MRS Dromedary question/gravity filter question

Steeliedrew

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Hey all,

I have a 10 liter and a 6 liter Dromedary bag. I was thinking of using a Sawyer mini as a gravity filter between the two. I see that MSR makes a hydration kit. It has a fitting that screws onto the Dromedarys' 3-in-1 cap, with a length of hose attached to it with the bite valve. I was thinking if I could find two of those fittings that come in those kits I'd be in business. Does anyone know if I can get just those fittings that screw onto the Dromedary cap? Or if the threads on the cap are proprietary to MSR or not? Maybe I could source my own fittings. If not I'd be stuck purchasing two of the hydration kits at around $15 each just for the fittings.

An even more expensive option would be to purchase MSR's gravity setup that screws directly onto the Dromedary bags but they only come in 2 and 4 liter and are pricey compared to using what I already have along with a sawyer mini.

Thanks for any help!

Drew


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Can't help with the fittings. But I use a DIY gravity setup using the Sawyer mini with a Platypus big zip 4L, which is easy to fill. I bought 1/4" ID food grade silicone tubing from Amazon along with plastic locking clamps ... the kind used for IVs. I put the Sawyer mini on the end of 4-5 feet of tubing and fill bottles directly from the filter outlet. The higher you get the dirty water bladder above the filter, the faster it goes. Works pretty well.


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Steeliedrew

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Thank you @Crawfish_MI. I'll play around with how I can rig these two Dromedary bags up. Might be able to just get some fittings and hose at Home Depot or something. I do love the platypus big zip though! I've got two of the 3 liter bags. That's great to hear that the mini works well for you. They weigh so little and are easy on the wallet!


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I knew I made the right choice when I scooped a bagful of lake water, hung it from a tree and filled 4 bottles while another guy stood in the lake pumping for the same length of time to fill one bottle!


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colonel00

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Like this? I just use a regular Sawyer, I didn't really like how the mini worked. This is my "dirty" bladder and I have a quick disconnect at the end near the bite valve. I just disconnect the bite valve and fill the dromedary or whatever else. I can also hook it to my wifes bladder hose to fill her "clean" bladder.
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Steeliedrew

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@colonel00 yep, just like that except I'm looking to be able to connect two Dromedary bags together with a mini inline. I have a 6 liter that I'll use for my dirty bag and a 10 liter that will be my clean bag to leave at camp. I use a 3 liter platypus big zip as my pack bladder. I figure each day on my way back to camp I would just stop and fill the 6 liter Dromedary and then hang it up to filter when I get back.


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colonel00

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Ah. Yeah, not sure how to do it using the 6L Drom as a dirty bag. I like having the 3L pack bladder as the dirty bag as I can always find and filter water and I don't have to go back to camp. I can fill a 6 or 10L Drom pretty quickly so I'd just fill them on the way back to camp if it were me. Whatever you find that works for you though.
 
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Steeliedrew

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So are you not making a direct connection to your Dromedary when filtering water into it? Just unscrew the cap and stick the hose into it it sounds like eh? I'm probably overthinking it. I just thought it would be slick to be able to have direct connections between the two Dromedary bags.


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Steeliedrew

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4b0c568b4395db0415c5bea7074a8d81.jpg


Might have just figured it out. MSR changed their cap designs for the Dromedary bags within the last year or so. My buddy had a fitting laying around from a Sawyer squeeze system and it fits like a glove. Just need one more and I'm in business if I wanna go ahead and do the direct connection between the two Dromedary bags.


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Steeliedrew

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Here's a quick rendition of what I plan on running. I'll need to get a longer length of hose however. I'm a big fan of the MSR Hyperflow and I'll still use that for high country Muleys where we often pump from tiny seeps but for early elk I wanted to give the gravity filter a try. I figure I'll leave the 10 liter bag at camp and will carry the 6 liter bag with me. I'll just make sure and stop to fill the 6 liter bag on the way back to camp. Typically I drink an easy 3 liters per day on the mountain plus water for a mountain house. I like to have enough water at camp at all times so that I can refill my pack bladder before bed and have enough for dinner and then breakfast in the morning.

095dda2a47261d7bfdb94ad2d700a2d7.jpg





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Owenst7

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All the hose barb fitting combos you'd need and even some quick disconnects to plug in to a bladder if you so desire.

I use the female-to-female fitting on the downstream side of my standard sawyer to screw a smartwater bottle on. I crack the threads on the bottle side and it allows the bottle to fill without any backpressure, while not allowing contaminated water to drip on the bottle threads if the bag were to leak. This also allows me to give a quick squeeze to the bottle at the end to backflush the filter. I've read that the mini needs to be backflushed about once a week (obviously subjective to water quality) where the standard Sawyer will go much longer.

If you experience an unpleasant plastic taste, use polyurethane or silicone tubing instead of PVC/Vinyl. Polyethylene tubing (the opaque stuff used for icemakers) would work also, but you'd probably need to switch to a sharkbite style fitting to get it to seal well, as it's designed to seal to the OD instead of the ID.

4' of head pressure seems to be about the sweet spot for the Sawyers. I think most people are claiming about a liter a minute with that setup. I've just been using mine inverted and rolling the bag up with slight pressure if I need it to work faster since I'm not usually in an area where it's easy to get the vertical difference between everything.
 
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Steeliedrew

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Thank you for your Input @Owenst7 !


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Tsnider

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i didnt like how the sawyer mini did as a gravity filter. it was slow and clogged up too easy. looks like plenty of people are using it so obviously it works decent enough.

this year i started using the rapid pure filter inline with my MSR and just put an on/off valve. it filters fast enough that a "clean" bag isnt needed. I can fill my nalgene really quickly. saves a little bit of weight. just a suggestion for something to tinker with in the coming years.
 
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Steeliedrew

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@Tsnider ,

Thank you for the suggestion. I'll take a look at those.


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Steeliedrew

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Hey all, figured I'd update on how this setup has worked for me. Couple of findings: 1.) I found right off the bat that you need to run a garden hose O-Ring inside the Sawer fittings or it leaks like crazy. Good thing I found that out on a test run. 2.) the Sawyer mini was a little slow for my liking so I switched to a Sawyer squeeze for this setup. other than that I I love the durability of the MSR Dromedary bladders and having the 10 liter one as my clean water bladder is nice. because after a few days of bringing water back to camp each night with the 6 liter dirty bag the 10 liter gets pretty full so you could then go a few days without getting water if you needed to.


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