filter for DIRTY water.....?

[eLightfoot]

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.

 

[SHTF]

Man tough deal I really don't think there is such a thing like your asking. I've used most of the filters on the market and they
Will all clog with really silty water. If I were you I'd scoop the water first then pass it through a coffee filter or fine cloth rag then filter it from
There.

For experience purposes I've used msr, katydan, and now use sawyer. I find sawyer has been the best.

Any filter is going to play hell and clog in dirty water. Using the sawyer after prefiltering it will at least let you walk away and do other things while gravity does the work.

Hope that helps you some

 

[Stid2677]

No filter I have ever found will handle dirty nasty water for very long. What I do with silty or dirty water is to use a container or dig a hole and use a plastic bag, pour the dirty water into the containment and allow it to settle out, over night works best, filter off the clear stuff on top being careful not to stir it back up.

For basecamp filtering the http://www.katadyn.com/usen/katadyn...ry-series-products/katadyn-base-camp-pro-10l/

Was so nice to just let gravity do the work,, very fast!!!

 

[Floorguy]

Were you running it straight through or did you have some kind of prefilter? For real dirty water if possible you could use a collapsible water bucket as a settling pool after the sentiment settles pump the clearer water off the top

 

[teflonhunter]

I think some water in the mountains especially in non running pools etc never settles out and will clog a filter quick. We have had to actually use two filters to collect enough to drink by back flowing water from one pump to clean stopped filter then reverse for that filter. alot of mess but sometimes you gotta.

 

[Rick Leathley]

I think your best option is a truly field serviceable filter. I ran a MSR Miniworks EX. It's a great pump just bulky ad heavy, but you can strip it down and clean it in the field back to like new condition in just a few minutes.

 

[eLightfoot]

damn, thats what I was afraid of. Seems like I can always take the filter apart and fiddle with it and get it to work again temporarily. I just wish there was something better for dirty water. I thought having a brand new filter and using the coffee filters would help a lot, but it didn't.

My Vario is about shot anyway. Mine was the older version and has a plastic pin that goes through the pump pistons. Of course it broke..... I notice on my buddies they have upgraded that part to metal. What do you guys recommend for a new filter? I want something that is bullet proof tough and pumps fast. I don't care if it is heavy and bulky. Too important a piece of equipment for me to bitch about weight and bulk. I'm not interested in a gravity feed type either.