LifeStraw Family 1.0 Portable Gravity Powered Water Purifier for Emergency Preparedness and Camping

Looks like it will work for. Axe camp, not too sure about some of the parts sticking out.

We purchased a Lifestraw Family and 2 Lifestraw Personals. Got them home then decided to test them before writing a review. First off, the directions are very clear, concise and simple to follow. We went down to the river here in town and got a large bottle full of river water and a large bottle of water from a small adjacent pond. We got home, followed the directions precisely and ran the river water through the lifestraw family. A note about the river and pond water. The Poudre River, where we got the water, was involved in the recent disastrous floods here in Weld County, Colorado, so it and the pond water saw a huge increase in the contamination that results from these floods. We poured a small glass. The water was perfectly clear, no odor, so I took in a mouthful. It tasted like it had just come out of a kitchen commercial water filter. I waited about an hour, no effects at all, then finished the glass. Couldn't let good water go to waste! The real test was coming up, doing the same thing with the nasty pond water. I performed the same test with it, following the directions to the letter. Absolutely no ill effects at all. The water tasted great!! My girlfriend and I highly recommend the Lifestraw Family! Just please run your own test because everyone's system responds differently to germs. We plan on getting 2 more Lifestraw Family filters and several more Lifestraw Personals.

How does one know that a product like this REALLY works? Reviews and company reputation pretty much are your only options, short of finding your friendly neighborhood industrial polluter or livestock farm, and drinking from their water discharge. Since I didn't have the time to do that, I went with Lifestraw. If this works as an everyday water purifier for families in some of the worst parts or Africa, it certainly works for the occasional user like me. I absolutely needed the capability to filter viruses since my travel often takes me to third-world countries, and nothing else does that in this price range other than a couple of products from far less reliable companies. I've run a couple of gallons through the filter and that has greatly reduced the slight plasticky taste to the water, and I fully expect that too to go away with some more use.EDIT: We've successfully used this on a 10 day backpacking trip through Asia where our main source of water was the bathroom tap at hotels. Had exactly zero issues. In order to reduce the bulk, I removed the blue 2L bucket and simply plugged in a 3L water bladder bought on Amazon. Worked beautifully!

Shipped by DHL in a plastic bag.Upon opening, I saw the plastic bag of the family life straw was torn. While getting it out of the shipping bag, I ripped the torn area further as the type of bag material for the family life straw is the type of plastic that will separate easily if a tear has already started. Kinda like a candy bar wrapper.I bought this for long term storage and so, I had no intention of opening it. Now that it has been opened, I’m concerned that this will shorten the storage life of this thing, so I begin to read the label to see if I should be concerned or not. I found nothing about having the package opened that would indicate a shorter life for the life straw, however what I did read was even more troubling.According to the label, if the family life straw is dropped by greater than some height (I would have to go back and read it again to be certain what that height is), then the family life straw may not be as effective removing bad stuff from the water. Great. DHL, UPS and Fed-ex do not instill confidence in my mind regarding gentle handling of parcels.Further troubling information on the label: maximum storage life span: 3 years.That is better than nothing, but had I known these things, I would probably have gone about this a little bit differently.Now, I have this already opened family life straw and I don’t know if it will work because I don’t know how it has been handled before it got to me.Wouldn’t that be wonderful, have an emergency and need it and it not work.

I lived in western Kenya for about 3 months and the family I stayed with had been given one of these by an NGO. I bought a couple of 3 gallon bottles of water from a supermarket and once they were empty, I only ever filled them with their LifeStraw and I never had any health issues due to drinking water. My wife and I are about to start a new project in Zambia and we purchased our own unit to bring with us. I know that the product works well although it can be a little tricky to get it flowing correctly. It should be noted: we did open it to ensure that everything was ok and turned out they had failed to include the red rubber squeeze pump which is necessary for cleaning the unit. Their customer service immediately sent us the missing part, however based on other people's reviews, I'd recommend that everyone double check their package to ensure they have the entire unit. We almost ended up in Zambia with a non-functional product.

These are LIFE SAVERS for those of us on well water with iron. I add a carbon filter from platypus and I am good to go! no more toting gallons of bottled water from the store to the house. We drink our own water and it is peace of mind and refreshing to be able to do this!

Works great and leaves no foul taste. I suggest you use coffee filters to pre-filter your water. They are cheap and keep the larger debris out of your container and filter. I will eventually buy another as it produces much more water than the smaller personal filters.

This is a life saver for my family and all those in need! I have been sending these to my family in Puerto Rico. They distribute them to people in the community in need of a water purifying system. They are really being put to great use. They are easy to use and they love them! Wish I could order more than 9 at a time!

Filtered water very well but a bit clunky to use. We purchased a 5 liter water storage bag to reduce the amount of time spent filtering water when we needed it. During our mission trip to the Dominican Republic we used this to filter the tap water and stream water.