For the test today - neither. I was just interested in the two flow rates.

In tests about a week ago, a Sawyer Filter.
Edit: With a Closed Platy.

In the field, a Filter.

Edited by greg23 on 11/16/2010 13:59:04 MST.

To add more information to this over burdened thread I present my test data of two year ago.

Ambient test environment

GREEN BAG: Sea To Summit (http://www.seatosummit.com.au/showdetail.php?Code=AUDS)
Ultra-Sil™ Dry Sack - 8 Litre 17cm(dia)x 46cm / 6.5" x 18" 1.1oz/30g
(BAG TO ROLLED IN DRY BAG CLOSED CONFIGURATION)

Sea To Summit Dirty Water bag filled to minimum of 4 liters of “clear water”

WET SAWYER .02 micron purifier (8.75 oz) after charging

Outflow Tubing of 1.27 m in length (purifier at its end)
AVERAGE FLOW RATE for 39 TRIALS: 71.4 sec/ 1 liter

Edited by KENLARSON on 11/17/2010 08:35:33 MST.

It all depends as Ken said, whether your using the filter or purifier.

I say "hooey" too, Greg. I think they just want to sell us their own bags. I'm getting 2 liters from my regular 2-L Platy in about 2-3 minutes (Sawyer filter + Silt Stopper + 42" hose). That's good enough for me. If I'm worried about viruses, I'll add AM, then use the slower Frontier Pro. My 'full monty' would be the Sawyer setup plus AM and a Katadyn carbon filter and the rest of the kit ( So my final setups are FP (9.3 oz.), Sawyer (11.3 oz.), and full monty (15.3 oz.). This includes two 2-L platys, hanging cord, AM (if needed), and a large Heinie can and a Coghlan's filter to fill the dirty bag. I'm think I'm done with this project now. Thanks to you all for this dialogue--it has helped me a great deal. Looking forward to seeing a photo of your final setup, Ike.

I jsut got back from my 70 mile AT hike. The homemade filter worked great. I did tests with lots of water from many sources. All tests were done by treating with bleach for 45 minutes first. Then tasting the water, then filtering, then tasting again. Only a very faint bleach taste was present in the filtered water, faint enough that i had to search to find it when the bottle was full. When the bottle was close to empty(the filtered one) the bleach taste was stronger, but i suspect it condenses somewhat at the bottom anyway. I had a slight leak around where the 5 hour energey bottle cap screwes on, but completely solved it by wrapping one of those very thin clear garbage bags around the threads, then putting the cap back on. Flow rate was at least a liter a minute, maybe faster.

If i had the fliter to do over again i would make the following changes:

Drill holes in the caps instead of cutting them out.
Put the 1/4" quick disconnects INSIDE the cap instead of gluing them on the outside. For this to work you have to sand down the diameter of the rounded portion of the base of the nipple. But i suspect this can be easily done by hand.
You would need to order 2 of the quick disconnects from USPlastcic(about .75 cents or so each), beause one is thicker than the other. The 1/4" ID hose slips off the thinner one if pulled.
I also had a drip from where the nipple is glued onto the outside of the cap, but this can be solved by putting the nipple inside the cap instead of outside. The amount of water lost due to leakage while filtering 2 liters was probably an oz or two after addressing the thread issue.

I plan on re-doing this thing at some point to address the leaky threads and will make a how-to when i get around to it.

I plan to buy a 5 gallon bag of AC and once i remake this thing, continue to use it for years. Im perfectly happy with using it + bleach. I now have no need to buy expensive filters anymore, and mine can be replinshed cheaply with bulk items which is exactly what i wanted in a filtration system. Its also light as you only need an oz or so of bleach for a long trip, and the filter weights about 2oz. Be sure to blow on the input end when done filtering to remove about 2 oz of water weight before packing up again.

Could you post pictures of your final set up for all to see?

Please do, Ike.

I"ll be happy to when I get home.

BREAK THROUGH! EUREKA! I had been researching tops and caps for some time in hopes of finding a replacement that would allow me to avoid gluing and drilling all together. I discovered the Yorker dispensing cap. Its absolutely perfect for the job. It screws right onto both the 5 hour energy bottle and the coghlans bottle. I will be testing it tonight and will do a how-to video for this filter before the end of the week when my parts come in. I will document the construction process from start to finish for everybody. I had no idea what size yorker cap to order so i ordered nearly every size, i also ordered some 2oz bottles while i was at it. Once i am able to find out exactly which parts need to be ordered from USPLASTIC i will list the item numbers for everbody. Im guessing that the parts needed for this filter will be around $2 + shipping. Then you just have to buy the charcoal and micon biodiesel material from ebay. I wasted alot of money on pvc cement, superglue, silicone adhesives, etc. With this cap there is no need to glue anymore. just screw it on. I will post a link to the youtube video later this week.


Yorker cap:
http://www.thecarycompany.com/Images1/caps/YorkerCap.jpg

It fits very snugly onto 1/4" ID hosing. The actual constructin of this activated carbon filter, now with this cap, will probably be less than 5 minutes.

Edited by isaac.mouser on 11/30/2010 15:35:37 MST.

Part 2 coming tommorow morning, its uploading tonight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOhrlPjjkTw

Never buy another charcoal/activated carbon filter for backpacking ever again. Never worry about leaks because this diy job uses no glue. Properties: removes chemical tastes from your water, improves water taste, easily field serviceable, self-cleaning(germs), not likey to freeze, removes foreign chemicals/contaminants, save money and time. With the purchase of bulk materials and the necessary parts you will be able to refill this system for years to come, saving you lots of dough you would have spent buying another filter. This system is meant to be used with chemical treatments like chlorine dioxide tablets or bleach. To prevent freezing, simply blow as much water out of the filter as you can when your done using it. This will also restore filter nearly back to its original weight before being used.

This filter wil also work in an inline cambelbak type system, You can easily suck water through it.

A note about results: Results will be directly dependent on the quality of your activated carbon, density inside the unit and exposure time.

See youtube description for links:

Weight: 2.3oz
Total cost Bulk purchase: $57-$67
Total cost Sample sizes: $$32-$40



Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOhrlPjjkTw

Part 2;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSyLXavJA-o

(1.)Suitable activated carbon(I have not tried the 20x50 sizes, they may seep through 1 micron material I dunno. Check the size chart after clicking the description):
About $30-$40 bulk or $10(shipping included):

http://www.buyactivatedcharcoal.com/granular_activated_charcoal_12x30mesh_coconut_acid_washed

http://www.buyactivatedcharcoal.com/product/granular_activated_carbon_20x50mesh

http://www.buyactivatedcharcoal.com/bone_char_8x24mesh

Calgon Activated Carbon information:
http://www.calgoncarbon.com/carbon_products/water.html
(google search calgon after deciding which you want)

samples:
http://www.buyactivatedcharcoal.com/product/SAM

(2.) 1 (or ½) Micron biodiesel filter material:
Ebay, bought bulk about $25 shipped
Bought small portion: about $10
(3.) Yorker caps from Usplastic:
#66112, #66113, #66114
$5 shipped
(4.) Coghlans contain-alls:
Online $10 shipped
Store $5
(5.) 5 Hour energy bottle:
$2
Or order the coghlans contain alls and thinner bottles off usplastic and try to come up with your own combo of thinner bottles.

Edited by isaac.mouser on 02/17/2011 06:39:46 MST.

ACtually i may be able to ditch my filter all together if I can obtain this material:

http://www.buyactivatedcharcoal.com/activated_carbon_fiber_cloth

Right now i use a prefilter made out of 1-micron material that i just pour my water into, aligning it over the dirty bag and letting it fall right in. Works good. Well if i can use this material, I can sew 1-2 layers of it onto my current prefilter and maybe ditch my GAC filter all together. Without a doubt it would be the lightest 1 micron removing carbon filter ever. The weight penalty would be practically nothing to sew on a few layers of that stuff. Only problem is i cant find a distributor that will sell it in small amounts. This is would significantly lighten my filtering setup.

I've been looking into making something like the bottles above but was sure there was something else out there. Might want to check out "drying tubes" that are used in laboratory equipment like the one this guy is using for this experiment:

http://www.chemistryland.com/CHM107Lab/Lab1/Lab1PreparingPurifiedWater.htm

Edited by pjbates3 on 06/10/2011 11:38:42 MDT.

I've been playing around with using the new Camelbak Fresh Reservoir Filter as an inline charcol filter. It only weighs about 2 oz with the charcol element included. You can splice it right inline using quick connect couplings just like what is required for the sawyer filter.

With the quick connect couplings, I can remove it and leave it home without a lot of fuss when I don't want it.

So my set up goes: dirty water bladder --> ~3' hose section --> sawyer filter --> 6" hose section --> camelbak charcol filter --> 6" hose section --> clean water bladder.

The intial filter cartridge with one charcol filter element costs $20. A 2-pack refill costs $20 as well. Each element is good for around 120 L.

It comes apart easily for washing/drying or replacing the charcol filter. Appears to be watertight so far and doesn't affect flow rates.

I'm liking it.

Wow, that's the first time seeing that Camelbak inline carbon element with the quick connects. That might be just the thing I'm looking for.

Instead of using the carbon inserts that they sell, does it look like you could somehow use granular carbon instead of having to keep buying the inserts?

Edited by pjbates3 on 06/10/2011 13:13:06 MDT.

Here is what I was putting together over the winter, mostly just for fun after following Ben Tang and Isaac's ideas about using chlorine bleach to treat water. I haven't actually done anything with this yet and I mostly use Aquamira drops now.



Clockwise from top left: marine charcoal from Petsmart, mesh charcoal bag from Petsmart, wide-mouth bladder (Nalgene Canteen), GSI Outdoors H2jO! Coffee Filter, a wide-mouth cap with an attachment point for a hose (the black one has a hole in the middle, the blue one has a short "elbow" tube coming out the top; you only need one).

Very basic: the charcoal goes in the mesh bag (just a 2d layer to keep the charcoal from leaking out) which goes into the H2jO which screws onto the bladder. I would treat water with chlorine bleach in a dirty bag which would flow down a hose into the clean canteen bag. The water would flow over and around the mesh bag and you could turn the canteen over and swish it around when the canteen is full. This system would also allow a lot of contact time with the charcoal. When not needed, I remove the H2jO and allow it to air-dry a little before storing it in a zip-loc bag. You then need another wide-mouth lid for the canteen.

Again, I don't think this would be necessary, except following chemical treatment, particularly chlorine bleach or maybe iodine (if that's even used anymore). It's my understanding that the charcoal has a beneficial use with chlorine, potentially removing harmful by-products of the chlorine.

Edit: er, the pic is sideways. Just turn your head.

Edited by saparisor on 06/10/2011 13:33:13 MDT.