Welcome to the AppalachianTrailCafe.net!
Take a moment and register and then join the conversation

Water treatment

    This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to our Cookie Policy.

    • Water treatment

      Anyone here use Clorox to treat your water?

      I've got the Sawyer straw filter as well as some drops that kills viruses supposedly. Seems redundant to carry two things, but I sure as hell don't want to get a virus on the trail. What do y'all do for water treatment?
      www.appalachiantrailclarity.com - Life on the A.T.

      Sometimes you find yourself in the middle of nowhere, and sometimes in the middle of nowhere, you find yourself.
    • Sawyer Mini with tablets for backup. My Mom's thru-hike attempt in 1976 ended with giardia in Pearisburg, VA it took her over 6 months to recover and she never went on a long distance hike again. She does financially support my hikes, at 83 she can barely walk at all. It is her fault I get Springer Fever every year, but I treat all water not from a public system.
    • twistwrist wrote:

      Anyone here use Clorox to treat your water?

      I've got the Sawyer straw filter as well as some drops that kills viruses supposedly. Seems redundant to carry two things, but I sure as hell don't want to get a virus on the trail. What do y'all do for water treatment?


      That all I ever use, one drop from a 1-oz Clear Eyes bottle per 8 oz of water...and I don't treat at all if I don't feel the need.
      I may grow old but I'll never grow up.
    • I've been using the Sawyer for 3 or 4 years. I've never needed to back flush it while in the trail. However, it all depends on how dirty the water is to begin with. If the water is dirty I'll use my hankerchief as a pre filter.
      With that being said I usually back flush when I get home.
      RIAP
    • I use the Sawyer Mini. I have two Evernew Water Carry bladders (1 L each). One I use for dirty water the other for clean. I got the Sawyer adapter for connecting the a bladder to a hose. I cut a 1" piece of the hose that came with the filter to connect the adapter to clean side of the filter. So when you piece it all together it is: dirty bladder - filter - 1" tube - adapter - clean bladder. When I need to flush, I disconnect the dirty bladder and squeeze the clean bladder to force water backwards through the filter (have not used the syringe). I also punched two holes in the perimeter of the dirty bladder near the bottom (not to puncture the bladder) and tied a short loop of string through it. I can hang the dirty bladder from the string for gravity filtering and it also helps me keep track of which bladder is which. Using a bladder for clean water allows for a convenient gravity system with the adapter and provides a backup in case the dirty bladder breaks. I also I also carry a very thin water bottle with the top cut off as a scoop to fill the bladder and two 20 oz Gatorade bottles for drinking from while hiking (they attach to the pack straps).

      Last Saturday, I was going to camp on a bluff with no water source, so I filled my dirty bladder at a stream crossing using the scoop. Then when I got to camp, I take out the filter, attach the clean bladder (rolled up so there is no air in it), attach the dirty bladder full of water, hang from a branch by the string, and go set up camp. By the time camp chores were done, all the water had flowed into the clean bladder. This is enough water for dinner, evening tea, and morning coffee.

      There are some on-line reviews of Sawyer filter becoming clogged. I suspect this may be due to hard water scale building up when the filter dries out. I'm not sure this is the case, but it would make sense based on the way a Sawyer filter works. Since I am using my filter every day it shouldn't dry out while hiking. At home, I half-fill my clean water bladder with distilled water and back flush. After 500 mL of backflushing, the water is coming out nice and clean.

      When the bladder is empty, I keep squeezing to see if air will go through the filter. I have used 0.2 micron filters in laboratory use for filter sterilization. I know from this experience that under modest pressure you can easily force liquids through the filter but not air. We would use this test to make sure the filter was intact and the sterilization was successful. The Sawyer filter (also 0.2 micron) seems to behave the same way. When back flushing or filtering, once the bladder is empty, I can not squeeze the remaining air in the bladder through the filter. Based on my experience, this is evidence that the filter is still intact. I can not guarantee that the filter is still intact, but if I could force air through it, I would for sure replace the filter. BTW, if you are not getting good flow through your filter, make sure you don't have air bubbles in the system as air will not go through the intact filter when wet.
    • Decades ago we carried our water to the camp and didn't treat when we camped. We did know about putting water purification tablets in the water. Too expensive for most of us. We did boil water on some trips. This was in Texas, Maryland, and Mississippi.

      However, we knew the water was basically clean. In the early 1970s I ordered and read the Complete Walker by Colin Fletcher. After reading about the various things that could wind up in my body, I was more careful.

      I bought a Sawyer mini filter and will try it out before I camp in November. Need to try out my stove to.
      --
      "What do you mean its sunrise already ?!", me.
    • I rarely treat water, the first memory I have in life was going down to the spring with my older brother and sister to fetch water to the house, we had no inside plumbing, so, if it was going to kill me it probably would have happened more than a half century ago, people build an immunity to it.
      I may grow old but I'll never grow up.
    • Kathy and I have always used a filter for our water on hiking trips. On more than one occasion we've had the filter clog leaving us with no options as we don't carry enough fuel to boil all our water and Kathy doesn't want to add chemicals to the water.
      I'm wondering if any of you have used a Steripen, or other UV device, and what the pros and cons of that method are.
    • Ah....the days of water treatment pre-sawyer.

      The sawyer was a game changer. Haven't seen a steripen on trail since it arrived on scene. Or any other types of filters.

      Sawyers will slow. Backflushing helps. So does buying a new one. Price pay for the simplicity and light weight. I tend to backflush a quick shot every day or 2. I used a mini on first half of CT.....needed backflushing frequently.....then threw it away in Salida and got a full size. It was just too slow. I figured it was costing me an hour per day....2 mi.
    • Maybe the thing to do will be for each of us to carry a Sawyer Squeeze. That way if one clogs we still have another. We've been using a Kataydn Hiker Pro for years and an MSR filter before that. The thing that brought the Steripen to mind was we saw a family using one this past summer in Maine and it seemed so easy.
    • I have not used a Steripens, but from the forum posts I read elsewhere where Steripens are widely used, it is my impression that they are much more reliable than they were in the early days. Their biggest downside is the don't do well with cloudy water, in addition to the potential for failure or need to keep a battery charged. One big advantage is the are effective in cold temps where chemicals can take a long time and filters can be destroyed by freezing. Another advantage is they are effective against viruses. Plus they are quite fast and easy to use. Every method has its advantages and disadvantages.
    • Astro wrote:

      From my experience as long as you flush everytime you go into town, the filter is much more durable than the bags. So probably even more important you each carry a bag.
      even though they improved the sawyer bags relative to the originsl, they are still trash. I use an evernew bag, tough as nails.

      I just keep a dozen micropure tabs in my food bag incase anything goes wrong. Very light, fraction of oz.
    • I use a CNOC bag. Can zip open the back to fill easy. The Sawyer "Squeeze" is a great catchy marketing term. But it isn't really what they advise to do. who reads instructions?! ROLL the Sawyer bags from the back edge so hardly any water pressure is on the end. But yeah, still, get a CNOC or Evernew bag.
      Pirating – Corporate Takeover without the paperwork