Water system/gear?

[Mcaldwell]

Pictures from my previous post:

[John B]

I will echo several others:  I use a steripen along with a 2L camelbak and 1L nalgene bottle.  I like the steripen freedom which has can be recharged via USB--full charge claims to be able to filter 50 liters--never had it die on me in the back country, been on week long trips with it.  My backup is iodine.  The weight (2.7oz) cannot be beat, and I have found it to be totally reliable.  Don't know that I would be thrilled by all the (involved) modifications needed to make the Sawyer sytem work--I have never tried one myself.

[wspscott]

I'll just repeat one point from my earlier post. A Sawyer Mini (or squeeze) works perfectly fine without any engineering or modification. I frequently/mostly use it like it is right out of the box. With a slight tweak, I also use it as a gravity filter, but nothing says you have to do this to make it work. In other words, you don't have to do anything at all to use a Sawyer if you don't want to.

I'll also repeat, there is no way I would go back to a pump filter like my Katadyn.

[Aaron Zagrodnick]

I'll sometimes use a Steripen Adventurer Opti, but this is in the rare instance that I'm in an area with particularly suspect water / if I'm concerned about knocking out viruses that my filter won't catch. I'd personally be wary of using it alone since it's not effective and / or not certified against larger organisms (tapeworm concerns etc.), and I've scooped up pristine looking water from mountain streams that was full of things I'd rather not deal with... some living and some not and that's just what I could see. So since I'd carry a filter anyway I normally use just that.

[kwhowell]

Started with the Katadyn Hiker and after replacing the $50 filter twice in a year I decided it was time for a change. Purchased the mini, used it a few times after rigging up a few quick connect fittings and just wasn't really that pleased, but for the weight and price I was willing to deal with it. A few months later I went on a trip with a group of newbies and decided the mini wasn't going to cut it for four people so I purchased the Platypus gravity system. The Platypus is all I carry now because, in my opinion, there's nothing better. 

[Drip]

As someone else said, the Sawyer water bag provided with the Mini is too small to be of much use. It does make a nice collapsable water scoop, if you cut off the top.

Be aware, the threads of the Sawyer filter are not a perfect fit with Platypus. One can usually get them to seal together by tightening way-hard which leads to later problems. Sawyer does perfectly thread to Evernew water bags. 

Everyone using a Sawyer Mini should know about using a Smartwater bottle with the flip-top to back-flush the filter rather than carrying that single-purpose Sawyer syring.

A keep-it-simple approach is a Smartwater bottle filled from natural water sources, carried with a Sawyer Mini screwed on top, drink right out of the filter. Loosen the filter after each drink to let air into the bottle. Clearly mark the bottle that it is for "Dirty Water Only".