drg

I'm less than 8 weeks from starting my ride and wondering if folks have experience using a SteriPen in the Americas. Sufficient, or should I use something else? I like the reviews of First Need's purifier, though I'm not thrilled with its weight and bulk.

Opinions?

Thanks.

seeker333

uv is pretty darn weak compared to clo2

i'd go aquamira or katadyn micropur tablets

Burton

I guess when I was in Colombia and Peru I basicly did what the natives did - bought bottled water! Seriously - picked up a Red Cross approved ceramic filter over 10 years ago and have never found an excuse to use it in any country.

keenancook

Yep, completely agree. Cycling for over a year through Central and South America I carried a water purifier and never once took it out of my pannier. Complete waste of space and weight. The one or two times we found ourselves without water and near a water source we just boiled it for a few minutes, and used it for cooking, and it was fine... You can pretty much always buy jugs of bottled water, and that's what everybody there does.

takeonafrica

IMO steripens/filters are just unnecessary extra weight and space. I almost always manage to get water for drinking. Just carry some purification tablets for backup when you can't get any. Can usually buy purified water cheaply too. And of course can use any water for cooking etc as long as you boil it.
My philosophy is also to do as the locals do...

pasopia

I agree with the other posts. I cycled through South America for 8 months last year and just drank bottled water. It's everywhere there is a town. In Argentina and Chile I drank from the tap, and in Patagonia I drank fresh water from water falls unfiltered. YRMV.

simplygib

Agree with everyone else. I carried a filter and purification tablets for 9 weeks in Central America. Total waste. Never used either of them. Bottled water and/or soft drink stands are so plentiful that finding water was never an issue. Even in areas out away from cities, it seemed there was always a little coke stand somewhere.

Foxtrot

I'm in that other group that carries a filter (first need). I even use it when in town to filter water out of the Platte river. I bought it for backpacking because 1) I want to be self sufficient for as long as possible and 2) I hate paying for water and dealing with plastic bottles.

Personally, the benefits of carrying the filter far out weigh the drawbacks, and I always take it with me and use it while touring. I've never toured through a third world country, but would deffinately take one with me there.

One last thing, I would advise against the steri-pen, as to get it to work you have to prefilter the water anyway to make it clear and remove chunks. I'd rather take care of it in one step.

So, those are my two cents.

sth

On a couple CGOAB journals I have just and on gear store review pages there is the prevailing opinion that Steri-pens are useless. They eat batteries and break down. I have a bad gut so I take a filter and pills were appropriate. I am always nervous about water. Going north to the Arctic this year and will definitely bring both. On a cross country trip, didn't bother. For South America I would probably take both and would probably not use them much.

Burton

Just so you know, many brands of bottled water are produced by reverse osmosis or distillation processes so the water is both sterile and contains no minerals. These are available just about everywhere around the world and are also the least expensive.

IndianaShawn

I would never drink from any steam directly. There are too many organisms in water that can leave you very ill. I own two filters. One is a Katadyn Guide which is pretty big but will filter a nice amount of water if the situation presents itself. The other is a very small Emergency filter that takes up very little space and weights next to nothing. It is made by Aquamira. I also carry some Katadyn Micropur Tablets. The filter won't remove virus so its a good idea to use the tablet first to kill as much as you can, then filter the large things out with the filter. Boiling will work but I prefer to purify and filter if bottled water isn't available. Another option is using a waterbottle/purifier/filter that does everything in one design. Its a Katadyn MyBottle Water Purifier. This is a very nice option since it fits into a bicycle waterbottle holder and your already going to be carrying waterbottles regardless. I think if you replace the cap with a standard waterbottle cap you can take out the filter and use it as a regular waterbottle using filtered, bottled, or clean tap water. If you find yourself in a situation that you need to filter water then place the filter back into the bottle and your ready to drink from a remote water source. The actual filter is not very heavy and takes up very little space. All three items would be nice to have just in case and don't weight much at all. From others experience listed above it sounds like you won't need them but it's nice to be prepared if they doesn't take up too much space or weigh too much. I would take the little emergency filter with some purification tablets and the MyBottle system. All three are very good and take up next to no space. Forget about the Guide....its a monster. BTW, be sure to watch the video on the MyBottle.

https://www.survivalequipment.net/katadyn_guide.html

https://www.survival-gear.com/straw-filter.htm

https://www.rei.com/product/695229/ka...-package-of-30

https://www.rei.com/product/799021/ka...water-purifier

IndianaShawn

I don't mean to alarm anyone but there are some interesting developments coming out of Central and South America regarding sugar plantation workers. They are not sure what is causing an alarming number of kidney failures but the number of illness are on the rise. They don't know if its from chemicals or an unknown biological cause. I do know that there is a connection between rodent droppings and Hantavirus which can leave you with kidney failure. I'm not saying that this is the case here but if there is a virus at work.......this would be a good reason to treat water for virus........ya know. Here are the links.

https://ascendingstarseed.wordpress.c...seen-anywhere/

https://health.nytimes.com/health/gui.../overview.html

Northwestrider

I have used a filter from MSR while on hiking trips, never for touring as of yet. It's worked fine for me in fairly clear mountain streams. I have no idea how effective it would be in filtering more murky waters.

downtheroad.org

I have never owned a SteriPEN but have depended on a Katadyne filter for years. I have run into a few travelers with SteriPENs and liked how small it is and not having to pump. But anything that runs on batteries is bound to be less reliable than a mechanical pump. How much less I am not sure but sooner or later even your emergency batteries are dead or it breaks like all other electronic gear. If your trip includes long wilderness stretches I would use a pump and if you are in hotel rooms a lot of the time then a SteriPEN may be nice. Yo could have a few sets of rechargeable batteries and an emergency pack of Energizers or Duracells for just in case.

busted knuckles

This reminds me of a story my wife told me. Her and some friends were hiking in central California, they all stopped and drank from a stream, walked farther up the trail and found a dead cow in the middle of the stream.

Tourist in MSN

A friend of mine told me that when he was traveling in Russia, he would only buy the brands of bottled water that he saw the locals buy because they knew which brands of bottled water were unsafe.

I have no experience with UV filters. Thus can only comment on other water treatment methods.

Filters generally do not filter out viruses which are too small to be filtered out by most filter media but filters are pretty good at filtering out larger microbes like bacteria. Chemical disinfection usually works best on viruses and worst on large microbes such as Cryptosporidium and Giardia. If really unsure about the water, use both chemical disinfection and filter.

I used to use the small tablets for chemical disinfection, but have quit buying them and instead just use chlorine bleach. If unsure about water source or if the water us unclear, I double the recommended dose.
https://water.epa.gov/drink/emerprep/...sinfection.cfm

If concerned about organic chemical contaminants (herbicides, pesticides, etc.) then also use an activated Carbon filter. This is generally unimportant in wilderness, but in areas where there may be agricultural contaminants, I would want a Carbon filter. While some organic contaminants are not filtered out with carbon, most are.

I use the Katadyn Mini for backpacking and if I was traveling to an area where I wanted an emergency filter, I would bring that filter because it is tiny and light. Disadvantage is that it is tiny, takes a lot of effort to pump and it takes a lot of time to get a bottle filtered. It does not thread onto a bottle, I cut a hole in a disposable bottle lid that will tightly hold the hose so that I can thread that onto disposable bottles.

For heavier camping I use the Katadyn Combi which pumps much easier than the Mini. It is much heavier but it also contains a separate activated Carbon filter.

A friend of mine has an MSR that has both activated Carbon and ceramic. His pump takes less effort for a liter of water than either of my Katadyn filters but you can't change the Carbon filter on that one.

The filters that have a disposable media often will work much longer than the ceramic filters, but the ceramic can be cleaned in 5 minutes whereas the disposable media can't be cleaned. If the water is not clear, I use some paper coffee filter tied around the inlet to filter out the largest particulates.

I generally do not filter water that I will use for cooking when camping because I instead boil it. I often have left over boiled water, I always pour that in my water bottles instead of disposing of it. But, I make sure I have some cold water in the bottle first so that I do not damage the bottle with water that is too hot.

Some people think that spring water is safer than other water sources. Not necessarily true.

Filters that have been used have water in them. Avoid sub-freezing temperatures or drain out the water first. When camping where it may dip below freezing, I try to drain out the water first and take the filter in the tent to try to protect it from freezing.

When you get home, take your filter apart and dry it out so you do not get any bacterial growth in it.

dengidog

One other option is to just buy the very small bottles of water purifier that you´ll find in nearly every grocery shop or pharmacy (Microdyn, Yodo, etc). A couple of drops, 15 mins, and the water is safe to drink. Of course, you´ll still have whatever´s floating in it, but that´s true of the Steripen, too.

egear

No to the pen. I would not trust it to completly kill everything. +3 on the Katadyn. I love mine and have used it for years. Grab an extra filter in case you get into really torred water. These filters can clog if the water contains a lot of dirt. Bottled water is fine if you aren't thirsty anywhere except near a town. Self supported means having a filter with you.

brentirvine

I have the Steripen and use rechargeable batteries that I charge every day if I can. I can't say whether or not it works. What I can say is that I tend to get sick from anything that is at all suspect. In a few tours off the beaten track in Cuba we have used the Steripen - so far, so good. In my opinion, it is not all that heavy. And as long as you;re careful, you won't break it.

B