I just got a Journey and used it last weekend on a group trip with 15 people and all weekend I had filter/chemical users borrowing it. It worked flawlessly and was extremely convenient on our trip where we were never far from water. The ability to use it in small mouth containers is also great, even though it comes with a 1oz weight increase over the Opti.

Sounds like the Journey is the ticket. I pretty much only use platy and recycled water bottles. I could treat in my pot then transfer, but not having to do this may be worth 1oz of weight.

Anyone seen any bargins on the Journey or Opti recently? I may post a WTB on Gear Swap, see if I get any nibbles. I saw a few Classics go up but I'm not interested in an 8oz gizmo, plus AA batteries can't last too long with that high output lamp. Anyway, I have a bung load of RCR123A LiFePo batteries for another toy I use.

$65 for the Opti at REI starting on the 20th.

"Anyone seen any bargins on the Journey or Opti recently?"

REI is having a member's sale starting the 19th, includes a coupon for 20% off one regularly priced item. I intend for the Journey to be my item as well.

How does one become an REI member?

I think most of us have a local store, but it works as a web-shop as well:

http://www.rei.com/membership

Pretty good outfit.

one more thing to love about BPL; 2 good tips in one thread!

While I wouldn't be so bold as to put words in Doug Ide's mouth ( ye gads! ) he did say an advantage to making a scoop out of the 2L platy was that it sat nicely on its base. Looks to me like cutting the thing off around the "P" for pus or couple inches above the 1L mark would be about right and you could always trim it down.

One obvious problem with platy jars and the small opening is getting the water into the jar. A scoop can allow more precision in collecting clear water. In the east there generally tends to be a lot more tilth and tillage in the near proximity to the water as opposed to water flowing over solid rock or stream having a clean gravelly bottom; and this can be a problem anywhere. Doug's scoop should weigh less than 1/2 oz.

The news about the steripen freedom is interesting. In my experience when some really neat/useful/ state-of-the art item of gear goes on sale it's often because it's about to be "taken out" by the next better product.

The new freedom + the multi-use scoop should be @ 3.3 oz

"one more thing to love about BPL; 2 good tips in one thread!"

Ya, and none of them ever from me :)

One day there will be a thread for workflow in relational database applications, then I'll get to be the smart one.

Thanks for all the input everyone.


"In my experience when some really neat/useful/ state-of-the art item of gear goes on sale it's often because it's about to be "taken out" by the next better product.
"

Cola, that's usually the case. I generally rely on the "new version" so I can get the perfectly good old one at a deep discount. Though that Steripen Freedom at 2.x OZ and it's lithium battery sounds like a pretty good deal. I'll hold out unless I get a good offer on gear swap.

Cola, I've seen very little about the Freedom and that was from the Winter vendor shows. Do you have new info and if so would you share a link to your info please? Thanks.

I could be wrong, but I've heard:

*Lithium battery (don't know if it's replaceable but the bulb is still rated to last 8000 treatments)
*USB charger
*30L per charge
*Only does 0.5 L treatments at a time
*2.6 ounces, 5.1" long
*$130, out this summer

Edited by billygoat on 05/14/2011 06:12:58 MDT.

Specs per Billy Goat are basically correct. The battery is not replaceable. The price of $130 seems a bit high to me, but we won't know until it is officially released.

Cheers

Warren I was just passing on info from earlier in this thread plus links supplied on this thread to web postings usually generated by the aforementioned winter trade shows. Like Schultzy or whatever his name was in Hogan's Heros " I know nussink...nussink !

I was however going to offer to hold the bets on how much the over and under would be on the added price for the one ounce drop plus extra features but now Billy has ruined that chance for a friendly wager with the hard facts. Dontcha just love modern marketing!

How much is an ounce worth anyway? And 1/2 liter at a time?

Ya, those specs are basically what I'd read and Roger is just confirming them. I wanted to wait for the Freedom, but got the Opti and will be happy with that. One thing I don't like, 30 liters before the battery has to be recharged. Probably a few others don't like that either. If a person uses 4-5 liters a day and two people use it on a trip, that's only good for three or four days. At least the Opti is supposed to do 50 liters before a new set of batteries is needed. Maybe that extra ounce isn't so bad after all. We shall see.

Yes agreed the REI sale is looking better all the time!

Looking at REI site there are many bad reviews for the SteriPen Journey. Only 2 Star rating on a fairly large sample set of 21 reviews. Similar complaints also from a couple of MEC reviewers. So looks like I will go for the Adventurer Opti or wait it out a bit longer til these Journey bugs are resolved.

Interesting side note: I was in MEC and reading the box for one of these, bizarrely it says "not a sterilizer". Maybe they should change the name to NotSteriPen ???

My new SP Journey seems OK, though per reviews, they do seem to be hit or miss. They are finicky and require a patient touch. I got mine from REI just in case it needs to go back...

Richard, the Steripen does not kill or remove anything--it does not "sterilize" by definition--hence the reason they say it is "not a sterilizer."

Edited by AaronMB on 06/05/2011 12:47:20 MDT.

I have a Steripen Journey. When it's working, it's great. It can be finicky though. Definitely carry a backup means of water purification. The battery compartment is poorly designed. The user interface is poorly designed. The rubber stopper with a 500 ml water bottle are brilliant. For me, it's worth carrying.

> FYI: the Steripen does not kill or remove anything--it does not "sterilize"
> by definition--hence the reason they say it is "not a sterilizer."

As a microbiologist, I have no problem calling it a sterilizer.

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