Steri-Pen Portable Water Purifier

"This was a great product. It kept the hydrogen oxide sanitary. The only downside is that the dead microbial life is still in the hydrogen oxide bottle. I would recommend using this as a secondary sanitizing source instead of iodine or sodium hydroxide tablets. First use a filter to clean the hydrogen oxide, then use the SteriPen to sanitize the hydrogen oxide. Filters alone still let some particulates and microorganisms come through and contaminate your drinking bottle. The SteriPen will sanitize and the hydrogen oxide. Otherwise, if you want your hydrogen oxide disinfected you will need to use sodium hydroxide or iodine tablets as these will make the hydrogen oxide have an unusual appearance and taste they will kill up to 99.99% of the remaining microbial life."

"I took this product to the Annapurna sanctuary in Nepal this August.

It is spectacular. I had a limitless supply of incredibly pleasant water to drink, and did not get ANY gastro-intestinal problems.

Some tips about using it.

#1. You MUST use the pre-filter. It gets rid of particulate matter that would shield bacteria and viruses that were in its UV shadow. When he saw the amount of particulate matter removed by the pre-filter, my guide remarked "Are you telling me that I am putting all of that in my body?"!

#2. You need to have a collapsable container that will take a full liter of water. It is ONLY used to gather unprocessed water. That liter is poured through the pre-filter into a solid plastic 1 liter Nalgene bottle.

#3. You insert the UV light, activate it and 70 seconds later you have one liter of water that is fit to drink, AND THAT TASTES GREAT.

#4. Personally, for convenience I transferred that liter to a back pack that had a two liter bladder.

#5, On my return to the USA, preparing for a trip to Ireland, I asked my wife if I should take the water purification system. She thought it completely unnecessary. the first thing our guide in Ireland advised us was not to drink tap water in the hotels!!!

#6. Friends, who are much more adventurous than I, want to use this device. They cannot stand the taste of the chemically purified water thay have to drink"

"I have used numerous water filters all over the world, from Laos to Pakistan to Nepal to California to Morocco to Kyrgyzstan. If, and this is the big if, you use it wisely, it is IMO the best solution I have found for how I travel.



Keys to best performance:



A. Read the instructions. IMO, you MUST use rechargeable AA batteries, not disposables. Disposables work in a pinch, but provide for barely marginal amount of sterilization prior to early battery death. In contrast, rechargeable NiMH AAs work miracles. They claim some huge number of liters with four AAs, but in ice cold glacier melt, we got about 25L for each set of four. If the water and temps were warmer, I'm estimating about double that.



B. AAs are much better for international travel than their CR-123 model. CR-123s are a real pain to find overseas. Moreover, their solar charger, well, don't expect them to charge miraculously. If you insist on a solar charger, instead invest in a small solar charger for AAs, like one made by PowerFilm. That way your AAs also run your digital camera, headlamp, Garmin GPS, cellphone or satcom phone recharger, recharge your MP3 player, etc.



C. You must use the pre-filter if the water is cloudy. Again, read the manual.



Follow those rules, and take this sucker everwhere. Since I use AAs for all my gear, when I'm out for a long time from power, I just bring a few extra AAs. Then, in the guest house 20+ days later, you recharge them all and you're off again."

"This is small and portable. We tested it out in the mountains of New Hampshire and will use it while deployed to Afghanistan. It's nice to know that this can be used to sterilize whatever water may be available. This one was more practical with the AA batteries over the other kinds that use watch type batteries. AA Batteries are easier to get in Afghanistan than the odd watch batteries."

"After hiking with a group of 8 a few times and wrestling around with 1-2 carbon filter pumps I bought the Steripen to speed things up and avoid having to spend half an hour in some strange position close to the creek.

This one is excellent for clear water, say a running stream or clear lake. Fill up all Nalgenes and then sit down comfortably and UV clean the water. You need to rotate the pen for 1 1/2 min for a 32oz bottle and then it's sterile. Natural taste preserved. The rotation is a tad too finicky (thus only 4 stars), a slight wrong move and the red light indicates to start over, but after few errors you get the hang of it. However, with muddy water or when you collect bugs or other particles or whatever from the source this obviously remains in there, just 99.99% clean like Orange juice with pulp ;-)

I use it with Eneloop NiMH rechargeable and they just lasted a full weekend for 4 people easily doing 12-14 gallons. If there is a clear stream around way better than carbon filter pumps."

"Love this improvement over typical pump filters. Qualifies as a purifier too I believe.



Had a bit of trouble getting started (didn't read directions, and was inserting it in water too early). But then off to the races.



Love not having to paddle canoe or drift while filtering water with kids in boat. Love not having to keep clean hose and "dirty" hose from getting mixed up or dropping clean hose in lake by mistake.



Just have kids scoop a couple water bottles full of lake water. Then, in boat or on shore, stick this baby in the water bottle and 90 seconds later you have a cool beverage ready to go!



Only complaint is that I need to keep it dry while boating, so have to have a dry seal bag for it, etc. Maybe the adventure version is waterproof?



Minor issue is that battery compartment cover seems a bit precarious. Time will tell how long it lasts, but so far one season down - hopefully many more to go!"

"The idea of the Steripen is great, but it eats batteries faster than specified, especially akalines. This makes it pretty unreliable. It's a good idea to have a backup, but then that ultimately defeats the purpose of replacing the traditional purifier. The gasket on the Prefilter Base did not fit onto the nalgene bottle good enough to prevent water from seaping in and contaminating the threads. This is my main concern because the threads are where you would normally put your mouth on to drink. Also, water from within the Nalgene bottle was able to seap out no matter how tight I screwed the Prefilter Base on. So, when you turn the bottle upside down to make contact with the Steripen as it's "plgged" into the Prefilter Base, contaminated water is slowing leaking out through the threads. I may have gotten a defective Prefilter Base, but I give it a 3 stars just because the Steripen is compact and easy to use without it."

"This is probably the single best purifier I've ever used. I used pump purifiers overseas and still got sick because it's difficult to remove all the contaminated water from the system. Also, the long tubes would entagle and contaminate the clean parts. I liked the idea of the STERIPEN because there were no tubes or areas that held bad water, yet I was still wary. So I tested it by going backpacking in an area that was heavy with horse/cow dung. I didn't get sick! That is the ultimate test for me! I am VERY PLEASED with this product!!"

"Do not buy one.The Steripen is dead weight on a backpacking trip. I used it successfully for 3 days, and the lamp stopped working. I returned it, [...] When I received it, it worked at home, but on the first day of my next trip, it only purified 3 quarts, with brand new lithium batteries, (which they recommend), before failing. I tried 5 or 6 times to get it to work, following the manual, with no luck. I then replaced the batteries with fully charged NiMH batteries. It purified one quart, and failed again. I tried with brand new duracells, with no luck. Luckily I carry iodine tablets as a backup. Without them I would have been out of luck.I spend 25-30 days a year backpacking. My old filter is a far more reliable and quicker way to purify water in the back country."

"I like that I can scoop up some water and sterilize it on the go. I hated sitting at the edge of water pumping away. The draw back I keep hearing is other consumers not liking "the unfiltered taste." Ok?? Im fine with it, especially after my experiences with using iodine. And yes, many filters suggest treating with iodine after filtering. My opinion stands with steri-pen. One thing I would like is a hard case. This would reduce the amount of worry over this product. Im always checking it see if i smashed the lamp."