[4 of 4 customers found this review helpful]

MSR HyperFlow Microfilter Review

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"Comments about the negatives listed on other reviews:

1. It did become much harder to pump and backflushing helped only minimally.

2. Backflushing can become confusing to make work - I kept pulling a vacuum at first. Think I have it down now.

3. Pre-filter is not good at all. I put the acorn pre-filter from my PUR Hiker on (now called Katadyn I think)and it is far easier now.

4. The "small" clean cover doesn't seem like much of a problem to me - when you take it off just stick it in the bag and you won't lose it. The check valves also don't seem like that big a deal either. If I can keep up with a quarter to open a bear can for a week surely I can keep up with these.

5. Compatability with non-Nalgene systems. This isn't an issue at all for me. I use two 1.5 liter consumer bottles from any grocery store. I can easily hold the filter above the opening with two fingers and thumb and wrap the other two fingers around the bottleneck. I find this much easier than creating ways to stand up bottles for a hose to go into.

Comments about the positives:

1. Size and weight are absolutely great. Unbeatable for backpacking.

2. Water tasted great - my old PUR always had a bit of a "kick". My buddy has the Katadyn version and it does too. We filtered for each other frequently on a recent Yosemite trip and the taste left no doubt which filter was used each time.

3. Started out very fast but due to it becoming difficult to pump it is only marginally faster than the PUR now. I am disappointed in this, but in honesty my PUR is also difficult to pump now and so is my buddy's. In fact, when using his on this recent trip I found it about like going to the gym.

Overall I like this filter - light, compact, water tastes great. I have used it on several weekend trips (north GA) and a weeklong trip (Yosemite). Really my biggest frustration is that is has become relatively hard to pump. I didn't carry a backup in Yosemite because my buddy had one but for the next few trips locally I'll probably take my PUR just in case. As long as the Hyperflow doesn't further increase in difficulty I'll keep it. But if it does, I'll take it back. At this point I'd recommend it, but with the above caveats."