Water bottle or filter??

[Uncle Jesse]

I checked with my AT hiking friend on what he uses, And it's the Steripen. He said he had difficulty find replacement batteries for it but found them at a speciality battery store. He spends more time sleeping on the ground and walking up and down mountains than anyone I know so I value his advice, besides he older than me.

My friend told me the Steripen has a UV light that kills bacteria, can it cure ClearGoo also?

[sgallas2]

I use a Steripen,actually based on Silver Creek's recommendation a few years ago. I take along some powdered energy drink to mix with water to help with the taste and I've been fine .Easy,lightweight and great when hiking a distance.

[MikelC]

I carry an aluminum bicycling water bottle. It is small enough to fit in the back of my vest, but big enough to carry water for about a half a day (about 16 oz.). It has plastic stopper with a loop in it so I can dangle it in the stream if I want to.

[maodiver]

steripen UV will not turn on until a couple of electrodes are submerged. no way to turn on the UV, and it is not very focused either.

It treats a Nalgene bottle in 90 seconds...that doesn't seem too slow...

For your reading pleasure...

http://www.ridgenet.net/~rockwell/Giardia.pdf

[Silver Creek]

I checked with my AT hiking friend on what he uses, And it's the Steripen. He said he had difficulty find replacement batteries for it but found them at a speciality battery store. He spends more time sleeping on the ground and walking up and down mountains than anyone I know so I value his advice, besides he older than me.

My friend told me the Steripen has a UV light that kills bacteria, can it cure ClearGoo also?

Steripen makes a solar cell module for recharging batteries if you are going to really be out of touch of civilization. For me, I just a a spare set of lithium batteries. The other alternative is to take iodine drops as a backup system should the Steripen break.

Your friend should probably take a backup water purifier system like iodine drops. I backpacked in the 1960's before any of the fancy water purification system and iodine drops and boiling water were the only two methods that we used when we went out for 2 weeks.

[joekrz]

http://www.amazon.com/Exstream-Macke...m+water+bottle

http://www.amazon.com/Katadyn-MyBott...m+water+bottle

[Trigg]

I tried to use one of the filter bottles a few years ago. The problem was I couldn't suck enough water through the thing to get a good drink. And what water did come through tended to go right down my throat which, in sucking mode, caused much choking and coughing. It was a cheapie. Maybe the newer more expensive ones are better. I saw--but can't locate now--a new one a few weeks ago where the filter fit in the bottle like a piston. You filled the bottle, then pressed down on the filter to express the water through it. A little pricier than the regular filter bottles at about $70, but would be much lighter than carrying a quart of water for an all-day trip.

[oldfrat]

I used a Katadyne, very carefully, for years. I got giardia. I threw it away and used bottled water after that. Giardia is not pleasant

[sagefisher]

I stick with bottled water and yes I always recycle the empty bottles.

Larry ---sagefisher---

[cheffy]

I'm just putting this out there for those that are interested. I was at my local Costco last night and they have the Steri Pen with bottle and pre filter for $50. runs on 4 AAA batteries. not a bad price considering you get all the extras.