I'm not saying cyccommute is right or wrong at all, but my experience with my Sawyer is that it does have instructions that came with it saying to run a few ounces of bleach through it after prolonged storage. Maybe his was an earlier or different model that didn't come with the instructions. It also comes with a plunger to backwash it if the water flow begins to slow. I've never needed to, but I don't usually filter water with much crap in it. I just filter clean lake or stream water for bacteria. I also have left mine for months without use and then used it with no problems, no bleach or other prep. Just grab it off of the shelf, after winter, toss it in my bag, use it on the trip. Maybe I'm just lucky, or maybe cyccommute was just unlucky. Who knows.