MSR MIOX Purifier REVIEW

Do you take the 'pen' only or the 'kit' when hiking and using in the field?
(I only ask because if i'm looking at the kit weight then it's only an once lighter than my MSR pump filter).

Thanks for the review.

The $139.99 Miox doesn't do anything more, better, or faster than Micropur tablets. If anything, Micropur tablets are much easier and quicker to use!

I haven't done the math, but maybe the thing pays for itself after years of usage (even though the Miox too has continuing operating costs for batteries, salt and test strips). But that's also years of carrying extra weight and risking dead batteries, or heaven forbid, a circuitry malfunction…

As a comparison, UV purifiers are also expensive, but at least those have the advantage of speed over Micropur tablets. Frankly, the MIOX is just underwhelming.

No I don't think I want one. Just wondering about actual field weight.

Wasn't the technology behind the MIOX originally developed for the US Army? It would make sense that the MIOX might work better for large quantities of water. Though I expect that most of the potential users will only want to purify small quantities at a time.

On another note, (bearing in mind I rarely purify water, and if I do, and the couple of times I have, its been with an old PUR Scout…), if you want to kill "everything" and therefore wait 4 hours, wouldn't you be better off just forking out for the extra weight of a proper decent filter? I am guessing that most people will need to get another 1L (or more) of water after that 4 hours is up, which means for most of your walking you are lugging an extra 2+lbs of weight around with you. Probably worth it just to carry the extra couple of ounces or so in filter weight, and avoid lugging excess water around, and any potential taste problems. IMHO.

Adam

Just as a comparison, here are the chlorine dioxide treatment times:

Microorganisms Contact Time
EPA Water #1 EPA Water #2
Bacteria 15 Minutes 15 Minutes
Viruses 15 Minutes 15 Minutes
Cysts 30 Minutes 4 Hours

Miox treatment times are the same except for Cryptosporidium which is listed at 4 hours.

I've brought this issue up numerous times, but apparently no one is able to understand what I am saying. The major biological risk to healthy adults in north america and europe is helminths. Echinococcosis is known to be present in the arctic of North America and also the Lake Superior area. It is also present all over Europe. This is a SERIOUS problem. By contrast, there is little real danger from bacteria, viruses or smaller parasites in the backcountry for a healthy adult. Risk of diarrhea? Yes. Risk of death to a weak adult or a child from a bad case of diarrhea? Yes. Risk of death or permanent injury to a healthy adult? No.

By contrast, echinococcosis poses a serious long-term risk to even a healthy adult. Some MD on here says he has seen a few cases over the years, but the worms usually get trapped in the liver. However, it is known that they can get past the liver and into the brain or heart, at which point you have a real problem. There is no cure, no way to operate. If the cyst bursts, you will probably die. Time to develop problems is 10 to 30 years from time of ingesting the worm egg. The eggs are designed to last for years in the outdoors. They thus have a very hard shell and are probably at least as resistant to chlorine-dioxide as cryptosporidium eggs, and probably resistant to UV light as well. All helminths and their eggs are at least 5 microns in diameter, so any filter, even the 3 micron seychelle and mcnett frontier filters will stop them. Municipal water supplies always run water through a coarse sand filter, and that is also adequate to stop these helminths and their eggs. I doubt either this MIOX device nor Micropur is going to stop them, though I don't have proof of this, nor does anyone else seem to know.

The problem has become serious in Germany:
foxes in Munich exposing people to dangerous echinococcosis parasite

Because these helminths are carried by canines (wolves, foxes, coyotes, dogs), there is the potential for the problem to spread across all of North America.

Echinococcosis is already present in much of Europe and used to be a major problem in Iceland and New Zealand (dogs-sheep cycle) until those islands launched a major program to eradicate the problem by vacinating all their dogs or sheep, I forget which. I'm not sure of the situation in Australia, but given the large number of sheep, I'd imagine it is a problem there too.

Medical references:

http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic1046.htm,
http://www.emedicine.com/MED/topic629.htm

Echinococcis is merely the most problematic of the helminthese in North America and Europe, but there are plenty of other helminthes out there. Roundworms, in particular, are a problem in much of the third world.

Actually, I asked the people who developed the AquaStar UV system and they provided research that showed the UV treatments successfully scrambled the helminths DNA so they were unable to pose a health risk to humans. The bodies were of course still in the water but inert. I believe they have their data public at http://www.uvaquastar.com

While I'm on the chlorine Dioxide bandwagon for my winter use (AquaMira or Klearwater) I use UV throughout most of the warmer part of the year. I've used the UV treatments year round but keeping batteries warm enough was problematic as even if they were warm when I put them in the device the water rapidly chilled them during treatment.

"I'm not sure of the situation in Australia, but given the large number of sheep, I'd imagine it is a problem there too."

I grew up on a farm in Australia. I had never heard of echinococcosis being in Australia but that's because we call it hydatids. We always gave the farm dogs tape-worm medicine and they weren't allowed to eat raw offal. It's a long time since I heard of anyone having cysts from hydatids. I found this info on a Victorian government website:

"Notification of hydatid infection ceased in Victoria early Victoria early in 2001. In the decade prior to 2001 there was an average of 16 notifications per year. Most of these represented infections acquired overseas. Occasional cases of recently acquired hydatid infection have been identified in visitors to rural areas in Victoria where there are infected sheep or dingoes. Urban dogs which accompany travellers are often suspected of being an intermediary of the cycle of transmission to humans. People who trap wild dogs are similarly at risk."

Arapiles

Another dissenting opinion. I have used the MIOX for about 8 months now and have found it convenient and lightweight, even when compared to iodine tablets. I also prefer the taste to that of iodine. Of course the clarifier helps with the iodine, but that also takes more time. I did find the MIOX a bit perplexing at first to use, but now have the hang of it and have no problems. One of the issues seems to be how you shake it. If you hold it upright and carefully shake it in that position, it seems to work best. Otherwise, I seemed to use up the salt way too quickly. As for the strips, well, after a while I just depended on tasting some of the chlorine as an indication that it was working. Not too scientific. I just got back from a trip to Turkey where I used it and a 4 liter platy, just to make sure the hotel water was okay.
On a recent trip my friend had the Steripen. Very cool, but he also had trouble at times getting it to work. It seemed it would not quite light up all the way.

We've used the Miox for the past four years in Southeast Alaska. It works well, and when it doesn't it is our vault. We (2 adults) treat approximately 8 liters a day if the sun is shining and less if it isn’t. It usually isn’t, so lets say 6 – 7 liters.

I found an alternative approach to the directions that came from MSR. We use our thumb to cover the top when mixing the water and salt, then open the top to release the mix into the chamber. Practice has also taught us it is easier to treat a three-liter container through two 2-liter applications rather than one 4-liter application.

We spent 40 nights on the beach (kayak trips) this past summer, and, at 7 liters a day that comes out to a lot of water! We haven’t used a pump filter for three years and hope never to need to do so again.

Smell and taste dissipates with time and is generally not noticeable. Batteries have not been a problem.

Everyone who travels with us buys a Miox within a week of returning home.

I've had a Miox for over 2 years now and I've generally been happy with it.

The battery life is excellent. As long as my batteries are relatively new, I have no worries about going on a weeklong trip with 2-3 people with it. I leave the test strips at home and just bring the actual gadget plus a small bag of salt. You certainly don't need nearly the whole baggie of salt that comes with the Miox.

I haven't had any troubles with inserting the batteries like BPL did.

The taste is acceptable in my opinion and my wife's. I find you can smell it pretty clearly, but there isn't much actual taste. If you do find taste to be a problem you can leave the lid off your water container for 30 min once the treatment period is over to let the chlorine evaporate off.

I don't wait longer than 30 minutes to drink mine. I'm not sure why BPL felt the need to wait 4 hours, since most other treatment methods don't even kill crypto in the first place. Just forget about the crypto and wait 30 minutes. Also, 4 hours is the time at which you have a 99.99% (or something like this) chance of killing all crypto. After 30 minutes you've probably got a 98% chance that any crypto is dead. Considering how rare crypto is, those are pretty darn good odds even after 30 min.

What's not to like? It can be a bit finicky to get enough salt in the water. If you don't shake it enough, you get the low salt light. If you remember to pre-wet the salt and also don't overfill the salt chamber then it's easier to use.

Also, the whole unit is a bit heavy compared to the drops and pills on the market. I'm at work so I don't have the weight spec on mine, but it's a lot heavier than carrying a few droppers of chemicals (ie. repackaged Aquamira).

If I do stop using the Miox one day, it will be because of the weight. The smell/taste and potential for unit failure are not significant concerns for me. I find that most other people do not complain about the taste. When I've been camping with large groups, people often ask me to treat their water too and everyone loves it. The Miox is really cool to see working.

Two weeks ago my wife and I were camping with another couple that were using a microfilter pump. Initially they said they preferred pumping their water for the fresh spring water taste, but by the second day in bug infested conditions they were much happier to use the Miox and not have to spend 5 minutes down at the stream pumping water. When time is tight, weather conditions are adverse or the bugs are really bad then the Miox shines. I carry mine in my hip belt pocket and I can fill up my Platypus 1L, treat it and be on my way in well under a minute.

The reason I'm writing this review is because last night I mentioned to my wife I might sell the MIOX and use drops instead to save weight. She was really surprised and asked me to keep the MIOX because it is her favorite piece of gear. I had no idea…it is pretty darn cool…and fast….and safe.

I think I'll keep the Miox until someone comes out with drops that work as well the Miox without the 5 minute waiting period that Aquamira has. Waiting sucks when it's pouring rain.

Now that I think about it, how many water stops do you do in a full day of hiking? 4 or 5? If the Miox saves you 4 minutes per stop (1 min vs. 5 min) then that's 16-20 minutes per day. Shaving a few ounces off your pack isn't going to make that back so the MIOX hiker should be faster than the Aquamira hiker.

Update:
I weighed my MIOX to see how it all adds up. Here's the results:

99.8g – MIOX wand loaded with batteries and salt (all you need for 1-2 nights)
62.5g – MIOX wand without batteries and salt
16.5g – One CR123 Lithium Battery. The MIOX uses 2.
31.7g – MSR Salt Bag filled with Salt. This is a LOT.
10g – The amount of salt I'd bring for a 2 person 7 day trip
13g – My test strip container about 1/3 full of strips. A full container is likely around 20g.
15g – Supplied Bag

For trips that are 1 or 2 nights, I would just bring the wand loaded with fresh batteries and salt (99.8g). For trips up to a week, I would bring about 10g of extra salt. For trips longer than a week I would bring 2 spare batteries (33g) and more salt. So a MIOX setup would weigh between 100g – 150g depending on weather you are going for a few nights or a few weeks. If you wanted to bring the bag and test strips you'd be adding another 50g or so.

The Steripen is an interesting competitor. It takes marginally longer to do, but then you can drink right away and then is no chemical smell or taste. The price and weight are very similar. On the face of it, that sounds like a compelling case.

There are a few areas where the MIOX would shine though. One is battery life. The Steripen is rated at 50L per set of CR123 batteries whereas the MIOX is rated over 200L on the same set of CR123. This means lower operating costs in the long term (not really a big deal) and it means more weight on some trips. I wouldn't take spare batteries on a week long trip with 2 people for the MIOX (or even 2 weeks), but you'd probably want them for the Steripen. Since the MIOX uses about 1/4 the batteries, this could be significant on a longer trip or a trip with lots of people.

Secondly, the MIOX can crank out a lot more water. The Steripen works good for individual use, but it would make water stops long if you have 4 people who all need to make a litre or two of water. If everyone brings their own, that would obviously add a lot of weight. The MIOX can crank out a batch of MIOX in about 10-20 seconds and that batch can do up to 4 litres of water.

Thirdly, I believe the MIOX works better with turbid water but I'm unsure about this.

For solo hiking the Steripen is probably the way to go since you aren't making much water and battery life likely won't be an issue. For longer trips or larger groups the MIOX becomes increasingly advantageous.