Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsVery useful on international trips
Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2019
I bought this use on an international trip to help us cut down having to use/buy an obscene amount of plastic bottles on a 2 week international trip with undrinkable water. Our friends had told us not to buy it, as it's "more for camping" and I'm glad we didn't listen to them. We did our research and found it is indeed, not "just for camping".. it filters out any bacteria, parasites, fecal matter, and any other unwholesome things no one can/should drink. It will easily last well over one trip with no need to bring back up filters. We couldn't fully get away from drinking bottled water- when you're on an 8 hour tour with no water refilling stations and it's 95 degrees in the blaring sun, you kinda have to drink the ones they hand you... but this helped us DRASTICALLY reduce our plastic waste. And at about $1 per 500ml per bottle, with a water drinking goal of about 2-3L per day, for 14 days, it probably saved us a ton of money as well.
It's super easy to use. I do recommend trying it out before your trip to get the hang of it, but it's super easy. You fill the pouch with tap water, wipe it down to prevent contaminating drips, screw on the filter straw, and gently squeeze it into any container. We had a reusable water bottle, but also refilled a leftover plastic bottle for brushing teeth, and filled our hotel electric kettle with it for coffee and tea. I was super paranoid about doing it wrong, because of the risk of accidentally dying and all, but it worked! We're not dead or sick!
There were times we were in places where the water (Koh Rong in particular) still had a heavy iron flavor after filtering, so we decided, on flavor factor alone, not to drink it. But that water was still useful to brush our teeth with, and other uses like that. We didn't end up needing the backflusher, as the water was probably not too sediment heavy, but it was nice to have it if we needed it. The whole setup was pretty compact, which is another nice feature when you're trying to live for 2 weeks out of a carry on backpack. I put the filter, bag, straw, and backflusher into a pouch and it fit pretty easily into our bags.
I'd say this was one of the most essential travel things we brought with us, and even if you're iffy about the water quality after filtration, at the very least it was nice to have some extra water around for hygiene. I highly recommend this as a travel essential going anywhere with non-potable tap water.
