I made a gravity filter from my hiker pro. I used a Walmart dry bag. I seam sealed it but I noticed small water drops coming through the bag. I have a can of silicone waterproof spray. Should I spray and would it work or just not worry about the little drops?

If you sprayed it with silicone stuff, would your water then get contaminated?

Spray silicone is a bad idea. Toxic and won't work to fix your problem anyway. The cheap Wally Worlds just bit you in your trying to save money wallet. Start over with another bag.

Put water filled bag in stuff sack.
Hang sack.
Insert tube in bag opening and siphon.

I've used this water bag for almost 5 years - coghlan's water bag

http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___80728

holds 2.5 gallons and weighs nothing. I only need to fill the bag once for a weekend if we are base camping

enjoy

Dave

seems like I need to start over. since I'm starting over, any opinions on the hiker pro filter? should I use a sawyer filter instead? also, should I use some sort of prefilter?

There are many good threads on here and YouTube. It just depends on what you want, your water sources and how much you want to tinker and spend.

Filter in the bag, filter in line, sawyer, katadyn, tubing, connectors, quick release, bio-diesel pre-filter bags, weight, fiddle factors, back washing, mucky, sandy, clear water. There are threads on all of the above.


enjoy

Dave

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=8994

If you used the 3-pack roll top dry bags (green, orange and blue) then you didn't need to seam seal it. Personally I wouldn't want to use it after using the silicone on it. Regarding the drops, you are outside so a small wet spot on the ground won't hurt a thing. However, what I've noticed with mine is that the beads of water actually stop after it's been hanging for a bit. It will continue to sweat some but no dripping and for me it's really not a big deal.

Yes, I used the green bag. I guess I must have gotten a bad one. Water was dripping from the seams. I seam sealed the outside. Is the seam sealer toxic?

I too made my diy gravity filter using a hiker pro cartridge and the green dry bag from Walmart, and I too had the same experience with water leaking at the seams. I eventually replaced the Walmart bag with a 10L, roll top Outdoor Research brand bag and it works great. Although the Walmart bags are a good price considering you get three for the price of one name brand bag, the law "you get what you pay for" still applies.

Yes I had the same experience with leaking seams on the cheap bags - it doesn't bother me much and it does seem to slow down as it gets wet... the water loss is insignificant to me.

I also needed to reinforce the top closure strap - after hanging a few times full the clip busted off.. I added a nylon webbing strap along the flex (no plastic) top edge and attached a new clip buckle to that - much stronger - I actually added 2 extra loops - one each side so when hung from these there is no strain on the buckle.

I now use the sawyer filter - the advantages are its smaller and you can get better head by raising the bag higher - need more hose & a cord to pull the bag up over a tree limb - but to me its worth it for faster filtering.

This also means when you fill the dirty bag you don't need to futz with keeping the clean hose clean (hate that on the Katadyn base camp filter). You do then however need a valved quick disconnect on the dirty bag.

Alan

check out this youtube :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXcGcY4ppoo

This setup has served me well

Dave