Sawyer Products Mini Water Filtration System

Used this on a backpacking trip this past weekend at Gem Lake in WA state. I was very try surprised how well this worked and how easy it was to use. It’s small and compact easy to fit in a small zipper, the water capacity I got is 16oz and worked will for me, the speed of it was depending on how your squeezed the water out, and I felt that the quality was pretty good for what I paid for. I would like to get a larger water bladder as it took me a good 15 min out es to fill up a 3L bladder. Also, I was worried about a weird taste from the filter and surprisingly I did t have an issue. If you do a little liquid iv or gatorlite can help with the taste if needed.

UPDATE:So I recently added the CNOC Vecto 2L bladder to this rig and got rid of my Survivor collapsible canteens. I don't think I'll be going back. The Vecto has a large opening to fill, and a 28mm bottle cap to dispense. The Mini screws on perfectly and now I can filter 2L at a time with no issues. Loving this.I also have gotten rid of all my Nalgenes from my backpacking/camping setup. I use them for the office now. I have replaced them with Smartwater bottles. The SW bottles weight less than 2 ounces each, cost $1-2 each and fit the Mini. I have also found I can get two 32 oz SW bottles into a single water bottle pocket on my pack. That means I can either carry 4 liters of water without affecting my internal storage. I have come to really value that decision. When a SW bottle wears out or breaks, I can replace it at pretty much any grocery store for less than $2.ORIGINAL REVIEW (May, 2017):Did some back country camping this past weekend and took the Sawyer Mini out with me for the first time. Reviews on it were good and I was looking for ways to cut down on weight and footprint on my old filter system (a pump). The mini is excellent.I've seen a few reviews complaining about the bag it comes with and the time it takes to squeeze "x" amount of water through it. All I have to say is, yes the bag is too small. 16 oz is kind of lame. The quality of the bag? Seems decent enough. I'll end up replacing it anyway with a pair of Survivor Filter collapsible canteens (32 oz each).As far as the filter goes, I tried it on just some regular old tap water to function test it and get familiar before taking it out. I filtered two liters of water through it (2 Nalgenes) and then back flushed it. I was shocked to see the brown much it filtered out of the tap water! I may get a second on and just screw it onto a SmartWater bottle for drinking at work!The system was easy to use. I don't know what kind of rush others are in when backpacking, but I'm not. I move at my pace and take my time. i'm not in a race when I'm backpacking or camping. I don't mind taking a couple minutes to filter some clean drinking/cooking water.The Sawyer Mini works great. I have zero complaints. I appreciate that it comes with the syringe to back flush it and keep it working well. The 16 oz bag is too small, but it works, and unless you're Hulking out on the thing, it should last just fine. That's one piece I'll upgrade, but the filter alone is well worth the cost of the set.

Love this sawyer water filter set. Really easy to use. Comes with 2 straws, 2 squeezable bag with twist caps and a mesh bag to keep everything together. The squeezable bags are tough to use (to fill from a stream). So I replaced them with another bag that has a larger opening. The filters connect to a regular water bottle twist caps (Poland spring/smart water bottle).Arrows on the side make it helpful to understand which way the filtered water should flow. No after taste or weird flavor so you can really get the cool “spring water” taste of a mountain spring.It also comes with cleaning syringes to reverse out any debris that gets stuck in the filter. These should last a relatively long time if taken care of.Definitely recommend adding to your hiking kit. Great value for two filters.

Never got diarrhea despite drinking from countless streams, including some sketchy ones near horse paths. It didn't last anywhere near its expected lifetime though, nowhere near 100k gallons. Lasted less than a year, about 500 gallons despite being exclusively used with tap water or mountain stream water from the Sierras and being flushed semi regularly.When I got it it was easily filtering water, i patched it in line with my water bladder and would filter for friends. Towards the end of its life, despite being aggressively flushed before the trip, it was struggling to put out a liter every 5-10 minutes with the water bladder being squeezed and required excessive force to get pressure just through the bite valve. For the price it's good though, about what was expected.

I bought this to filter water on long day ohikes. Worked perfectly for my needs and I loved being able to fill the water bag from a stream or river and have clean water by squeezing it into my water bottle. I especially like the compact size and different options for use. Very easy to use.