Sawyer Products Mini Water Filtration System

Excellent, small, light and works well : ideal for travel.The tube itself is small and very easy to use with Clear instructions printed upon it;(basically pull water through one end, and draw out of the other, as marked with arrows).Supplied with an extension straw for drinking and a syringe for purge cleaning.The filter itself also has a standard thread so can be attached to (any standard) water bottle.The flat pack bag, supplied, takes no space at all, and is reusable; the neck of the bag is also designed to screw onto the filter. Its a good size to carry when both both full and empty.This can do a considerable amount of water filtration, so it's a tremendous SAVING both financially and to the environment from the scourge of plastic water bottles waste.See the Sawyer web site for the technical details, but this is a high specification purification system.Would HIGHLY recommend it is small easy to carry size and use.

The Sawyer Mini is an excellent bit of kit for those occasions where one cannot carry enough drinking water, and where weight carried is a prime consideration. There’s not a lot that can be added to Sawyer’s technical overview of the unit, suffice to say, provided that it is used correctly, it works. – Competently, and with a minimum of fuss!A couple of points worth noting are: -1) Some reviewers suggest that Sawyer’s collapsible water bags are very difficult to fill, unless there is a strong flow of water. The simple way to ensure that the bottle fills easily, regardless of whether there is strong water flow or not, is to “inflate” the bottle before presenting it to the water supply - by blowing into it as if you were blowing up a balloon.Of course this advice comes with the caveat that your mouth will come into contact with the bottle’s outlet, which may carry contamination from previous fillings with unfiltered water. Only the user in the particular circumstance involved can decide whether there might be any riskinvolved.2) It has been suggested that the threads of the Sawyer filter are the same as those of other makes of collapsible bottle such as Platypus,and of various plastic drink bottles.I cannot comment on the use of plastic drink bottles, but I can say definitively, that the threads of Platypus collapsible bottles are NOT exactly the same as those of the Sawyer Mini.Although a Platypus will actually screw onto the Sawyer, it will only do so with a very slight “cross threading”. In the case of the Platypus bottles I’ve tried, this resulted in a slight seepage of water from around the unfiltered “neck” side of the Sawyer. Meaning that unfiltered watercould easily end up in whatever filtered water container was being used at the time. The seepage increases when squeezing the Platypus in order to speed up liquid flow through the filter.Personally I’ve not had any real problems in using Sawyer’s own bottles, although I find the 32oz. is much to be preferred over the 16oz.The one small gripe I do have, and the distinct advantage a Platypus bottle would have, (assuming a perfect connection to the Sawyer could be made), is that the Platypus range includes a fully transparent bottle, so its content can be seen and inspected for any obvious debris or other matter. It also makes it easy to see whether the inside of the bottle has been properly cleaned and dried before long term storage.EDIT (27 May 2016)One reviewer has given a one star rating which, on the basis of his comments, I think is inappropriate.I have made a comment on that particular review, but copy that comment here, as I think it has some general relevance: -The Sawyer Mini is designed to filter out bacteria and protozoa. It is not designed for, and will not, remove dissolved solids, (which consist of minerals, salts, metals, cations, and anions dissolved in the water), Neither will it filter out chemicals in general, nor any associated tastes or smells.Totally pure water is virtually electrically non-conductive, whereas any "non-pure" water will have some measureable degree of electrical conductivity. TDS meters use this conductivity in order to display the amount of dissolved solids present in the sample being tested.Since dissolved solids won't be filtered out by the Sawyer Mini, it is unsurprising that filtered/non-filtered TDS meter results would be the same. To give the product a one star rating based on an assumption that it should be doing something it was never designed for, is, in my opinion, not justifiable.There is plenty of information on the Mini's technical specification, along with numerous FAQ's as well, on the Sawyer website. Elsewhere, there is plenty of online information to be found on Total Dissolved Solids in drinking water.Reverse Osmosis, Activated Carbon type filters, Deionisation, and Distillation, are all options that will remove some, but not necessarily all, dissolved solids.

Works well and useful to have a spare. Great price, thanks

I thought it would be helpful to compare the relative strengths and weaknesses of these two water filtration systems as I have both. I have used the Drinksafe Travel Tap (DTT) for many years and have found them to be excellent water filtration systems when out trekking and wild camping. I have used them on many different water courses and never become ill. They use a tried and fully tested technology used all around the world by the military and in disaster zones etc. There is another Amazon review claiming that Drinksafe systems don't manage to filter soil or algae which is frankly ridiculous and needs to be rectified. Drinksafe systems have the best mobile water filtration system available in my experience - they filter out bacteria, protozoa, viruses and many chemicals such as farm chemicals etc. (See DrinkSafe systems website for further info. on this) The DrinkSafe travel tap pull top bottle which I use is easy to transport and use out in the field.So why did I buy the Sawyer Mini (SM)? Well, I was interested to try a different water filtration system to compare it with the DTT I normally use.What are the advantages of the SM:1) It is much lighter than the DTT (SM = 53g vs DTT = 138g including bottle) so is good just to keep as a back up in your back pack when out trekking (DrinkSafe also produce a lightweight 'Waterstraw' 40g currently £16.95 which has superior filtering to the SM but is not as versatile)2) Versatility i) You can use it like a filter 'straw'. It actually comes with a plastic straw that you just place in the water and drink filtered water.ii) You can screw it into many different bottles like coke bottles or the 16oz bag that it comes with (this 500ml bag is way too small for practical use and Sawyer should provide a bigger more usable bag). It also combines well with collapsible water bottles such as the Evernew bottles. It also screws into my Platypus bottles but water does leak through the thread when under pressure which is not good for potential cross contamination. iii) You can also use the SM as an in-line water filter with back-pack water bladders.3) The SM can be flushed through using a syringe that comes with it. This means that you can keep the filter clean and filtering pretty much forever and Sawyer claim that the filter is good for 100,000 gallons of filtering which is incredible. This is a big advantage over the DTT which can't be easily flushed through. You therefore have to be careful with the DTT not to get too many particulates in your water and clog up the filter. You will never be at risk as the DTT will always filter out contaminants but will eventually clog up. Nevertheless, Drinksafe claim it is good for 1600 litres and I have had bottles for several years and they haven't clogged up yet (I am careful not to get too many particulates in the water though).What are the disadvantages of the SM:1) SM DOES NOT FILTER OUT VIRUSES AND CHEMICALS - this is one MAJOR disadvantage of this water filtration technology compared to the DTT in my opinion. For highland water courses where farm chemical run off and viruses are less of an issue this is not a problem. However, I want a water filter that is good for both highland and lowland water courses - ie. wherever I happen to find myself. In this case the DTT is far superior.The above comparison means that I couldn't use the SM as my only water filter unless I know that I'm only going to be in higher areas with no agricultural run off. The DTT will therefore remain my default and most usable water filter when out trekking and the one I would recommend to people looking for a water filter that filters out pretty much everything a British water course can throw up. However, I will probably take the SM along with the DTT when I'm wild camping to use it to filter out particulates when decanting water into my DTT. This will prevent my DTT from clogging up knowing that I can flush out all the accrued particulates from the SM later using the syringe.In conclusion, if I had to buy just one water filter, I would buy the Drinksafe Systems Travel Tap Pull Top. Used in combination, the Sawyer Mini can be used to provide particulate free water for the DTT. This is how I will use them together. The DTT wins on what it will filter out from the water, whereas the SM wins on versatility and flushability. The DTT wins overall in my opinion as the filtering of viruses and chemicals is my most important concern with a filtration system. Hope the comparison is helpful to potential buyers.