Water Filter

I used this filter recently on a 5 day trip into the BWCA. Filtered water for 4 people for the duration of the trip. I added the sediment prefilter to the setup as this is an optional piece. The filter worked very well and produced great quality water. You have to clean it often though if you filter water near the shore, even with the 10 micron prefilter. The advertised filter life is around 750 liters which I cannot attest to with the amount of water that has passed through my filter so far. I think this is a good filter at a good price.

This thing was such a piece of junk. In clean water it clogged about every 6 pumps. I'd take it apart run the cleaning brush through and 6 pumps later - clogged again. It took my forever to fill 1 nalgene bottle. That was the first trip I took it on, the second trip - the thing clogged after 4 pumps and no amount of cleaning would get the thing to work again. A-1 piece of junk.

The price was right when I purchased my Sweetwater, but I find the handle cumbersome to setup for pumping and the hose has no good way to "tie it off" at the end. Also if you want more features you keep adding accessories to the intake line until you have an ugly and cumbersome group of add-ons. I have also found that cleaning the filter is a lot more difficult than competing brands on the market. All in all when push comes to shove the Sweetwater does filter the water just fine, and at a price that is hard to beat.