Katadyn Base Camp Pro Water Filter, 10-Liter, Blue (8019201)

Hey Katadyn, love your products! In fact, I used my Base Camp Pro 10L for the first time this weekend on a 3 day family backpacking trip, and it is in my top 3 best outdoor gear purchases ever DESPITE the issue we had. I set it up at home ahead of time, like ya do, and all went perfectly with the rinse & test. Everything went right back into the supplied soft case and I placed it into one of my backpack's side pockets made for a bottle for easy access. When we filled it for the first time at the stream near our campsite and lifted it out of the running water, there was a pencil-tip sized hole in in the clear portion (near step 3 of the instruction diagrams) that wasn't there previously. It was spraying a good sized stream of water that one of our crew had to place a finger over to plug while we filtered our first batch of drinking water. I inspected the soft case and there was no damage or holes, and we could find nothing inside that could have created it. The only thing we can come up with is that when we dipped the open bag into the stream something must have poked that perfect little hole. Luckily, my 25 years of backpacking has taught me to come prepared. I had some Seam Aid "Tenacious Tape" tape with me for emergency tarp/hammock/tent/shell repairs. I placed a strip over the hole and it was watertight for the remainder of our trip. I have always invested in the most efficient lightweight pumps over the years, and even tried out a friend's first-generation gravity feed filter 8 years ago, and this is HANDS DOWN the BEST performing backpacking filter system I've ever used. I am concerned about the general durability of the product though, due to our experience, and I don't know if I trust the tape repair to hold for future trips. Unfortunately, my purchase is outside of Amazon's return period or I'd replace it with another. Do you have any suggestions for us Katadyn?

I wanted a group water purification solution for base camp during elk hunting so I began to look at the various gravity feed systems. Katadyn has had a good reputation in the industry for quite some years with the Hiker and Hiker Pro as well a the Steripen. I read some poor reviews of the Camp and Base Camp models that exclaimed that the flow rates had dropped off rather significantly after relatively low service life but others claimed, emphatically, that this was not the case with theirs. I chewed on the information and tried to trouble shoot the issues in my mind, before I committed to a product and surmised that hanging the bag and allowing any suspended particles and sediment to 'settle" to the bottom of the bag it would greatly reduce the amount of clogging of the pores on the external surface of the filter element. Well, I went with my gut and purchased the 10l Base Camp. I used it to filter numerous liters of water and had no noticeable reduction in flow rate, the rate will naturally decrease as the bag empties but it happens with every fill from the first. This reduction is solely based on pressure reduction due to less volume in the bag as it empties. I will say, however that I never scooped water out of a "cow track" or anywhere with extremely cloudy water but I did have a few with "floaters". I even scooped up a bit and hung the bag, only to notice "swimmers" that would deter most but I thought "may as well see just how effective the filter really is". No beaver fever for me so it was effective!There are many great products on the market (I have a LOT of MSR gear, even water purification) and I believe this is just as good as any of them. I really like that this is a fraction of the weight of my pumps, very portable and convenient. I will, however, make a sleeve out of thin wall pvc to protect the filter element while in my pack.

I used this on a 5 day backpacking trip through Coyote Gulch in Utah. We had two of these for a group of 12. The water was extremely silty. The flow slowed down immensely after the first three or four fills. However, once I figured out to filter 24-30 oz. first and save it for the time to clean up. I use about half that water to pour into the bag and swish around the filter, scrub it, then I used a syringe to backflow through the filter a couple times then the flow returned. We used this all week long for all 12 of us. It filtered out all the silt and gave us all plenty of drinking and cooking water. The filter may need to be replaced after a while, but after the extreme silt this had to deal with, I was greatly impressed.There are a lot of negative reviews about this, but I think expectations are perhaps a little high. I have been in several situations where pump filters have failed due to clogging as well. If you recognize that you need to clean it and can actually backflow some clean water through it then it will keep working for you.

The media could not be loaded.  Works fine at home. tried it a few times in the kitchen and it worked fine. ONE time in ALGONQUIN and it stopped working completely ( 4L in to be exact) Without any explanation it drastically reduced flow to a drip. After reading the instructions and troubleshooting everything, I determined the problem was not the quick connect. The problem WAS the filter. For some reason the filter won’t let water through. If you unscrewed the filter from the cap the water flowed perfect. I am extremely disappointed in this product. If it wasn’t for my JetBoil I would have had to leave my 50k hike on day one. I also WASTED 3 hours trying to figure out the problem. Katadyn....are you trying to kill people? Or make people really sick? People are relying on this highly reputable brand when they are out in the back country, and frankly this experience has turned me off Katadyn. How can I trust them again? DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT!!!

Worked like a charm. I made sure my filter was 100% dry when I put it away so we will see how it works next time. (As per others reviews) This thing is so light and compact, I kept it at the top of my pack and pulled it during portages to refill everyone’s drinking water. 10Ls in 5 minutes or less. So easy. Drank water (with Mio) for 3 days and never had a stomach issue. Would recommend to a friend all day long.

Filtered well at home with clean tap water, but on the first trip to Algonquin the filter slowed to a drip and basically didn’t work. I shook and swished and sponged to no avail. Nothing would filter through and we had no clean water from this filter. Super bummed. I will reach out to katadyn for help, but be wary if you’re relying on this filter for drinking water on a longer trip. Fortunately one of our camping pals had a platypus filter and it saved the day - can’t recommend this one as a reliable safe option.

Clogged at about the 3rd fill up. Didn’t even last the whole trip.

After storing for a year the filter does not work