Water filter

Hitting the Georgia trails with the LifeSaver Liberty water purification system

Last year, I set out on a run-of-the-mill 14-mile hike with a good friend from my Marine Corps days. The plan was simple: carry everything you need for two days on your back, we’d cover seven leisurely miles on the first day, make camp somewhere with a view, and then hike back out the following morning. I packed a lightweight tent and sleeping system, some emergency gear, a few different forms of water storage and, of course, some water purification tablets just in case my storage proved insufficient.

After a pretty pleasant hike, my buddy and I set about making camp and gathering fire wood, and because of how much effort I was putting into the labor, I kept on sipping away at my water until I suddenly found myself just about empty. Not one to let dehydration set in, I filled up my CamelBak and other canteens from the nearby river, added the water purification tablets, and left my water to sit for a while. The following day, I had plenty of potable water… with just one problem. It tasted absolutely terrible.

Sure, taste isn’t a big deal in a survival situation, but when it comes to a pleasant weekend hike, I’d prefer my water tasted less like garbage water filtered through sadness and more like good old fashioned H20. That’s why I was so eager to test the new LifeSaver Liberty water purification system: it’s a water bottle and filter kit in one, and best of all, the clean water you drink from it doesn’t taste like something your dog would throw up.

My LiveSaver Liberty starter pack included the bottle itself, 4 carbon discs, scavenger hose, a protective silicone sleeve. With all the bells and whistles, this setup retails for a little shy of $120, but you can get the bottle itself (which is really all you need to hit the trails) for $100 or less from many retailers. The bottle can filter 2,000 liters of water before you need to swap out the filter, and with a flow rate of 1.2 liters per minute, this thing can keep you and your family hydrated until help arrives after a disaster, or help you survive one hiking-hangover without digging into your bad tasting purification tablets.

LifeSaver Filtration Technology Achieves Elite Testing Benchmark

January 2, 2019 – Colchester, UK – LifeSaver®, a UK-based manufacturer of portable and reusable water filtration systems, proudly announces it has passed compliance testing for NSF Protocol P248 Military Operations – Microbiological Water Purifiers. This certification means LifeSaver’s filter technology meets the high standards of the U.S. Military, and places the brand among an elite few to have achieved this benchmark.

NSF Protocol P248 was developed with the U.S. Army Public Health Command (USAPHC) based on the EPA Guide Standard, with the goal of providing deployed military personnel the capability to produce sustainable quantities of safe drinking water in any environment. Compliance is required before a manufacturer can market to the U.S. Military. LifeSaver achieved compliance after rigorous testing of its Jerrycan product, which was tested to more than 5,000 liters of sustained usage. P248 testing uses two strains of virus to ensure effective removal by the filtration system and pushes the filter to the point of clogging to make sure it continues to protect the user after that occurs, effectively measuring the filter’s failsafe technology.

“This certification gives us the green light to sell directly into the U.S. Department of Defense without any further performance evaluation required,” says Joe Lovegrove, Technical Manager for LifeSaver. “This is a landmark result for us as a commercial business and production facility and moves us into a different league than almost all our retail competitors. It should also be noted that although we tested Jerrycans, all of our filters are made to exactly the same standards using the same materials as those with which we passed this test.”

LifeSaver was created in 2007 following back-to-back natural disasters in southeast Asia (Indian Ocean Tsunami) and the United States (Hurricane Katrina). Since then, the company has expanded from working solely in the humanitarian realm to offering a variety of consumer-friendly products ideal for backpacking, adventure travel and emergency preparedness. LifeSaver products previously achieved NSF Protocol 231, or “highly protective tier,” standards for drinking water, and effectively remove cysts, bacteria and viruses with no chemicals or electrical power required.

To learn more about LifeSaver products, visit iconlifesaver.com.

About LifeSaver

Founded in the UK in 2007, LifeSaver came to life following back-to-back natural disasters: the Indian Ocean Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. Inventor Michael Pritchard felt compelled to address the resulting need for access to clean drinking water. The first LifeSaver prototype was developed in Pritchard’s garage, and became the world’s first portable water filter capable of removing the smallest known waterborne viruses. Since that time, LifeSaver has established itself as an effective and long-lasting solution to drinking water issues in the humanitarian and military sectors, as well as for outdoor enthusiasts. www.iconlifesaver.com

Electric Survivor Filter Pro X | Portable, Powerful Purity

Water: a basic necessity for survival, but often enough treated as an afterthought. When heading out camping, most usually grab a gallon of it in a jug and go. What happens when you need more? You can drink from a stream, never-minding the pine needles and floaties, and pray that you don’t get crippling diarrhea. You can boil a pot full if you don’t mind spending a lot of time for a small bit of clean water. Or….. filter.

The problem with most filters is the effort-to-product ratio. There are straw filters that give you a good drink, but not much in the way of stored water. There are pump filters which are a step up for camping use, but still require a very hands-on approach. Survivor Filter (who’s base straw filter I’ve reviewed before, here) is attempting to bring a new approach to the filtration scene: the Electric Survivor Filter PRO X, a portable, electronically powered water filter.

The filter itself is Survivor Filter’s standard fare, which is to say: excellent. The 3-stage filter system removes junk down to .01 microns. Removing “~99.999% Virus, Staph and Bacteria and significantly reduces Heavy Metals”. The filter’s re replaceable, with the two “Ultra-Filters” lasting 26,000+ gallons and the Carbon filter needing replacement after 528 gallons. The only maintenance needed is the occasional backwashing of the system, easily achieved in less than two minutes.

The Electric Survivor Filter PRO is obviously electronically powered, so let’s talk about how. This little unit can run on a pair of AA batteries, which gets on average around 5 hours run time per pair. That’s around 40 gallons of water. Also, if you’re in an area with electrical sockets but questionable water sources, you can simply use a wall plug. The last (and neatest) option, is to use the included Solar Power Bank.

This little power source features a 10,000 mAh internal battery, which is equivalent to 4-8 AA batteries, depending on what type and quality of AA you compare it to. It has a small solar panel on top, which is considered it’s secondary charging source, with the primary being a plug into a car charger or wall outlet. In a pinch, one would be mighty happy to have it available as it’s very handy all on it’s own. I’ve used it while camping for recharging my watch (GPS enabled), lights and phone, as well as running the Survivor Filter. It also has a built-in 1w LED light. It’s light, durable and a very versatile addition to the Electric Survivor Filter PRO package.

Regarding performance, the Electric Survivor Filter PRO is pretty impressive. It is simple to set up, and provides clean water at a fast rate. The company states the motor is capable of exceeding it’s 500 ml/minute rate but the carbon in the filter needs more time to absorb potential contaminants. 500 ml/minute comes in at nearly 8 gallons/hour, which is quite a haul when you’re camping (cooking, washing dishes) and equates to near palatial splendor in a survival situation. When the first responders find a lost hiker who is hauling one of these, I’d bet dollars to dimes they’re going to find them whizzin’ on a tree, thoroughly hydrated.

Bottom line: Survivor Filter has done it right with the PRO package. It is light, tough and works very well. The simplicity of use, effective flow rate and options in it’s powering make the Electric Survivor Filter PRO a heavyweight contender in the water filtration market. Straw and pump filters still have their place, but if you want voluminous quantities of water quickly and with little effort, this is IT. At $125, it’s well worth the price of admission. Quick vid below.

–Rex Nanorum

@Rexnanorum

Survivor Filter | Keeping your water clean and tasteful

Aside from protecting your fleshy meat-sack of a body from blistering heat or freezing cold, the most important survival consideration is the old standby: water. Long thought of as one of the easiest elements to find, it is actually one of the toughest to find safely when in an emergent situation. Few things will hamper your attempt to walk out to safety as crippling, explosive diarrhea. Keeping your water clean is the sole purpose of the Survivor Filter.

Let’s cover the Survivor Filter’s tech specs, as provided by the manufacturer’s website:

Filtration down to .05 microns
The Ultra Filter can be removed and cleaned up to 100,000 liters (26,417 gallons), the replaceable Carbon Filter lasts up to 1,000 liters (264 gallons) and the Cotton Pre-Filters (5 extras included in every order) can be used up to 1,000 liters (264 gallons).
Durable but weighs only 3.5 Ounces
Independently tested at Intertek Labs in the USA to show removal of – 99.9% Virus, Staph and Bacteria and reduces Heavy Metals

So, the Survivor Filter (in the “Squeeze Kit” I received for review) is essentially a filter-straw with 2x canteens of one liter capacity each. The filter by itself can be used as a simple drink straw, and effectively as well. It has an ample flow-rate, allowing you to drink quickly and without excessive restriction. As part of the Squeeze Kit however, the Survivor Filter shines. The two included carabiners (blue and red) are not only useful for attaching the canteens to a pack, but can also be used to denote filtered water vs raw water.

Using the idea listed above, our imagined survivor could fill the “red” canteen, then filter it into the “blue” canteen (as denoted by the carabiners). The blue canteen is safe to drink without further filtration, while the red canteen is essentially portable storage which can be filtered later on as needed.

In use, the Survivor Filter is easy and straightforward. The threaded bottom is the same pitch as is standard on soda bottles, an added bonus. The lifespan on the filtration elements is impressively long for an inexpensive product, and the body is very staunchly built. The Survivor Filter Squeeze Kit is now an essential part of my outdoor kit, and at $29.95 for the filter and $39.95 for the Squeeze kit, there isn’t much reason it shouldn’t be a regular part of yours too.

–Rex Nanorum

IG @Rexnanorum

YouTube Rex Nanorum

Minimalist Rural/Wilderness Survival Kit

I got this idea a few years ago from a post that Kyle Defoor published on his Tumblr Blog. His was more of a last-ditch crash kit that he hoped never needed to be used. I took that idea and ran with it for my own personal survival kit. This is the kit that gets thrown into my small sling bag when I go on shorter day hikes, bike rides or any type of outdoor excursions we decide to tackle. The advantage of this small kit is that I can throw it into any bag really and turn that said bag into a go-bag if you want to call it that. I’ve also got a small urban survival kit contained in a Pelican 1020 case, but that is for another article (coming soon!).

Onto the rural/wilderness survival kit itself. Although my contents differ a bit from the one Kyle Defoor put together, the shell remains the same. I honestly have not found a better shell to use for this kit over the years and I’ve used many different pouches and kits, due to the nature of my job. The shell is a SealLine See Pouch. Similar to the more popular SealLine dry bags, it’s a micro version of that. It comes in two sizes. but the size and color I’m using is the Large Orange See Pouch. The pouch is waterproof when closed and keeps everything dry if submerged or exposed to the elements of mother nature. The pouch can also double as a water container when all the contents are removed which is a huge advantage.

Let’s dive into the contents and go over why I chose the specific products that I did.

- SOL Heatsheets 2 person survival blanket
- Frontier emergency water filter straw
- Bic lighter contained in an Exotac fireSLEEVE
- UCO Stormproof matches contained in an Exotac MatchCAP case
- Suunto baseplate compass
- Streamlight Microstream flashlight
- Gerber LST folding knife

The only item I have not put into this kit is some type of cordage to use for shelter building or gear and clothing repair. My goal is to keep the kit minimal with only products I need. In order to do that, you actually have to take the kit out and use it. Common practice a lot of the time, is to build a survival kit, keep in in a bag and then never use it. I prefer to use mine and restock anything that gets used. Not only does this keep me familiar with the kit, but it gives me the confidence knowing that it will work if I ever get pressed into a survival situation.

There are a few changes I could make to the kit in order to trim it down a bit more. Since I do carry a folding knife and light on my person daily, I could remove the Streamlight Microstream and Gerber LST from the kit. This would reduce the weight a bit and give me some extra room for 550 cord or bankline. What are your guys’ thoughts?

*Photo and video courtesy of the author

How To Get Clean Drinking Water On The Road

It may seem counterintuitive, but when you live in a van down by the river, finding clean drinking water can be problematic. Sure, thousands of gallons rush by your four-wheel adventure machine every hour whilst parked in such close proximity to said river, but that doesn’t mean you should be drinking any of it. You ever see what a case of Giardia does to your weekend plans?

Add the fact that said river is flowing through a country whose national motto might as well be “Don’t drink the water,” and you are going to need a legitimate water filtration system. Space is at an absolute premium when your bedroom, living room and kitchen collectively add up to 60 square feet. This makes carrying dozens of gallons of water impractical. Using iodine tables is effective for water treatment, however, they are time-consuming, are not as practical for large amounts of water, and frankly, leave a bit of a foul-tasting result.

The Platypus GravityWorks 4-liter filtration system provides an ideal solution.

If I failed to make mention of it, I’m a man. Inherently, that means that I don’t like reading instructions. I’m sure that the Platypus came with them, but I didn’t bother looking. Immediately upon tearing open the package like a nine-year-old on Christmas morning, I began connecting the three parts. I was pleasantly surprised when the system was fully assembled and ready to go in under thirty seconds. I was thirsty and didn’t feel like waiting.

The system couldn’t be easier to use. Fill up the 4-liter bag labeled “dirty” with water, hold above the bag labeled “clean” and within seconds you have fresh, delicious drinking water. Platypus states that it takes two-and-a-half minutes to filter four liters, but in my first run through it took about half that time. From the moment I first opened the package until the time I was drinking fresh water was under two minutes total.

A quick backflush had the system cleaned in a matter of seconds. With a total weight of just over 300 grams and packable to about half the size of a New England Patriot’s football, it makes sense for people with a smaller pack or living quarters than a Dodge 2500 van.

At an MSRP of under $120 or a bit less expensive on Amazon, the Platypus GravityWorks system will no doubt pay for itself over the course of my 40,000-mile road trip from Alaska to Argentina.

For any of my fellow Van Life compadres or backpacker buddies, the Platypus GravityWorks is a solid solution for your hydration needs.

Follow the rest of Leo’s road trip of a lifetime on Instagram @leo_jenkins