water filtration help. Am I doomed?

[Tsarbomba]

Its a little overwhelming with the amount of options out there for back county water filtration. Thats said, after looking at all options, I think I found what might work best for me.

-Nalgene Bottle
-Hydrapak Seeker 4L (will be stored in Kifaru Sherman)
-Katadyn Vario pump

Once I reach a suitable watering area, Ill pump 4L into Seeker bag. Put that into sherman pocket. Then Ill fill up Nalegene bottle. When I need to refill Nalgene, because it'll already be clean water, Ill just pour water in Nalgene from Seeker bag. The 4L will be plenty for day, plus nighttime and morning, untill I refill next day. Seems easy enough. Anyone see any issues with this?

 

[Wrench]

I save my mtn house bags and load water into them. It's nice having excess water at my tent to cook and wash with and not wiping out my drinking stash.

I used the same katadyne (pur) hiker for 10 years before replacing with the same.

I just bought a sawyer this winter to see if I'm missing something.

 

[5 shot group]

I used to run a pump, but found it too heavy and too big for my liking. I now carry a steripen (5oz compared to 14oz) and use aquatabs in my 10L dromidary. It's faster, smaller, and lighter and works for me. And no, I don't carry 10L with me, it just happens to be the bag I have atm.

 

[Desk Jockey]

A lot depends on water access and use. Temperature factors in too.

For solo trips I like to be able to haul 4-5 liters. That gets me through a night easily and handles cooking and camp chores for dinner and breakfast.

That is usually a Nalgene bottle and a 2 liter bladder, plus a 2 liter drom bag in warm weather. I have and use a steripen sometimes and I have used pump filters in the past. Of late, I have become a fan of gravity filters. My current fav is the platypus. They have a universal adapter that fills into a Nalgene bottle and my source bladder. The “clean” bag is plenty tough enough for packing water inside a pack or I can run it into an MSR drom bag instead. For more people I just increase the capacity to hold clean water with extra bags.

The only downside is in cold, cold temps. Any filter can freeze and the gravity filters have a lot of bags to keep warm in addition to the filter so they are less well suited for super cold IMO. I tend to favor my pump or steripen or melting snow if that is an option.

Regardless, I think having a back up supply of iodine tabs or other chemical options is a prudent safety precaution.

 

[Wrench]

I always have aqua mira drops with me. They do good and don't leave a nasty taste. I have a streri pen as well....but sometimes I get water from some super nasty spots and the filter is the only way to keep my dentist out of the deal.

 

[FlyGuy]

I’ve been through most of them. It all hinges on the quality of available water I guess. Busted my 1st pump 2 days in trying to get water from a muddy wallow while thinking I was about to die of thirst. That was a real low point for me. Won’t trust my hunt to a plastic pump ever again. Too easy to overpower the rubber seals when the water is punky. Went to the Sawyer b/c everyone was raving about it. It does a good job, but I just couldn’t ever remember to put it in my bag at night. It froze a few times and by the end of the hunt water was coming out the freaking SIDES of it when I applied any pressure at all. It works, but it’s not for me.

Finally got the balls to try the steripen and wish I’d done it years ago. They sell one now as a kit that comes with a Nalgene cap filter. I remove my cap-cap from my Nalgene and put the filter on, dunk it in the water. This screens out all the stuff you don’t want to see floating around in your water and does a great job. Then you remove the center piece from the filter, stick your steripen in that opening, flip the bottle upside down and turn it on... 1 min later it’s good to go. Remove filter and replace cap-cap.





You can’t cheat the mountain

 

[quaka_wacka]

I’ve used a lot of different ones over the years. Big fan of the gravity filters now. I’m using the platty version currently. It’s ridiculously fast. In freezing weather I put it in a ziplock in my sleeping bag. I carry tabs as a backup. As far as your setup. After a few times out you’ll decide what you like and don’t.