Re: Sawyer Water Filter

>Thu Jan 10, 2013 7:44 am (PST) . Posted by: "michaelegrosse" michaelegrosse

[...]

>If I have to carry the chemicals as the backup, why not simply make the
chemicals the primary then, lighter, no mechanical failure and
>no hassle.


In a sense, that's where I am right now, except that chemicals have their
own drawbacks which I won't go into because I think we're all familiar with
them.  They remain my usual treatment of choice, and have improved with
innovations such as chlorine dioxide, and adding vitamin C after using
iodine.  But there are still drawbacks so for decades I have been seeing if
there are superior choices.

I have three water filters, and have never liked any of them nor do I find
them reliable and typically not lightweight nor well-designed either (I
have one of the old First Need filters, which essentially needed four hands
to operate -- the newer ones evidently have better design, but are still
heavy).

The various ultraviolet treatment systems look most promising, but their
reliability seems to be the lowest of all, based on the reviews that I've
seen.  I do have a SteriPen but haven't used it enough to have a good
handle on its reliability.

I haven't tried a Sawyer; the horrendously poor performance of the bags
makes me wonder about Sawyer's ability to adequately design anything, in
particular if their bags fail out of the box, how good of a job did they do
with the more delicate and critical filter elements?  (And Sawyer's
attitude that the failures are due to operator error, and the solution is
to "buy more of our bags" does not instill confidence in their customer
service orientation.)  Still, it's easy enough to use an alternative bag or
carry spare ones.  But the reviews also repeatedly mention mechanical
failures of the gasket, the need to not overtighten or mis-align while
screwing it on, etc.  Plus, like all filters except the First Need, it
won't filter out viruses although admittedly viruses are a low threat in
most US water sources.  If Sawyer has solved the durability issues, it's
the one filter these days that I'd consider buying.  But as someone already
said, you have to wait at least a year to find out if a new product has
reliability issues or not.


--MKT