Sawyer filter and powder drinks

It will clog and the sugar will grow mold is my thinking. Never tried it because it sounds like a bad idea.

Edit: Learned something new. It guess the key is make sure it is well mixed.stiil sounds weird to do though.

That’s what I figured, just not what I wanted to hear.

Just take a water bottle for the mixed drinks.

So you mean you’re adding drink mix to dirty water?  Doesn’t sound good.

If you already have potable water in your bladder and want to add drink mix to drink with your bite-valve/hose, then you should cut in a couple quick release connectors before and after the filter.  That way you can just connect/disconnect your filter into the line as needed.

Chris,

Actually, I was told from a Sawyer rep at REI years ago that it is possible to mix Gatoraid powder to water and then to run it through the Sawyer filter.

His reasoning was that the powder would be dissolved at the molecular level and would be small enough to pass through the pores in the hollow tubes that make up the filter material.

This shocked me, but kinda makes sense.

The Sawyer filter cannot make salt water into fresh water right?

The powder would be dissolved into the water like salt.

The drink powder would not be a particle like bacterial or some solid material that would be too large to pass through the filter pores.

That said, I would NOT want to do this for long periods of time without flushing the filter with clean water multiple times.

I agree that the sugar residue left inside the filter would be a problem in that it would allow for the growth of bacteria.

Sure the filter should prevent the bacteria from getting through the filter, but just sounds like you would clog your filter with bacteria growth on the dirty side of the filter.

So I think that you could do it, I would advise that you make a point to back flush the Sawyer multiple times at night before going to bed to ensure that the filter is clean and clear for the next day and does not have a full night to grow bacteria.

Tony

I agree with everything Tony said.

In a way, this is my day job: filtering water, keeping bacteria happy, etc.  Usually the hydrocarbons are benzene and toluene, not sugar.  And the more complex molecules are poly-aromatic hydrocarbons, not bright green dye and artificial flavors, but yeah, what he said – dissolved materials will pass through – any BPing filter is a particle filter for tiny, tiny particles (bacteria and/or viruses).  Not a filter that separates on the basis of molecule size like an oxygen concentrator or a reverse-osmosis desalinization unit does – those require much more surface area and pressure to function.

And also what he said about cleaning it very thoroughly afterwards.  Soon afterwards.  Food + water on a high surface area material = a vigorous biological layer developing.  Clean stream water would be good.  Chlorinated city water would be better.  More strongly chlorinated water (like you’d have in a hot tub) would be even better.  Add 20 drops of Clorox to a gallon of water and run that through after you’ve done many rinses.

Also, let your filter dry out after very trip.  And your water bottles.  And your tent.  Etc.  Part of every trip, IMO, is all my gear hanging from hooks in the heated garage.