Steripen water purifier. Anyone use?

[Kamen]

Hey all, I'm your worst nightmare, a newb with half a clue. :trytofly:
Ive done the backyard and commercial campground thing and am looking to start putting some trails under my belt, maybe tightening it a few inches too! :biggrin:

OK, intro done now back to topic. I'm trying to put together a decent kit for a weekend hike and have been looking over various ways of treating or filtering water. I havent seen it mentioned on this forum but I found a very interesting little gadget called the Steripen that makes use of UV light to sterilize water. Their website can be found here http://www.hydro-photon.com and a direct link to their promotional video is here http://www.hydro-photon.com/video/SteriPENdemo.mpg

If anyone has any personal experience with this lightsaber looking thing, lemme know how it worked. Anyone else, have a look and lemme know what you think. Trustworthy or full of more fecal matter than our pure mountain streams?

[Seeker]

hello, and welcome...

never used it, but i think it was discussed on a whiteblaze.net furum. also, check for a product review at backpackgeartest.org.

good luck.

[Two Speed]

Just to muddy the water (wasn't that a bad pun!) mountain water may not be as toxic as most filter/water treatment purveyors would have us campers believe. Check out the article at:

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=9880&highlight=giardia

To get back on subject, for UV disinfection to work the water cannot be turbid. The turbidity will shelter the nasties from the UV allowing them to survive. Filtering through a folded bandana, then using the steri-pen should improve disinfection.

My own take is that I prefer not to rely on battery powered devices like the steri-pen or the Miox device. I have used a Katadyn Mini for about three years, but find that I am using it less often, particularly when at higher elevation, not downstream of a camp area, fresh, fast flowing spring, etc, etc. So far, so good.

[Kamen]

Two Speed,

Yea I dont buy into the hype the corps throw out about the water, but as I am still quite the novice any hiking I do will likely be along the tourist trails, the ones with the most hikers, wannabe or otherwise, so I figure I'm more likely to run across people who bathe in or relieve themselves 3 inches from the stream or above it or whatnot. And at least for now, I still count myself among the wannabe crowd. Cant be too careful ya know? :biggrin:
Thanks for the bandanna tip, makes a lot of sense, and I plan on carrying a few anyways.

[deadeye]

Ditto on relying on batteries, especially for such a crucial item, if you consider it crucial. I drink straight from the source when I'm comfortable with it, i.e. a spring bubbling from the rocks, and use an Aquamira squeeze filter bottle the rest of the time. Occassionally use Aquamira drops for large quantities, or for questionable sources where I want to do more than jsut filter out the crypto & giardia cysts.