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View Full Version : Water Filters - Long Term Use



The Stig
02-23-2011, 10:55 PM
Am looking to add a Katadyn Vario to my stable of water filters.

My question isn't so much about the filter as it is this: Has anybody here drunk filtered dirty or suspect water for a long term?

I'm curious about drinking filtered water over the long term. As the filter ages do you notice more problems with sickness from waterborne nastiness?

I can't imagine there would be problems like eating MRE's for a long time but thought I'd ask those who may have actually done it.

LUNCHBOX
02-24-2011, 04:30 AM
As for the MRE question....some are not that bad and you get used to the others. The longest I had to deal with them was 7 days, that is still 21 meals. You want to talk about missing certain tastes. In a "hit the fan" sitty, I think you would be happy with any food so I wouldn't sweat that part.

gunbuilder69
02-24-2011, 02:08 PM
I've drank some suspect desalinated water for 2 days in capetown back in 86',but aside from dysentery,there was'nt much to speak of.From 03'-04' i drank nothing but 1ltr bottled water,some evian,some hajji brand, Some other off brands,I never did have any negative effects

Deadliestkatch
02-24-2011, 02:15 PM
Well don't most of the filters have a certain shelf life? They only filter so many gallons, right? Talk to MItunnelrat... He had a bad experience with one of the filter brands. I can't remember off hand which brand.

mitunnelrat
02-24-2011, 03:43 PM
Unfortunately, I don't have any long term experience with filters. I've actually only used my Katadyn Hiker a couple times, once after runoff from a storm totally contaminated the river I pulled from. As in, every fish in a 15 mile stretch died. I found out 2 days after I drank my quart from there. To be fair though, I've had some time to reflect, and its just as possible I didn't handle it properly after its first use. I hadn't owned it long when that happened, and its sat in the bottom of a gear bag ever since. I'll use it again after replacing the filter though, because it fits both my wide mouth nalgene and certain canteens.

ETA: As far as the shelf life, there's an average number of gallons the filter will pump before it needs to replace. This can vary with water quality, and whether or not a prefilter is used.

Deadliestkatch
02-25-2011, 03:48 PM
I have read that regular old coffee filters can be used as pre-filters.

bacpacker
03-05-2011, 11:19 PM
Here's my .02. First, always use a prefilter of some type, factory model, coffee filter, bandana, t-shirt, just something to keep the larger debris out of the filter. Around here fine sand or dirt will plug a filter quickly and reduce output to near zero.

I have used several filters over the years, brand name such as katydin, pur, & steripen. Most of these actually run the water thru the filter and remove material from the water. Some such as the Pur that I have actually have a fine enough filter element that it also removes virus's from the water. It was actually called a purifier. It's heavy, but works well. It also comes apart and makes cleaning very easy. Again though it will stop up super quick if not pretreated very well. I've used the Pur for 20 years or so and have been very happy with it. I've been on trips up to 10 days with no issues noted.

The Steripen, which is fairly new, used UV technology to treat the water a quart at a time by killing off al live virus's. I have a prefilter with it to remove solids from the water. But it does not filter the water like the Katydin or Pur. I've only had it for about a year and haven't got to use it much yet.

I also have a Big Berky system in the kitchen with the black and the white filters. With that is is rated to remove most any contamination you can think of, chemical, heavy metals, even flouride plus any virus known 2 years ago. I love it, but it's not anything I would want to depend on during a bug out. Once you got to your BOL, IMO you couldn't do better. I've had it for 3 years and wouldn't trade it for anything.

Sorry for the rant, but I hope it helps out.