eLightfoot
WKR
Ok so my Katadyn Vario is just about to hit the garbage can. I've had it for about 5 years and it has served me well until now. I knew it was really struggling to pump water out of my spot since scouting earlier this year. I replaced all the O rings, re-lubed, and put in a new filter cartridge. The pump lasted about 100oz before it quit on me. The water source is a small 5x5' spring that bears wallow in and has mosquito larva in. However the water is very cold, clear, and tastes great when filtered. This water hole eats filters for breakfast, we even wrapped coffee filters around the intake to reduce clogging.
My buddies have a hiker pro and another newer (and improved model) vario. My friend with the hiker pro put in a new filter and his pumped great for about 2.5 gallons, and my other friend with the newer vario never fully died out. The hiker pro would become impossible to pump. My pump will just squirt water everywhere out of the top and sides and produce little to no filtered water. The other vario would bog down but still manage to get a minimal stream of water out.
Is there a filter out there that will handle pumping really dirty water in large quantity? I don't care if it weighs twice as much as the vario, I just want it to pump dirty water quickly. We wasted hours of hunting time at the spring fighting our filters to get enough water to camp.
My buddies have a hiker pro and another newer (and improved model) vario. My friend with the hiker pro put in a new filter and his pumped great for about 2.5 gallons, and my other friend with the newer vario never fully died out. The hiker pro would become impossible to pump. My pump will just squirt water everywhere out of the top and sides and produce little to no filtered water. The other vario would bog down but still manage to get a minimal stream of water out.
Is there a filter out there that will handle pumping really dirty water in large quantity? I don't care if it weighs twice as much as the vario, I just want it to pump dirty water quickly. We wasted hours of hunting time at the spring fighting our filters to get enough water to camp.