Tested heavily and I survived About a month ago I got back from a stay in Montana. A friend and I stayed on a Wildlife Preserve in Northwestern Montana at the base of the Sawtooth Range approximately 4060 miles from Choteau. On the drive in we stopped and grabbed 1 gallon of water for the first day as we were tired and didn't want to have to scramble for water. However we packed relatively light and knew we'd be filtering our water after that gallon was empty. I brought my Steripen as well as some purification tablets. He brought his Katadyn Base Camp and purification tablets.Neither of us wanted to pull water from a standing source and saw on the drive in many ponds and lakes. Luckily close to where we set up camp there was a stream. By all of the signs around us we knew we were sharing that stream with the local wildlife but figured I'd test my Steripen. Used the filter to keep any large particles out of the water then sterilized it per the instructions. Long story short I can say that either the Steripen works or the water was really clean to begin with as neither one of us got sick. In fact we never used the Base Camp or the purification tablets. We used the Steripen exclusively for the entire 7 days as it was light enough to carry hiking. Light weight was the key as we were already carrying our daypacks bear spray and various other items.
Completely Unreliable I brought my SteriPEN into the Himalayas during a monthlong trek. It failed for no reason on the fourth day of my ever using it and never worked again. I tried new batteries drying it I tried it over and over. I found this product to be completely unreliable and quick to fail. I have since spoken with other trekkers in Nepal who had the same experience with it. The product is a good idea but should be taken off the market until a more reliable product can be produced. It is a waste of money.
Loved ituntil it broke We used this for about 5 backpacking trips and loved it because it is lighter than a pump and you do not have to sit at the water source full of Mosquitos. But on our last trip it stopped working the constant red blinking light. We replaced the batteries with no improvement. We waited until later in the day when the batteries were warmer no improvement. The suggestion made in a comment to another reviewer that water from snowmelt is too pure and he should have added salt is interesting but if that is the case there should be a warning in large red letters on the instructions. If you are bringing a water purifier you need it to be reliable. By the time you bring replacement batteries and iodine tabs as backup it is not really any lighter than a pump and far less reliable. I do not recommend this product.
Just a Quick Review on a Fine Product I bought this for a recent trip to Puerto Rico. I figured the hotel we were staying 4star for cheap on Orbitz at would treat any water coming in and it would be safe to drink but my wife has a very sensitive stomach and I didn't want to take the chance. I decided to play it safe and purchase the SteriPEN so we'd always have water in the room that I could count on. As far as I'm concerned it worked just as advertised. It is super easy to use and worked every time without fail. The wife didn't get sick and the trip was probably the smoothest the family has ever had. As an added bonus I now have a piece of equipment I've wanted for a while now for doing some back country mountain biking and didn't have to justify the purchase to the wife. = I'll update when I've actually used the SteriPEN in open country or some type of emergency that calls for it promise.
Easily unusable. If I could I'd give this product a 5 review. I did not have any luck with this sterilization pen. My experience showed a product that was ill made & easily unusable & a complete waste of money. I used this on a bottle of water I had collected from a pond. I tested the levels before & then after treatment with the SteriPEN & the reading before & after were almost the same. I would not recommend this product to my worst enemy. I will continue use a bottles of water I buy at the market.
Can't be trusted in the backcountry I would love to be able to recommend the steripen because when it works it works great. What I can't figure out is why it works perfectly at home but is very sporadic on the trail. On a recent weeklong backpacking trip in Utah three of us had these along and all experienced the same problem. It would only work correctly about 25% of the time meaning that the light would successfully stay on for the required amount of time. The other 75% of the time we would all get the red failure light. I can assure you this was not operator error. It would often take three or four tries of having the light on in order to get it to work. Other times it would go straight to error and we had to give up.If you disregard this review and take it into the backcountry I strongly suggest that you bring either chlorine or iodine tablets as a backup.
Works like a Champ I have used this for 2 weeks now of drinking nothing but lake water and never got sick. It is a quick and easy way to sterilize and filter water. It is compact and easy to carry and use.
Amazing Water Purification Technology I've owned the classic SteriPEN for several years and found it to be reliable on 10+ backpacking trips including several 34 day trips. It's lightweight and fast compared to other treatment methods. A few things to note 1. If you don't follow the proper protocol the pen will not work and you will become frustrated until you realize your operating mistake. 2. Use lithium batteries so you have plenty of power regular batteries runout too fast. 3. It is possible to break the pen so keep iodine tablets as a backup on long trips. 4. The device will occasionally fail to complete a sterilization cycle and must be restarted.
Lightweight fast easy water purification We used this Steripen on a 25mile 3day backpacking trip in Hawaii. It was really nice only having to carry a liter of water at a time because it really cuts down on the weight you have to carry. The Steripen itself is only about 6 ounces including batteries and is not very big so it saves a lot of space in your pack. We sanitized water from multiple different streams along our hike and it was very easy and nobody got sick so I would say that it works well with respect to killing bacteria.The prefilter that comes with it is not intended for murky muddy water so if your only water source has a lot of dirt in it I'd recommend getting a real filtration system. But if your water is pretty clear and you're just worried about bacteria this is a great way to go.I strongly recommend using lithium batteries with this they are very lightweight and reliable. The instructions tell you not to use regular alkaline batteries and we had some issues using NiMH rechargeable which I suspect was the source of battery problems in some of the negative reviews but our rechargeables were pretty old. Also you should always carry iodine backup just in case.
Perfection The steripen is awesome. I took it backpacking for the first time a couple of weeks ago and I have to say that this is probably my best investment for backpacking equipment I have ever made. The pre filter works better than I expected and as I watched my friends use their pump filters I was watching the river roll by while using the UV light to kill any thing that could make me sick. My steripen took less time to get the job done and was a lot more portable. Everyone wanted it for day hikes. Best tool I own.
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SteriPen Classic Safe Water SystemB004FVMILO Tested, heavily, and I survived... Post a Comment