sawyer all in one water filter

[05Kingquad700]

I just picked up a new water filtration system that I am pretty excited to try out. It is the Sawyer all in one system. It seems like the cats meow. It has a filter that can attach to about 4 different things and filter your water.
1) it attaches to a 32oz squeeze pouch that you can either drink directly from, or use to fill up other water bottles.
2) it can attach to a regular water bottle as well. So you just dunk your Aquafina water bottle into the stream or lake and fill it up. Attach the filter and you can drink that way.
3) you could attach the hose to a faucet, in case of a boil order, or if you don't trust the water at the campground. Just use it to fill up a aquatainer.
4) It comes with a adapter for a 5 gallon bucket, so you put a hole in the bucket, attach a hose and filer, and you can fill your aquatainer from your water supply.
I am looking forward to #1 for hiking and #5 for camping. We camp next to a lake and go through a 7 gallon aquatainer a day. So now instead of taking 3 aquatainers, I can take one and refill it.
Seems like a good setup, I am going to try some of it out tomorrow.
sp181
http://www.sawyer.com/water.html#water1
filter
http://www.sawyer.com/video-all%20in%20one.html

[terasec]

Re: sawyer all in one water filter

.1 micron
1 million gallon lifespan
looks good,
remember to get the most out of it, on occassion rinse it out with clean water and let it dry before packing it away

[05Kingquad700]

Re: sawyer all in one water filter

Just took it out to play with and it has an adapter that you could put on a hydration bladder hose and have a gravity system to fill another bladder as well. I am thinking this is might be the best answer. I will have to see how much I can pick a spare bladder for.

[terasec]

Re: sawyer all in one water filter

The specs on this are quite impressive and the low price is very compelling. I'm especially interested in how this makes the water taste as compared to something like the Berkey black filters which create some fantastic tasting water (but at a much higher price and more bulky setup). I'm also interested in knowing if the 540 gallons per day is an accurate number for silty and dirty found water or is that a number derived from laboratory conditions.

Kingquad, please come back and update this thread after you use it to give us more info on your experience.

for dirty/silty water should use a pre-filter, regardless of filtration system used,
what i use for a prefilter is old metal coffee filters,
which i scavange from broken coffee makers, if i see a coffee maker on the side of the road in someones trash i will stop to check if it has a metal filter,
lots of other DIY can be used as prefilters,
also should on occassion clean the actual filter by backwashing it with clean water,
and let it dry before storing it away,

[RJ Cooper]

Re: sawyer all in one water filter

I just order the all in one. Looks like a good system. DO keep us updated as will I.

[Bigdog57]

Re: sawyer all in one water filter

Wally's has spare bladders in the Camping section - ten bucks or less IIRC. Standard two liter.
This filter interests me too.

[05Kingquad700]

Re: sawyer all in one water filter

Well, I dumped out my 2-32oz Nalgene bottles, that I filled at the house, and refilled them at the lake today using the Sawyer all in one. It was pretty clear mountain lake water, so really no need for a pre filter. I have used all 64oz that I ran through the filter for drinking and a mountain house meal. 8 hours later and no ill effects. I also filled up a buddies Gatorade bottle, and I told him to keep me posted if he has any ill effects.
The water did taste like lake water, not like tap. I don't know if that was a ph thing or not. I shot a video and hopefully didn't delete it. The only problem so far, was that I couldn't get the 32oz squeeze pouch totally full, only about 20oz. So it took me 3 tries to fill 2- 32oz bottles. Nothing to major. It would of worked great with a bladder that I could of used to scoop up water.

[terasec]

Re: sawyer all in one water filter

also when scooping water, to minimize contaminates and debri, you want water from the middle of the water column, not surface water and not bottom water, nasties generally float or sink.

[05Kingquad700]

Re: sawyer all in one water filter

I also found out the lowes blue bucket is BPA free, according to the website. So if I took a that bucket, drilled a small hole in the lid, for an air vent, I wouldn't even need an aquatainer. Or maybe one of those collapsible aquatainers.

[05Kingquad700]

Re: sawyer all in one water filter

Is "BPA free" also "food grade"? That would be my question. Perhaps they mean the same but I wouldn't want to be the lab rat to figure it out.

Interesting point. I assumed BPA would be good enough, but I would agree food grade would be better. I found a review of the system on youtube, done by someone else. The guy looks at it through a "prepping" point of view, but he does a pretty good job. He said it doesn't do anything for taste or odor which, based on yesterday's lake test, is right. He said that is done by carbon filters, which take longer to filter.

Here is a video of the system being used in Kenya.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkK0WyozPis

other review.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeirI0ExO94

[Bigdog57]

Re: sawyer all in one water filter

The blue bucket is fine if you use a sealed mylar bag inside to keep the food safe, in a prepping useage. For water, I don't know.