I'm looking for a light weight and reliable water filter for use in asia. I have never used pump or commercial gravity filters, could you please advise me???

Jungle bump

Come on! I'm getting thirsty. lol

I have used three different methods for purifying water

1 puritabs- bl**dy awful (well the army ones are)

2 katadyn gravity filter quite heavy i thought and very expensive and also quite slow

3 A pump PWP personal water purifier cost about 40 quid if i remember rightly and worked well pumping was a bit of a pain but infinately preferable to water bourne infection

hope this helps

Wayne T

I was in india 6 months ago, took iodene kit, large bag filter and a £20 little pump which I think is on cotswold or something similar. Only used the pump as bottled water was cheaper than the tap here. Mini pump was great for the rest of the world as well as it kills everything and doesn't taste bad.

I've heard some good reports of this waterbottle\filter, it cost's about £45, which isn't too bad. Check out the testimonials:

http://www.aquapuretraveller.com

I have a MSR miniworks filter and it worked for me while in the Adirondacks last year. Once filtered I popped a chlorine tablet in the bottle although it was prbably over-kill. The filter goes to 0.3 microns and is field-servicable too. About £60-70

If you're going to use iodine then be sure to get the neutralising tablets as well otherwise it will wiff of iodine. Alternatively you could buy some vitamin C tablets instead of the neutralising tablets (they contain the same chemical) and are a lot cheaper.

I'd love to know where on earth you buy Vit C tablets from. I have tried and tried. No chemist nor herbalist near me sells them except as orange-flavoured ones which I don't want to use as a base for a cup of tea. Holland & Barrett have plain Vit C powder but it's not practical to carry powder when backpacking. No one I have asked has heard of ordinary Vit C tablets to use for neutralising.

Does nobody boil water anymore?

Wanders off muttering about new fangled filter thingies....

Not when I'm waiting to fill up me platy for a cool drink I don't....

nor when I have to carry extra fuel to cover the boiling. Sods Law says it will be heavier than the filter.

After much dilibaration; boiling the water is exactly what I am going to do, after using a filter bag to take out the bigger nasties. none of the filters looks light weight and or good enough for the typhoid infested swamps I'll be drinking out of.

Fuel is one thing I will have plenty of in the forests! And I'll take some iodine and neutralisers as back up. (apparently your not supposed to use them constently for more than a couple of weeks)

Thanks for all your tips

G, that would be my method too.
I use Puritabs when I don't have time to boil, I never bothered with the neutralising tablets as the taste isn't 'that' bad. I carry them now though, for a few quid it seems silly not to.

The Gucci filters are probably brill, especially for higher volumes but I believe boiling is more of a foolproof method (I could be talking completely out of my rear there though!).
A Millbank bag is just the job for pre filtering the gunk out of the water before boiling.

At least you can't break a millbank bag...well, I suppose you could with a knife, but less can go wrong

have a look at the first need purifier by general ecology. this one removes everything, bacteria and viruses, so doesn't need to be used in conjunction with iodene or chlorine and doesn't need to stand for twenty minutes after filtering. mine came c/w a sigg bottle and fills said bottle in less a minute, even when I'm knackered!

How heavy is it nigel, and do you know how often it need the new filters/purifiers?

it says here...
generalecology.com

426g (probably less)(including 1 litre sigg bottle)
1000 pints (500litres)

oh, can be gravity fed even when clogged. I looked at loads of filters before opting for this one. very simple and very durable.

I STILL want to know where on earth you buy plain Vit C tablets from!

health food shop?