Water Purification System

[300WinMag]

I am interested to hear what different members do to purify water while on their backcountry hunts. I am looking for a system that is light, easy to use and most importantly safe.

[Sako_Halfcok]

Urine that is the key to a sucsessful back country hunt. may not taste the best, but will most defianantly meat your hydrtation needs

[Orangethunder]

I have an MSR pump filter that threads on a one litre nalgene. I prefer it over the tablets because it allows you to get water out of very shallow sources without the muck.

[Woodrow]

I have an MSR pump filter that threads on a one litre nalgene. I prefer it over the tablets because it allows you to get water out of very shallow sources without the muck.
how much is it?

[Derek_Erickson]

all running water coming off of a hill is good or at least decent!

[BlacktailStalker]

Just picked up an MSR miniworks filtration system. If I make it back mid september alive and with clean boxers, you know it works :)

[wlbc]

I purchased a Katadyn a number of years ago and have been very happy with it. Not cheap but does a superior job of filtering.

http://www.katadyn.com/

[Steeleco]

I have an MSR it does work great. Mountain Equipment Co-op is where I got mine. IIRC it was just a little more than $100 but that was in 2000

[BANG!]

I have an MSR it does work great. Mountain Equipment Co-op is where I got mine. IIRC it was just a little more than $100 but that was in 2000

I agree.

If you don't bother with clean water and you take the risk of drinking questionable stuff, you might end up with a really bad dose of the shits. Whenever that's hapenned to me in the past, I"d happily give someone 100 bucks to make it all go away.

So buy a decent filter and cut out the middle bit.

[gearjunkierob]

Filters work well but take some time and effort to pump the water you need. They also clog up occaisionally requiring you to clean the filter membrane. Factor in the extra weight in your pack as well as the space they take up and it makes the PRISTINE water purification drops look pretty good. Pristine comes in two small bottles and when combined create a chlorine based chemical that kills 99.9% of the bad stuff on contact. Downside is that you are SUPPOSED to wait 5mins for the chemical reaction to take place when you combine the two chemicals before putting it in your water. Then you are supposed to wait 15mins before drinking. Not a big deal if you stop at a water source, combine the chemicals, fill uip your water resevior, grab a snack, dump the chemical into the water when you are done and keep on hiking/hunting. Just wait 15mins before drinking. Requires less physical effort than pumping and as long as you have a good system in place, doesn't take that long. Available at most outdoors stores.

[Krico]

Another vote for the PRISTINE drops-easy to use, small, lightweight and effective.

[LOC]

I use Pristine and if the water is murky an MSR miniworks as well.

[Wildfoot]

msr Miox is the best by far. dont bother with a ceramic / carbon filter. just buy the miox.

the miox is a little more money, but it never clogs, works instantly and is tiny for packing. I have used on in thailand (drank sewer water with it), all over the rockies and elsewhere. I have used lots of msr pump filters and katy ones too. they are far from great. slow to filll bottles (the gravity fed ones are better) they are made of many parts that are all cheap plastic that break in cold weather (Miox has no moving parts). They clog and they are big, bulky and heavy.

[troutseeker]

I've got one of the Katadyne pocket filters. It is about 10 years old and works well. A little heavy and bulky, but it filters water fast enough and I drank lake, pond, stream and swamp water filtered out of it without problems.

Troutseeker

[pmj]

Pristine Water Purification System for me. I found it simple and easy to use. Works well from streams and lakes. Dirty pond water would be better if the drops were combined with a filter system. Follow the directions and the drops will get rid of giardia and cryptosporidium. Made in Port Coquitlam. http://www.pristine.ca/index.html