I want to get rid of the weight from my pump water filter. I am interested in trying to incorporate a Sweetwater Siltstopper and a Seychelle In Line Eliminator water filter into the tubing of my Platypus or building a gravity fed water filter.

I have 2 specific questions.

The Sweetwater Siltstopper input and output spouts are significantly smaller than the inner diameter of my Platypus tubing. Any thoughts how to put the Siltstopper into the line without it leaking?

Where in the line of the Platypus or the gravity fed water filter would you place these filters? Near the reservoir or more down stream in the tubing?

Thanks.

I made a gravity filter a while ago and had a similar problem with the tube sizing. I went to the local hardware store and bought some rubber tubing that fit over the filter's spout, but inside (with a bit of work) the hose I was using. After fitting it all together, I wrapped the tubing/spout interface with waxed nylon string tightly, like fishing poles guides are attached to the rod.

The location of the filter shouldn't make much difference in performance. For a platypus system, you will want the filter inside your pack to keep it from bouncing against your chest while hiking; reducing the chance of it coming loose. I've seen the gravity filters with the filter at the water reservoir or the filter at the end. Both seem to work the same.

Jay
MYOG

Unless you're jusy dying to make your own in-line filter, ULA makes a nice gravity filter system one for in camp use called the H20 Amigo and weighs 7.5oz. Check it out at
Edited by Obdewla_X on 02/07/2006 21:37:23 MST.

Let's try that again! Check out the H20 Amigo at

http://www.ula-equipment.com/

Edited by Obdewla_X on 02/07/2006 21:48:15 MST.

Make your own
gravity water filter

Just curious: It doesn't bother you to have to wait for the water to filter? I've thought about using a gravity fed filter for a while but am impatient. Usually when I want water, I want it right away and don't want to wait.

Hi Jason, One of my first chores in camp is to set up my H2O Amigo to filter water. I usually have plenty of filtered water (at 1.7 liters / minute) in the 5 minutes or so it takes to set up camp. I've been pleased with mine. I usually hike near good water sources, so have never used it in a dry (desert) type setting. YMMV... Carol

Go to your local autoparts store and look in the vacuum hose fittings. You should be able to find plastic stepped fittings that will fit different sized tubing on both ends.

You can use short runs of silicone hose from any filter system. The silicone hose is small diameter, but will stretch to fit over larger fittings. If you put it on a smaller fitting, you can add an elastic band over the connection to dynamically "clamp" the hose in place. I use the same hose they provide with the PUR/katadyn hiker filter.

My gravity setup that I made a few years ago:
platypus 3L big zip "hoser"
camelbak quick connector with shut-off
sweetwater silt-stopper
one of those inline filters.. seychelle? it's black.
I filter into my camelbak 1.5L bladder, or directly into a cookpot when camping with a group. The shutoff is handy, or you could just un-hang the "dirty" water bag.

Edited by brian on 03/09/2006 00:48:48 MST.