Thoughts on gravity works and sawyer mini

Carrying a scoop of some sort is essential with any sort of bag-based filter. I cut the top end off a cheap, thin water bottle. With the cap screwed on, it can be a scoop, and with it removed it can be a funnel to divert water from, say a crack in the rock, into the mouth of a water bag.

Your mileage may vary but for a group, I find the Platypus gravity set up works great. I have used a Sawyer mini for personal use.  I have not tried building a gravity set up with the mini. For 4 people, I would say stick with the Platypus if you already own it.

One issue with filtration in general I have found is that warmish lake waters seem to have invisible scum that mucks up the filter.  Take water from streams whenever possible and have a backup if the filter fails.

Cheers/bruce

Pretty much had exactly the same experience as the OP:  started out all enthusiastic-like with with the Sawyer, but found it too tedious.  Have been using the Platypus gravity system for a couple of years now and really appreciate the overall ease of use, ease of back-flushing, speed, and relative light weight.  Lots to like about that system.

The Mini is really designed for the solo hiker where waters are fairly clear. A pre-filter like a piece of sponge helps.

If you where using the Mini in a gravity system you have to make sure you get all the air out of the filter first before it will work. The Platypus website has a video of how to do it with their setup and can be adapted to the sawyer mini as well. Once the air is out it should work almost as well as the Platypus filter.

I prefer the output of the Squeeze over the mini. No comparison IMO.

Hiked with someone who gave away their mini mid trip because it was so slow it was making them crazy.

I use the original sawyer (NOT the mini) and can filter a liter of water in a minute in gravity mode.  That is plenty fast enough for me.  I’ve never tried the mini but it makes sense that it would be slower.

Here is a recent thread on the subject including a video test set up byDavid Poston on page 3 of the thread THOUGHTS ON THE SAWYER MINI

The specific Sawyer Mini I used: absolute garbage.

At the cost (minimal) and weight (scant) I thought it worth an experiment: a 3 day trip committed to only the Mini.

That way I would do my outmost to use it cautiously and correctly. I had no other means of creating ‘safe’ water, meaning taking no chances with silt, impurities, ignorance. I have used water filters for 25 years, and understand damn well their limitations. I also don’t remember one ever completely fail on me.

I decided on a packraft/backpack loop in the Dirty Devil region of Utah. Water is scarce, and often brown. Finding spring water or potholes or using settling techniques like alum is essential. At no point did I resort to filtering suspect sources, such as straight river water.

I quickly realized the gravity option was unusable, despite pre-wetting, priming. Too slow. At least ten minutes/liter, and growing with each use.

Next up the supplied squeeze bottle burst. First an annoying micro mist, then a complete failure. I had a 1 ltr Platypus bladder along and although the thread patterns seemed somewhat dissimilar it mostly stayed on.

Over the course of the 3 days squeezing pressure increased from substantial to massive, despite frequent back flushes. On the morning of the last day no amount of pressure applied by this able bodied backpacker, moved a single drop of water in either direction.

I boiled a few quarts and hiked out Kelsey’s Great Alcove route, chuckling to myself. Sawyer, a name I always grouped with Coghlan’s and similar Boy Scout brands, turned out to be nothing but.

Disclaimer: I, a somewhat heavy handed ignoramus, could have used the Sawyer Mini wrongly, although I followed the directions provided by the manufacturer. Or, the unit I used could have been defect.

I use a mini set up as an inline gravity filter between two platypus bags.  My experience so far has been great, as long as we take time to get the air out of the filter (if there’s bubbles trapped in there, it will go painfully slow.)  I haven’t timed it, but we’ve been using one mini filter for our family of four for three years and it’s been great.

That said, we are in the North Cascades, and have the luxury of exceptionally clear and plentiful water to choose from.  I suspect that folks that are having these go really slow are either experiencing air in the filter, or are using water with more particulate than we have.   So, in short – in my experience, these are a fine solution where the water is really clear, but in the SW or other similar locations, it might not be a robust enough filter.