat water for a group of 4 or more, this becomes a very good option.

Cheers

[Roger Caffin]

For sealing bottle caps: I have found O-rings are excellent. They come in a huge range of sizes.

Cheers

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