So, in the "put up or shut up" category, decided I'd try a new topic!  (I know, it's NOT new, and I could probably go back in the archives and find a similar thread, but what the hell...)

I haven't filtered water in the QP for 20 years.  Recently my buddy bought a gravity feed filter, "just in case we can't get out in the middle of the lake to scoop some water..."  I feel like I'm in an intensive care unit with tubing draped all over the site. 

Thoughts on the new gravity feed filters, or on the need to filter in the QP and/or the WCCP?

(I'm trying....) :-X
prouboy

I filter most of my water in WCPP. It is just easier to dip my bucket at the campsite and filter some after it has settled than to paddle out to cleaner water. While traveling across deeper lakes I will fill bottles away from shore and not worry about it. I  would not use any water near a heavily used campsite. The thought off the run-off from the open latrine surrounding such camps is all the reason I need.

I/we love our Katadyn Base Camper.  It has provided no less than 2 extra hours per day of fishing.  Multiply that by 7 + days and I have added a whole day to my trip.

I travel with an immune-suppressed individual and have been told that the only way we can go is if we filter our water.  (We always have anyway, or boiled it.)

For the two us we just take the Katydyn pump filter and pump what we need.  We go to the BW, but it would be the same situation if we went to parks in Canada.  For us filtering is not an option.  Perhaps for healthy people with intact immune systems it isn't quite as important. 

PhantomJug wrote on Mar 26^th, 2012 at 1:03am:

I/we love our Katadyn Base Camper.  It has provided no less than 2 extra hours per day of fishing.  Multiply that by 7 + days and I have added a whole day to my trip.

Do you filter in the QP?

prouboy

Puckster wrote on Mar 26^th, 2012 at 2:07am:

Do you filter in the QP?

Never filtered for many years Mike.  We would just paddle out to deep water a few times per day and spend considerable time hand filling jugs for camp.  This got very tedious and if the wind was up, sometimes dangerous.  Once we purchased the base camper we could quickly fill the bag in deeper water while we were out for the day, paddle back and let it filter into a collapsible water jug all day or all night.    I don't think it is necessary to filter in the Q but since it is so much easier and convenient now we do it anyway.

I'm like many others here, never filtered my water in 40 years of tripping until ...  Until 3 years ago when my wife and I did a trip, as we have so many times before, in Algonquin.  I did what I had been doing forever, namely going out into the middle of the lake and taking what I needed.  We also took water a couple of times from an artesian well and now that I think about it, that might have been the problem.  But, in any case, my wife came home with Giardia.  Somehow I didn't contract it, but it was no fun for her.  Since then we've gone with a filter.  I use the Katadyn Pocket Water Filter which is an extremely well built and well engineered piece of kit.  Its easy to repair in the field if necessary but its built like a tank so it's hard to imagine what could break.  Pumping water for one or two people is really no big deal certainly no more effort than paddling out to the middle of a lake to get it.  And the peace of mind is worth it.  Having Giardia symptoms for the last week of a canoe trip would be a colossal bummer.

On Canadian canoe trips, I don't filter.  (I do, however, take a Steripen or filter "straw" for those instances where I might be in need of water when I'm in more confined space, e.g., stream.)  I'll generally take water from a deeper part of the lake on my way into a campsite for the night.  I scoop up a few gallons into a water bladder.  (Think a Base Camp filter, which I also have, but don't use any longer.  What I actually use is a dry bag from Cabela's with an air-bleed valve, which serves as a nice spigot in camp.)

But, for those of you that plan to filter, you should also be aware that you can get Giardia from activities other than DRINKING water.  So, be careful when bathing, washing your hands/face, washing dishes, etc.  While the volume of Giardia (and water) could be less, it stands a better chance of concentration near the shoreline where these activities are more likely.  This also means you need to pay attention to what happens to your clean/filtered water lines.  (Don't wash/dunk them in the water you are about to filter!)  When backpacking (e.g., U.S. Rockies), I keep my water lines in separate baggies, even though they go in the same storage bag.  So, be careful!

dd

I always filter

simple logic for me - I'd rather always filter clean water that would do me no harm,

rather than just once getting giadia or crypto because I guessed wrong and the water I thought was good wasn't

giardia takes about a week before the symptoms show up - that would be hell if you were one week in on a two week trip

We used to filter every drop. But on long travel days with long portages, there would never seem to be nearly enough water. So one particularly long and hot day I weighed the miniscule chance of stomach trouble vs. the 100 percent chance of dehydration, dipped my cup in the middle part of the lake, drank about 10 gallons ... and a new philosophy was born. We still filter (and have found a gravity fed filter to be the easiest), but I drink from the deep as often as not.

-- kypaddler

If you decide to filter, gravity is the way to go.  Pumping's for chumps!   :P

I bring two methods, an MSR Gravity filter & Pristine chemical.

It's about mitigating risk and the stakes are actually pretty high.  You might go your whole life without any mishaps.  You might get a bad case of giardia or crypto and have problems for the rest of your life.

I never was big on filtering/treating in the Quet. until 3 of my guide friends all got girardia at the same time.  Since we often go on trips lasting longer than a week, and then have a 2 day marathon drive home to get back to work, I really don't want to have the symptoms. 

We filter when we are too lazy to go offshore for water, or when our Polar Pure is recharging.  Now that I've heard Uncle Sam has practically snuffed out Polar Pure, I'll have to figure something else out.

Quote:

So, be careful when bathing, washing your hands/face, washing dishes, etc.

I have never understood this logic.  Obviously, washed dishes and washing exposes a minimal amount of water to be ingested.  Compare the exposure level from these activites to the exposure one has if one jumps in a lake for a swim.  Clearly the swim presents a larger danger.  So I can only understand be careful with washing activities only if one also avoids swimming.  If one feels swimming is safe, I do not understand how one could be concerned with those other activities.

I have a small gravity filter which is not of the capacity to handle a whole crew for a long trip.  We mostly drink un-filtered, but it is available for situations where center lake water is not easily obtained.

For all those who experienced giardia, is it "curable?"  Or, once you get it, does it come back from time to time?

prouboy

azalea wrote on Mar 27^th, 2012 at 12:16am:

Quote: So, be careful when bathing, washing your hands/face, washing dishes, etc. I have never understood this logic.

Maybe if you'd had one of your kids spend weeks in intensive care with kidney and liver failure as a result of swimming in a lake and ingesting just a little water, it would be easier.

dd

A small amount of Giardia infectees become colonized in their colon and experience relapse from time-to-time and usually symptoms become less severe over the years.  It's easily treated with metronidazole.

Quote:

Maybe if you'd had one of your kids spend weeks in intensive care with kidney and liver failure as a result of swimming in a lake and ingesting just a little water, it would be easier.

I think you misunderstood me, dd.  I do understand someone who advises against using un-filtered water for washing AND against swimming; both out of fear of getting sick. 

What I do not understand is one who advises using un-filtered water for washing BUT is unconcerned about swimming.  It seems to me the latter would pose a greater risk.  (Given the millions of people who have for years swum in lakes throughout Canada and US wihout a public health concern about Giardia being raised, I have evaluated the risk from swimming as negligible but can understand how others may be more cautious.)

It's all about mitigating risk.  A drop on the lips, maybe you use your teeth to pull off wet paddling gloves, vs. a gallon to drink.  Somewhere in-between lies the reasonable precaution.

Since we seem to have gone from just the water risk to the overall concern of these bugs, toilet practices too.  I didn't use to worry.  Then I learned.  Now the only time I'll use hand-sanitizer (Purell) is on a camping trip.  The little bottle fits perfectly in the tp tube.  Especially for group trips.

Preacher wrote on Mar 27^th, 2012 at 1:27pm:

I didn't use to worry.  Then I learned.

Like my dad used to tell me; "Experience is the best education.  However, sometimes the tuition can be mighty high."

Empirical Knowledge.  For twenty-some years I have gone to BWCA or Quetico for one or two week-long trips every summer.  I never filter my water and I have never gotten sick.  If you think of the water as -having- giardia in it, not just that it -might- have giardia then, you should be really careful about any contact with contaminated water whether that contact is washing your body, washing dishes, swimming, water bottles, tubing, everything. Can a person swim in contaminated water and not get giardia as long as you don't swallow any water while swimming?

I have been told that you have to ingest the water in order for the giardia to get into your system, so it would seem to me that washing your body, or swimming and not swallowing the water (especially if you don't swim with your face underwater) would present a minimal risk, if any.  The organism needs to get into your intestinal tract, not just get on your skin.

Tubing is a concern, and one I do worry about.  Since we wash dishes with either boiled or filtered water and air-dry them if possible, I hope we have taken adequate precautions.

We have been going for 40 years, nearly every year, and we used to drink from the lake.  Then we tried iodine tablets (ick), and boiling (works fine, takes a lot of time and fuel), and finally filtering. 

We look at filtering as just a bit of insurance, since we don't want to have our trip home, which is usually quite leisurely and takes several days, or our first few days at home after a trip spoiled by a severe illness.  And of course, in our case, now that my husband has had a kidney transplant, the nephrologist at University of Michigan hospital has told us that it is only common sense to filter the water for giardia, since it is a serious health threat for him and could be even life-threatening (as he is immune suppressed due to his medications.)  She also said to us that she feels it is necessary for anyone to do in the BWCA, and she is a person with BWCA experience, not one of those clueless doctors who has never been there.  ;)

I know that a lot of people go to the BWCA and the Q for years, drink the water from the lake and don't get sick.  I also know, and have talked to some of them, that some people do contract giardia and they are very ill.

Personally, I would like to try to lessen my chances. I don't like raging diarrhea very much.   :P

We used the water bag for the past 3 trips in past 3 years.  We were initially really impressed.  Then about halfway through 8 night trip it slowed down to a dribble.  We took out the hand pumps.  (6 people)

Next year, 2 people.  Couldn't believe that this could happen again, had to be a faulty filter.  By the end of the trip, same thing.

Now here is the funny thing, you would think that at $50 per filter for the bag, a person would just go back to the hand pump, which seem to have the same flow rate for 2 plus trips.  However, this product is pretty cool!! We bought a second one (4 people).  Sadly, the oldest one sprung a leak about half way through the trip and by the end of the trip the 2nd one slowed to a trickle, it still trickled.  (It seemed, if memory served me, about 25 minutes to fill one nalgene). 

Since it costs $50 per filter, I am looking at the Platypus system, $109, the reviews at REI don't say anything about slow flow. 

Oh, by the way, I wrote to Katadyn about this.  They said that in Quetico the water has some type of microscopic slime that makes the filter clog up faster than normal.  In 30 years of going up and reading a  :-/lot, I never heard about this, but i did google at the time and there is such a thing, but alas, no reference to clogged filters. Frankly, I believe Katadyn created a very cool product with a very profitable water filter for them to sell.  Isn't capitalism great!  Hopefully some other manufacturer will figure out a better filter system that lasts longer.

Bearsfan (Go Lions)
There has been some talk on the site in reference to the Base Camp and the Platypus. I have both.......although only about 3 trips with the platypus and 2 trips with the Base camp so take my opinion for what it is worth.

So far I am in love with the Platypus and dislike the base camp. Not sure what the dif is in the filters. I picked up the base camp because of the additional capacity but found it unwieldy and slow. I disliked carrying two gallons up the side of the bank (I am old and weak). It was nice however to have the additional water once it completed however.

One Platypus is ideal per 2 people IMO. One thing to be aware of......when you are hanging your "dirty water" bag try and get into the habit of resealing the ziplock seal shut. My tendency was to leave it open and after hanging it from a limb pieces of bark would invariably find their way into the bag due to the strap rubbing against the bark. Any material dislodged falls straight down into your bag. No good. The flow rate BTW is very acceptable.

Pumping water is my least liked camp chore. The Platypus system makes life a breeze. Bada-bing......tent is up and ohhhh, look, there is a bag of water! Sweet!

Quote:

swimming and not swallowing the water (especially if you don't swim with your face underwater) would present a minimal risk, if any.

Not exactly.  Compare drinking a glass of water, taking gulps of water but spitting them all out, and not putting the water from the glass in your mouth at all.  Obviously there is some additional risk taking gulps from not taking anything, but taking gulps if far less dangerous than drinking.  With gulps, something in the water does have the opportunity to go through your system.

Obviously, not ever putting your head in the water is a different story then normal swimming.  And normally when people swim, their mouth is not tightly shut (if not wide open) so water goes in.  Yet millions of people swim in lakes far less clean then CC lakes without prompting warnings from health officials.  That indicates the risk is minimal unless the lake is very polluted.  And I have no doubt using untreated water to wash/rinse dishes is safer then swimming.

As some have indicated before, there is a huge problem with basing conclusions on anecdotal evidence.  Maybe those who have never gotten sick have just been lucky.  Maybe those that did get sick did so not because they drank water from the center of a lake but because they had a quick cup of swamp water or got infected from dirty hands touching something on land.

To me it is clear.  Drinking from safe locations is at least pretty safe, so whether one filters or not is a matter of personal choice as to whether that minimal risk is acceptable.  Worrying about swimming, wash/dish water, etc is (in my opinion) paranoia (unless the water is very skanky).

mastertangler wrote: ".....when you are hanging your "dirty water" bag try and get into the habit of resealing the ziplock seal shut. My tendency was to leave it open and after hanging it from a limb pieces of bark would invariably find their way into the bag due to the strap rubbing against the bark. Any material dislodged falls straight down into your bag."

I've been using the Platypus system for four years now and much prefer to leave the "dirty water" bag open.  I backflush and dump regularly, so anything that might drop into the bag gets tossed.  But I do seal the "clean water" bag and leave it that way, specifically to keep debris out.

What about portages?  It is summer and you are wearing sandles.  On a lot of portages you are going to be getting your feet wet and some of that water is going to be swamp water or worse.  At the end of the portage you adjust your sandles or socks and horrors of horrors your hands touch the dirty water.  Do you immediately wash your hands or just wipe your hands on your pants.  You are going to be exposed to germs regardless of how careful you are.  How many campers eat food which has fallen on the ground even if the 5 seconds rule is violated.  Everyone is comfortable with a certain level of exposure to risks.  My attitude is not to let unreasonable fears lessen the enjoyment of my trip.
Westwood

Gavia wrote on Mar 31^st, 2012 at 12:15am:

mastertangler wrote: ".....when you are hanging your "dirty water" bag try and get into the habit of resealing the ziplock seal shut. My tendency was to leave it open and after hanging it from a limb pieces of bark would invariably find their way into the bag due to the strap rubbing against the bark. Any material dislodged falls straight down into your bag." I've been using the Platypus system for four years now and much prefer to leave the "dirty water" bag open.  I backflush and dump regularly, so anything that might drop into the bag gets tossed.  But I do seal the "clean water" bag and leave it that way, specifically to keep debris out.

Your right. My natural inclination is to leave the bag open as well as I find it annoying to try and seal it.  Although I must admit to  becoming annoyed having debris fall in no matter how careful I try and be......I have also had bugs fall in. What might be slick is a "hanger system" where one avoids having to employ a limb in the first place. It would have to be quick, easy and weightless and be able to stash itself in the stuff sack the platypus resides in. Just a thought. No more looking for the right branch.............Just slap it around a trunk with its little arm and it is always the right height with no bark falling in. Gonna have to kick that around some...........Or maybe just a cloth type cover laid over the top? Or maybe just don't worry about it  ;D

[quote author=mastertangler
What might be slick is a "hanger system" where one avoids having to employ a limb in the first place. It would have to be quick, easy and weightless and be able to stash itself in the stuff sack the platypus resides in. Just a thought. No more looking for the right branch.............Just slap it around a trunk with its little arm and it is always the right height with no bark falling in.[/quote]

Funny you should mention that.  My system is simple and lightweight and does just what you suggest.  I wrap a 1/2" rope around a tree about 6-7 feet high, with a loop in the end hanging down a few feet.  I clip a double-ended snap shackle to the rope and another one to the loop.  Each one holds a water bag.  It's easy to switch the bags, and the hose doesn't touch the ground.

I also use a 3-gallon reservoir with a third hook, but it would be too complicated to describe the entire setup.

You have my attention but not my understanding. Sometimes I need to be spoon fed and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I have not set my mind to this yet but I am very interested in your set up........

1/2 inch rope around the tree........do you secure the rope first and if so how? Truckers hitch?.......is the loop in the tag end or is it a dropper made in the middle of the line?

How do you achieve the differing heights for the 2 bags or is one on the ground? I can't remember if there is a place to allow for a snap on the bag.......if so does it stay level? Double ended snap shackle? I am familiar with shackles for anchors......would this be similar to a double ended snap that would be on a dog leash? Actually I am completely confused but am determined to implement something. Maybe after my second cup my brain will start to function and I will say "Ohhh, that's easy"  ;D

A picture would be worth a thousand words. It may be helpful to others as well........in fact your name just might be immortalized in camping lore........"The Gavia hanging system" (Patent Pending)  ;) 

Been going to Quetico since 1981 at least once a year with between 4 and 6 people. Never filtered a drop and no one has ever gotten sick. We always get our water at least a hundred yards from shore.

Mastertangler, I don't have any pictures so I'll try to explain.

Tie a bowline in the end of the rope (a trucker's hitch will do, if you prefer), using whatever size rope you choose.  Wrap it around the tree once or twice at about top-of-head level and tie it off somehow.  Friction will hold it in place.  There should be enough rope to hang down a couple of feet.

Tie another bowline in the free end, high enough above the ground so the water bag hangs without touching (gotta keep stuff clean, y'know).

Attach one end of a double snap shackle to the rope you wrapped around the tree.  There will be enough slack in the rope to do this.  The other end of the shackle will hold the dirty water bag.  (I use snap shackles with an open hook on the other end to make hanging the bag easier.)

Attach one end of another double shackle to the bowline you tied in the free end of the rope.  Hang the clean water bag from it, using the bag's nylon web handles.

When the clean bag is full, switch bags; the clean water will now be at a convenient height.

I haven't described the full system, since it includes a 3-gallon reservoir hung from a third hook, using its own hanging rope.  Once you get the hang of the two-hook method, adding a third will be easy and obvious.

I know I am a . . .let's see, what was it?. . .a "chump"  ;) . . . but I am getting perplexed as to why it is so much harder to pump a few nalgenes of water each day than to go through all of this maneuvering.  Especially if you don't base-camp.

And "always getting water at least 100 yards from shore" is not practical, or even possible, on some of the small lakes where we travel.  You have to be kidding!  ::)

Perhaps the difference is that I am looking at it from the perspective of someone who only travels with one partner, so our water needs aren't that great.  Or perhaps I am just old and set in my ways.  But I have thought a gravity filter might be the way to go, and after reading this thread, I think I'll just stick to pumping that thing a few times each day.  Carry on, guys.   :)

SP2
You know how much I have enjoyed meeting you and SP1........I would only have your best interests at heart.

That being said I will make the case for the gravity filter.

Perhaps I have done to much water pumping........On the trail backpacking and now canoeing. It has always been my least favorite camp chore. I require quite a bit of water ("your peeing again?" ;D ) and after a hard day to pump a few liters (enough for breakfast as well) was always a laborious task. By the time I found a place to set my stool up and then pump 2 liters with a pump that probably needed a bit of silicone on the plunger (and a new filter) I can almost assuredly expect some perspiring to occur. Add in a bag that would fall over once in a while and the expectation to have to do it again the next day all under a cloud of skeets.........well, I just didn't like it much.

Nowadays I wade out into the water with my platypus clean stream dirty water bag and scoop a bagful. The sun is shining...... a loon whistles in the background........ dragonflies are keeping the skeets at bay..........a fish jumps......a moose lifts its head from out of the water (and if I didn't know better I could of swore it winked at me)......Ahhh, life is good.

I climb up the bank and set my dirty water bag on a chest high branch.......connect the hose fitting, open the little clamp that acts as a valve and let her rip. Water is now flowing into the clean water bag. By the time the tent is up I have a nice big bag of water. Its magic I tell you  ;D

I know Preachers comment got under your skin (it's a club....welcome aboard  ;) ). But he was merely trying to point out how superior the gravity feed systems are compared to pumping. This comment may surprise you, in fact you might want to sit down  :D, but I am inclined to agree with him.

But hey........if you don't mind pumping........and you have a good system and equipment that functions well then be satisfied with it and be done. The key to happiness is to be content with what you have. (Not so sure I am the best qualified guy to give that advice about being content seeing that I am always looking at the next new and shiny thing but the statement is still true IMO)

 

Thanks Gavia......I am going to put my mind to this as I am unhappy with bark dropping in......

Not so keen on the snaps.......seems like they would be heavy. No? Yes? I already carry 3/4 ton....... ;D

Over a span of 30+ years I started before there were filters and we did the best we could by boiling when we thought necessary, middle of the lake etc. Then I bought a Pur water purifier and filtered all my water for a few years until I couldn't keep up with my own demand and went back to drinking some water directly from the lake always away from shore. So now I do three things. I drink from the middle of large deep lakes when possible. I filter (pump)when in camp. And when ultra-light traveling without the filter and not near a water source that I think is safe, I use iodine tablets.
Last year on a trip to WCP I decided not to carry the filter and took only iodine tablets. I used the tablets a few times. When I was on a large deep lake I would get water from the middle of the lake. The video link shows the water that I/we were drinking from the middle of some of the lakes we travelled on. This happens to be Carrol Lake.

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Yeah, we drank live moving wiggly bugs and did not really realize it until late in the trip. No harmful effects that we know of however. Once we knew about it we all had one of those "man up" and just drink it moments. Cheers all you middle of the lake drinkers!

It's OK, MT.  And nothing gets under my skin so much that I can't have a sense of humor about it. 

I know that I am not cutting-edge when it comes to gear--you should SEE some of the stuff we use!   ;D  There is a great deal of "being content with what we have" mentality about me at this point, I suppose.  Although I am not opposed to buying new gear if it makes my life easier, or safer, or better.

I just read about all of that setting up ropes and finding the right tree branch, and getting those bags all positioned "just so", and I was thinking that while you are doing that, I could have two or three bottles of water already pumped.  (And Spartan1 is setting up the tent while I am doing that.) 

Do I like pumping water?  Nope? 

Are we going to change our system?  Maybe.  We are planning a trip with another couple this September, so maybe when we see what they do, we will change a lot of our ways.  You can always teach an old dog new tricks.
;)

And I must say, it was refreshing to hear you say you agreed with Preacher!   ::)

KF
You can always use a little protein on a trip.  My brothers call that mechanical pepper.  When you stick your finger in the water they all move away from it and leave a 1 inch clear area around your finger. I have never seen those more than a few feet away from shore.
MagicPaddler

Unlike Spartan2 I think my mind has been changed.  I only started pumping water a couple of years ago and the pump I use is great - the Katadyn Pocket may be the best pump out there - and then, there's only two of us.  Still, pumping is a bit of pain, not a colossal pain, mind you, but given the option of pumping or not pumping I've gotta say, not pumping sounds alright to me.  I think this summer I'm going to give the Platypus a try.  Were I to do that, do you all think there would be any good reason to bring the pump as a backup?

Here are my thoughts Kerry.........

I am not keen on having to break out the Platypus on travel days. When I'm in camp it's great! But around noon its time to refill on H2O and I want it fast and I want it now without having to stop.

I took Stu's advice from BWJ and picked up one of the Katadyn squeeze bottles with the filter built in. Some might think its good.......I think it sucks to be blunt. It is heavy, bulky and hard to get a good guzzle........in fact its hard to get a decent sip IMHO.

So now I'm going with the Steri Pen as my go to gadget to get a drink on travel days and it will back up the platypus. Seems kind of fantastic....(To good to be true perhaps)...my regular water bottle and just zap it for a little while. Another item on the Batman utility belt.......lets see.....camera, water bottle, bear spray, SPOT, seal pup knife and now a steri pen........Oh and the little bottle of Bens Deet that fits in a pocket of the sheathe that holds the Seal Pup. I like stuff within reach and hate diggin for it. I might have to ditch the knife (but I LIKE it)..........

One of the re-occurring themes I've noticed in threads discussing water filters of any type is that they often get clogged and after awhile don't perform as they once did while new or as advertised.

Regardless of what filter type device you use, the idea that some people have and may not be given enough regard in the products instruction manual is the idea that even with a good pre-filter you can just plunk them in anywhere and expect them not to get clogged overtime.
I have a very fine mesh bug net that is as fine as ancient pair of ladies silk stockings.
I put a pot inside that head net and then clear a section of water from obvious floating jetsam and then scoop the pot full.

Yes, I know the real danger is microscopic, but if you can eliminate as much of the particulate as possible before using whatever method fits you, I believe you could eliminate a big percentage of the reason All filter devices lose effectiveness over time.

A couple of comments in response to several messages:

Yes, it takes a minute or two to hang the Platypus - and not much longer.  On a travel day, that can be inconvenient, but then if the kit is easily available it's worthwhile.  I carry a filtration water bottle just in case - it's just dip and drink.

I used to pump - minimum 90 strokes per liter, with filter cleaning about every five liters.  That was a royal nuisance, as was anchoring the canoe in the middle of the lake while I pumped.  Got rained on a lot those days.

The Platypus does slow down, but it does not clog except if water bubbles get stuck.  In both cases, the cure is simply backflushing for a few seconds.

I don't care about getting bark in the dirty water bag because it gets dumped out the next time I fill it.

As always, to each his or her own.

Koda

It is interesting to hear people's comments about pumping, because now I am beginning to realize why you hate it so much.  Our filter hasn't presented us with so many problems.  It doesn't clog up so much, and we don't pump out in the lake!  We bring a large bucket (our biggest cook kit outer pan with handle) or our collapsible sink, full of water up to the campsite and one of us pumps into the water bottles (we use three, two are one-liter and one is a bit larger) for fresh water.  The rest of the water is then available for cooking, washing, whatever.

I wouldn't like pumping either if I were doing it out in the middle of the lake in a canoe.   And certainly not if it had to have a filter cleaning every five liters!  Never counted the strokes, though.  I am usually singing a song (in my head, not out loud) or listening to the loons.    :)  Haven't seemed to have the joy of that winking moose that comes to keep MT company, though.  ;D  I suppose that is only in the Q.

Not saying, though, that we might not change to your system.  Maybe we will.  Just saying that we haven't had the problems that some of you seem to have experienced, so I suppose that has made me less negative about the pumping chore.

" My brothers call that mechanical pepper.  When you stick your finger in the water they all move away from it and leave a 1 inch clear area around your finger. I have never seen those more than a few feet away from shore."

see!  told ya that deet works



As far as filter life goes, especially for Quetico where there is usually a lot of pollen in the water when I go, I wrap a coffee filter around the inlet hose, which helps extend the filter life a lot for a pump filter.

I used a Katahdyn gravity filter last year (wrote a review of it on here) - after about day 6 it started running slow, and slowed up to a dribble by day 8 ot thereabluts, so I used both the gravity filter and the pump after day 8 (or maybe it was day 9).  The Katahdyn gravity filter setup allows access to the filter element, and I had wrapped a single coffee filter around it, but it really needed two coffee filters to cover completely, and that's what I'd do next time I bring it.

I'd take both I think, or at least take Iodine tablets or some other chemical treatment as a backup.  I didn't have any issue with needing to pump during the day (travel every day but one) as I'd bring an extra liter of filtered water along with me - carry the extra weight rather than take time to filter during travel. 

That would be for two people (it is nice to have the water filtering for you while setting up camp).  Solo, I'll just stick with my pump filter, as I only need about a gallon and a half per day at camp, and I don't find it to be that big a chore to sit down for a few minutes and pump the filter.  In part, that is due to having a system to make it as easy as possible - I get the water from the lake in a nylon bucket, and pump out of there from a comfortable seat on a log or rock, sitting on a pad.  gave up filtering directly out of the lake a long time ago as being awkward and uncomfortable.

Spartan2 wrote on Apr 7^th, 2012 at 1:19pm:

And I must say, it was refreshing to hear you say you agreed with Preacher!   ::)

I had to scroll up to see!  +1 to what he says about being content with what you have.  If it ain't politics we likely agree.

These days anyone who's looking to buy a new pump should just go gravity imo.  The costs are comparable.

A minute or two to hang is an exaggeration?  30 seconds would be an exaggeration.

It also takes seconds to clean a gravity filter.  Just turn the bottle upside down, disconnect the filter from the bag, let gravity clean the filter.  The MSR benefits from being back-flushed every 12L or so.  To compare with my MSR Miniworks which needed cleaning every 6L depending on floaters.

I do know a couple people who actually like pumping.  Sitting by the water lost in thought & pump.  More power to 'em!  Here, have my empties and think some more!   :D

Preacher wrote on Apr 9^th, 2012 at 5:30pm:

I do know a couple people who actually like pumping.  Sitting by the water lost in thought & pump.  More power to 'em!  Here, have my empties and think some more!   :D

It gives my kids something to do . . . and sometimes they NEED something to do.  Don't know whether they like it, though it brings me a grin.  ::)

-YB