Water Filters and Bladder
Katadyn BeFree
Our standard filter for many years, thousands of miles hiked and hundreds of days in the wilderness. This filter is fast, filtering about one liter a minute or a little more with a brand new filter. It has 42mm threads, so it'll fit Hydrapak water bladders (our preferred kind). They'll last for dozens of weekend trips or about 500-700 miles on a thru-hike filtering water for two. One caveat, you need to be selective with this filter, less then prime sources with a lot of silt or sediment can reduce the flow drastically and sometimes irreversibly. The speed and ease of filtration has always offset this issue but for this reason when we're hiking in the desert or somewhere with less then pristine water we carry a secondary filter of a different type to use when needed.
Sawyer Squeeze
If you a want a filter that's light, small and reliable, this is your guy. Is it fast? no. Is it fun to use? no. But when you need to filter water that looks like chocolate milk and you expect that filter to work again? This is your guy. You can backflush this filter over and over again and restore it back to a functioning flow rate. It is slow and painful to squeeze water through but when we need to filter large quantities I hang my bladder and let gravity do the work (I have a neat set of lids/adapter to attach this filter to a Hydrapak bladder). And with 28mm threads it'll fit right on your Smart Water bottles or many water bags. Sawyer also states a ridiculous life of 100,000 gallons. It's not sexy, but it's tried and true and hasn't failed on me yet.
Hydrapak 42mm Filter Cap
This filter has very similar performance to other carbon nanotube filters. The pore size is slightly larger and this increases the flow rate a tiny amount. It's a very fast and easy to use filter when water conditions are good (low turbidity). You can filter 4 liters of water without forearm cramps and too many curse words. It's susceptible to the same failures as similarly constructed filters, like rapid clogging in sediment rich water, but that comes as no surprise. Shaking it with a little water in your bag can clean the filter and restore some flow but in my experience when they fail significantly you never can restore any real amount of filter speed.
But again, despite those issues, if I'm going to have water of reliable quality with low sediment I use this filter for its speed and simplicity.
HydraPak Seeker 3L or 4L
This bladder has impressed with its durability over and over again. I've never replaced it and it has thousands of miles, hundreds of nights of use and has carried hundreds of gallons of water, especially after the Hayduke. It's not the absolute lightest bladder on the market but its resilience more than compensates. When I'm backpacking in remote desert areas my life may depend on the water I'm carrying, an extra ounce seems a small price to pay for a bladder I trust. It has 42mm threads so it fits BeFree filters and HydraPak's own filter cap. There are adapters that allow you to attach a sawyer squeeze with some quick connect fittings and this is my go-to desert set up. It also sets up a a gravity filter bag, making this part of a great filtration kit.
CNOC Bladder 3L VectoX
I love the design, its wide zipper opening allows you to fill your bladder directly in a low flow source, shallow stream, or pond. This is very challenging with a traditional bladder without a "scoop" or stirring up a lot of sediment. Unfortunately, I've had these fail on me in a number of ways, including small punctures, cracked lids and splits in the neck of the bladder. The company has always worked with me and replaced the leaking bag but it makes me nervous that it could fail and leave me very short of water (and we had close calls). CNOC is constantly making improvements and I hope in the future some of these issue will be corrected because I love the design and its available with two thread sizes. For light use or in situations where a loss of a few liters of water isn't critical, I'd recommend this with caution.
