Not sure that I understand Ryan hating so strongly on older bottle filters.
For the last few years I’ve used the Seychelle filter bottle (known as the TravelTap in the UK).
It’s based on a squeezable, wide-mouthed bottle. Through-flow is fine (only a gentle squeeze required). It’s been tested in great depth by the UK army and a number of other agencies and always gets a high score. No need for backflushing, and I’ve had no problems with clogging. Reasonable price and long filter life, with gradual automatic shutoff at end of life.
The flow on the new Katadyn looks a bit better, but it only works with a small range of narrow-mouthed soft bottles.
The Seychelle is easy to fill from pretty much any source |(and I can hang it from my walking pole to reach down steep banks). I don’t need to worry about dirty and clean storage. If water is plentiful I just fill the bottle directly and drink from it. If i have to carry extra, I decant it from the bladder into the filter and drink. Ditto for cooking water.
It’s acceptably light, with no waiting around, no pumping, no ingestion of chemicals, no electronics to fail. An excellent solution for a solo walker. The Katadyn looks to have somewhat better flow. But although the bottle is lighter the narrow mouth makes it harder to use. If it’s an improvement it’s fairly marginal – so what’s with all the excitement? Am I missing something?
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