Water filtration?
 

Anyone with first hand experience with a water filtration system? Looking at the Sawyer and Lifestraw.

Thanks for any info . . . Rob

I have and have used both. The sawyer is more versatile for me and it's all I pack now.

-Jake

I've got a Lifestraw in everybody's go-bag. I use a Katadyn hand pump type when I need any amount of water. I can pump a quart a minute with my Katagyn, The downside is the Katagyn is heavy, 2 pounds or more. I still throw some iodine pellets into my drinking water.
I had a really bad experience above Big Sir on a backpaking trip. The water out of a mountain stream put 15 people down for the count, 20 miles from nowhere. They all had to be evacuated. Thankfully I cooked my water.

I read the Katadyn had expected life of 1,000 liters while others had 100k liter or more. Plus it was heavier and sounded like the filter clean out was suspect.

Im leaning towards the Sawyer.

Jake do you use the Sawyer Squeeze or Mini?

The mini. I've used it out west, just for giggles here around home and on several missions trips that I went on in places like Cuba, Bolivia, Trinidad and a few others.

I've been pleased. I have a couple of the Sawyer minis. They are slow if you're filling multiple bottles, bags, etc. But useful. The ones I have came with a straw attachment as well that you could use to drink from. But I only use it to refill bottles or bags for a hydration pack.
-Jake

I keep the MSR Trailshot squeeze filter in my daypack and a Katadyn Hiker Pro in my basecamp bag, and a Katadyn 10 Base Camp gravity bag.

I used Lifestraws for a long time, but honestly, I hate the ergonomics. Getting down close enough to the water source to use it directly is a pain in the @$$, and dipping your bottle into the source means 1) you’re stirring up silt as water floods into your bottle, 2) the source has to be sufficiently deep near the edge to accept your bottle otherwise you can’t fully fill, and 3) your bottle becomes contaminated and can’t be directly used any longer during the trip without the straw attached - which is a pain in the @$$ when stopping for a quick drink. I don’t like keeping a dirty bottle and a clean, and hate reassembling or dipping the straw into the bottle - so with the Trailshot, I just sit down by the bank and pump filtered water into my nalgenes. The Hiker Pro is a much higher volume and better pump for daily/nightly refills. In warmer weather, we try to live out of the Gravity bag instead of pumping. I grab a bag full of water each night with the gravity bag to have water for the following day - as much as possible, this is enough. I also keep an MSR 6L bladder on hand at camp as emergency volume. When temps are constantly below freezing, of course the bags stay home, and the pumps have to be even more carefully drained and dried each day. Living at 1300 feet and hunting above 10,000, I dry out like a prune, so I tend to target at LEAST 3L per day, preferring 4-5L per day, with more when the air is super cold and dry, or when exerting to haul the heavy food load in or hauling meat out.

That's a lot of good info.

Depends on whether you are looking for an occasional drink or processing enough water to last you for a while. The Katadyn pocket I have can move a lot of water fairly quickly. Cleaning takes five minutes, a pan and some water bleach solution. It is heavy, 2 pounds might be an exaggeration but it is over a pound. Well made, made to last, and is advertised to be good for 50,000 liters. I found mine for well below the Amazon price, I shopped around, but it is around three years old. Prices for many survival items have risen recently. Built more like a tool than a throw-away. Something they failed to mention in the cleaning instructions is to backwash the filter before any of the recommended cleaning steps.

I ended up going with the Sawyer Squeeze. I read the Mini produced .6L per minute and the Squeeze produced 1.7L per minute. For an extra 2oz of weight I figured it was worth it. The Squeeze is rated for 1 Million gallons! I found it on Amazon for $25. I also upgraded the bag to a Cnoc 2L bag for $19. I read it’s much easier to collect water with this bag.

Thanks everyone for the responses!