New ultralight water filtration system

[4runner]

Greetings fellow outdoor lovers. I've been lurking on the boards for some time, but this is my first real post.

I've read many threads about ultralight backpacking, and read many trip reports with your gear lists. But I have yet to see anyone mention the Sawyer hollow fiber membrane water filters. This may be old news, but it's new to me, and I thought it was cool enough to share...

Check out the Intro videos on their website: http://www.sawyerproducts.com/videos.htm

Now, I know there isn't a lot of water to filter in Big Bend, but enough of us hike in other places that this might be useful information.

I learned about this from a "light and fast backpacking" class at my local REI. The new technology comes from the medical field, where it was used to filter blood in dialysis machines. The product is the Sawyer Water Treatment system, and it uses a hollow fiber membrane filter. This filter technology seems to be vastly superior to ceramic filters like the MSR hand-pump devices.


Some quick stats:

-Sawyer filters have a 20-to-1 performance ratio over ceramic, meaning you would have to clean a ceramic filter 20 times before you cleaned your Sawyer filter once.

-Sawyer filters are guaranteed for 1 million gallons.

-The ultralight option weighs only 2 ounces (used in-line with your hydration pack).

-The heaviest option weighs 11 ounces (using the gravity bag to filter into a Platypus or water bottle) - (MSR MiniWorks weighs 14.6oz).

-removes 7 log (99.99999%) of all bacteria. And removes 6 log (99.9999%) of all Protozoa such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium.

-You can even get a higher quality filter that will remove viruses. That's right. Remove viruses mechanically without the need for drops or tablets.

-The only drawback is that the filter is untested after hard freezes, therefore you probably wouldn't want to take it winter camping.



Basically, using a gravity fed "dirty water" hydration bag, you can filter two liters in 1.5 minutes into a clean hydration bag, cooking pot or other water carrying device. All without working up a sweat on a hand pump. Just sit back and let gravity do the work.

Or, you can splice the filter into the drinking hose of your hydration bag, and just drink through it like a straw, while simply filling up your hydration bag with whatever water you can find.

I just bought mine last night, and haven't actually used it in the field yet, but I was pretty excited about the weight savings and new technology that I wanted to share anyways.

Let me know what you think, or if any of you guys have used this before.

Cheers,

-Brian


P.S. - here's the product on the REI website: http://www.rei.com/product/786392

[jeffblaylock]

I used a Sawyer inline filter during my 10-day trek through the Sawtooths. Worked great - never clogged or slowed. Used it as a gravity filter with the dirty and clean bags (and hoses).

You should never allow it to freeze as this will render it useless (Freezing expands the pore openings, letting larger things go through.). I kept it in a ziploc bag inside my shelter, so it never froze even as the night temps dropped into the teens.

[dkerr24]

Great tip, 4runner, thank you for posting!  Your comments and tips are definitely welcome here!

I may considering buying one of these before I take my next hike down the Tanner trail in the Grand Canyon at the end of April.  I'm a little leery of trying to filter Colorado river water (typically loaded with silt in springtime) with my Hiker Pro pump-type filter.