Portable water filters for travel

Posted by kathyhg @kathyhg, Oct 28 6:38am

I have a number of Lifestraw products and I feel pretty confident in them filtering out the mac from drinking water. One of the things that lifestraw doesn’t do is filter out minerals; I tried using a Lifestraw gravity filter to filter water before boiling my equipment and everything was covered with a fine white film, almost like powder. I emailed Lifestraw to see if any of their filter systems filter out minerals and they’ve said that they do not.

I’ve just heard about Sawyer water filter products and I read that they filter to 0.1 microns. Wondering is anyone has tried Sawyer filters? The benefit of filtering out the minerals is that the water is better for boiling equipment so that there is no film on everything, as a result of minerals in the water.

Thanks in advance to anyone who has experience with this (or other filtration) systems,

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the MAC & Bronchiectasis Support Group.

scoop | @scoop | Nov 1 12:15pm

Yeah, that white film is enough to drive one crazy. Not sure there's an easy fix but I can tell you what I do.

At home I use a baby bottle sterilizer (Bololo, which is well discussed here) with distilled water I pick up from the grocery store. No mineral deposits. When traveling I use the Drizzle ramen pot with distilled water as well, no minerals. Distilled water contains NTM but boiling eliminates it, so it is safe to use.

Like you I have a number of Life Straw products and a supply cabinet filled with backup filters. It's dizzying at times. The life straw product that I use most frequently is the 7 cup pitcher for water drinking. For equipment management distilled water. Hope this is helpful.

laureltn | @laureltn | Nov 2 7:04am

Hi, there! As a long-distance hiker, we carried Sawyer Squeeze filters long before I ever found out I had bronchiectasis and MAC. They do require a little hand strength to squeeze the water from the catch bag to through the filter, but they work beautifully.

They do make a filter for attachment to a tap, which would be probably what you would want. We've not personally used it, but I can attest to Sawyer being quality stuff, at least the versions we've used for years on trails.

Laurel

jnvt | @jnvt | Nov 2 8:53am

Hi All, I absolutely love traveling with the LifeStraw collapsible squeeze bottle. It microfilters 99.99% parasites and bacteria, with detailed product specs that specifically include “mycobacterium tuberculosis”, pseudomonas, staph, etc.
It collapses, weighs nothing and packs easily. I just keep refilling it and use it for everything, like brushing teeth, rinsing toothbrush, drinking, etc. There are 2 squeeze bottle (sizes, 650ml & 1 L) and they also have larger ones that hang and work off gravity. It’s always such a relief to know I have this with me.