Tablets or Filters

“I'm considering ditching my pump filter in favor of purification tablets. What does everybody else do? I've heard that the tablets need prolonged exposure to the cold water that comes out of springs (like 30 minutes or more).”

“The miox system is where it is at today.”

“saw that in the latest Natl Geo Adventure. Super lightweight. You used it?”

“Ok, read the specs on the Miox. Only 3 oz less than my PUR filter, ( the complete kit, whatever that means) a little slimmer and awfully pricey.”

“I have an Xtreme...I love it..it pumps slow tho”

“You don't have to pump it.”

“isn't cold weather hard on purifiers ??”

“Filter, (Pur Hiker, but others work good too)

The weight is worth it to me, I don't like the taste that comes with the tablets and wouldn't drink enough.”

“Apparantly Airbus is purchaseing the MIOX system to use on their new jumbo jet. That's pretty cool.

I'm looking primarily to turn 11 oz (dry weight) of my filter into about 2 oz. of tablets. I'm just curious if people that use tablets like them and if I really have to wait 30 minutes or more to have safe water.

The miox write up I was reading said it needed a 30 min. application time to be 100% effective.”

“I've got the PUR Hiker too pepsi. It works fine. I've never used tablets.

Div - cold weather can cause the filter to freeze up. I don't know if it effects filter cartridge life or not. Probably does if it's constantly freezing and thawing.”

“30 min is too long to wait!! and the taste....ewwww...”

“Absolutely. If I'm hiking where water is plentiful I don't carry much in my pack. THe pump is so fast - it's like instant gratification. One of the nice things is that water out of the ground tastes beayooooootiful, especially in the Smokys.

I saw a chemical treatment at campmor where you mix two drops of different stuff to get protozoa free water, but it looked fairly expensive - compared to the tablets.”

“If you have never used tablets, try them at home. The after taste might decide it for you.

Some people use powdered mixes to mask the taste, some people ( I think Twigeater might) use powdered mixes to mask the taste.

The directions on the ones I sometimes carry for emergency also say to wait 30 Minutes before drinking.”

“I like the tablets, the kind that has the second tablets that get rid of the first tablets taste :) Its sooo easy to use and it will never break or freeze on you, takes almost no space at all and is cheep.”

“If you use the iodine tabs, don't mix anything with them until they have treated the water...if the mixes contain any vitamin C it will neutralize the iodine.

You can also just by the cheaper iodine tabs and use your own vitamin C and save a couple bucks.”

“I've got the Polar Pure iodine system, where you put some water in with the Iodine to pretreat and then put that in your water (filling it up before the next time).

Had never used it till Gojo's filter turned into a piece of #&%!$ on Cumberland! Then it worked well. There is a temp guide on the side of the bottle that tells you how long you must wait depending on the temperature outdoors.”

“Where I work, we use a product called Aerobic 07. There is ABSOLUTELY NO reason it should work, it's active ingredients are Sodium Chlorite, Carbonates and Bicarbonates.

We put about 8/10 drops in a quart of water...thats it.

I was the most skeptical person in the world about this, but they have been using it for over 8 years and not one case of Giardia has been reported.

I have been using it for the last 5 years, in some really nasty water and I have never gotten sick. I have been tested almost every year (part of some other tests my Doc. runs) and I keep coming up clean.

I occasionally use Potassium Permanganate as a treatment, but mostly the damn drops...no filters, no iodine tabs, nothing I should...

"haven't gotten sick one time, probably keep us both alive"....Jefferson Airplane.”

“Wooden Ships?

(Crosby/Stills/Kantner)


The pills' taste doesn't bother me. Also... if it's cold outside (or anywhere near freezing), boiling doesn't seem to be such a hassle considering the possibility of freezing your filter. Heck, I'm boiling anyway... and the water where I hike is nearly always clean 'looking' (not requiring a filter to get rid of any visible sludge).

The pump on that Pur Hiker died on me after pumping TWO quarts. I bought it a while back --- I wonder if Katahdin is honoring Pur's guarantee?”

“I bet the guarantee is still good Tilt. Give 'em a call. I've never had a problem with the PUR Hiker filter clogging.

Mtnsteve - I had a job in between semesters a few years back at a plant that did the stone wash treatments for Levi and Lee. We used Potassium Pomanganate in the wash cycle to bleach out the jeans. That and the industrial strength Hydrogen Peroxide were some of the nastiest chemicals I've ever been around - they would burn holes in your clothes and eat your skin off. That job was incentive enough to finish college.”

“What you saw at Campmor was probably Aquamira drops. It's pretty good stuff. I use it in the winter when a filter freezes and doesn't work and as a backup to a filter in non freezing conditions.”

“That's what it was - I couldn't remember the name.”

“When I use the iodine tablets, I use the nuetralizer, I buy the two together. There is no iodine taste then. You have to wait for the iodine to do it's thing before adding the nuetralizer. Supposed to wait longer for colder water.”

“PS Roam, if the water is coming from a real spring (like you mentioned in your original post) you shouldn't need to filter or purify.”

“That was the weird thing --- it didn't clog or anything like that. It was in brand new condition and the prefilter was attached. It just wasn't moving any water when I went to use it the next day.... or when I got home.

I was thinking that a diaphragm in the pump mechanism failed. Can't Trust Those Diaphragms, ya know...

So.... I popped some polar pure tabs in one bottle, and seeing as how I had some time to kill and some extra fuel, I boiled some also.”

“You might have a blown check valve or a busted o ring on the bottom of the pump. The pump o ring is easy to fix - it might just be dried out and need greasing up.”

“Most water in the Smokys comes out of streams and creeks, occasionaly a spring and a lot of the springs are piped with rusty really old metal pipe.”

“Tilt...your right....since you may be a connoisseur, remember a song called "Coming back to me" by Kantner?

twigeater...the neutralizer is Absorbic acid (Vitamin C)”

“I use the Polar Pure iodine bottle. Add water to make a saturated iodine solution, add a couple of capfuls to a liter of aqua, wait 30-45 minutes and drink. The brackish taste is not that bad to me. Just obe warning - if the bottles breaks, the iodine will degrade the nylon fabric most of your gear is made of.”

“Yep. I'm going to check it out some more and only send it back if I have to.


I think I'd be more concerned if it was Lead pipe in those springs, <G>”

“yeah I know mtnsteve - it's just easier to buy them together, and they're like what? five bucks or something like that for the set? pretty cheap to me.”

“Roam Around...there are a few other things you can do with PP, like start fires and make explosives...didnt know about the bleaching thing.”

“Cool...around here they charge an additional 4/ $5.00 for the little bottles with the neutralizer.You ever want to see something real pretty, add Ramen Noodles to a bottle of iodine treated water...turns a beautiful shade of blue.”

“Some of those pipes prolly are lead a lot of them are 50 years old prolly.”

“I guess the lead would probably be disolved and go right through a water filter....


If you eat that Blue Ramen, does it give you a blue tongue like a Chow dog? LOL”

“Back to the Polar Pure that I have and Top Dawg mentioned. I'd say keep it at least single and more likely double bagged. Mine was refilled too full and iodine leaked. However, it's in a bag. Just common sense.”

“the colder the water is the longer any chemical treatment will take. Filters are instant but can freeze up and be ruined if water is left in them. In winter the water is too cold for most of the nasties anyway.....”

“Last time I tried any iodine tablets they left a decidedly metallic taste to water. I have used AquaMira and it is great. It has a reaction time of 10 minutes or so, and leaves absolutely no aftertaste. If anything, AquaMira water tastes better than unfiltered water. Its pretty compact, so would be a good idea for ultralight uses. I sometimes carry both, in case I want to go off on a day hike, I can take the AquaMira, and leave the filter at camp for others to use.”

“Iodine tabs are all I've ever used unless someone else had a pump. Taste doesn't bother me and I love the weight and size.”

“If you add vitamin C to the water after using iodine, the bad taste get neutralized. Just wait at least 30 minutes, so the iodine can do its job first.”

“I primarily use a MSR miniworks filter and I really like it. When I want to go lighter I take Aqua Mira. to me the Auqa Mira makes nice spring water taste like city water. But then I am used to my well water which has 0 chemicals.”

“Lumberjack, you said: "In winter the water is too cold for most of the nasties anyway"

Do you have anything to back that up? I've NEVER heard of cold killing off the critters in the water.

Two ways for truly safe, disease/critter free water. First is to boil it, second is to chemically treat with a chlorine or similar treatment.

Personally, I won't touch chemical treatments, I don't drink tap water with dissolved gasses (chlorine) at home, I'm sure as hell not going to on the trail. I'll use a PUR Hiker on the trail to remove things like giardia and other similar organisms. If the water and water source is particularly suspect, I'll boil as well.

In the winter, it's boil, boil, boil.”

“All I use are tablets. I buy the neutralizer with them, and can't taste the difference. Very cheap and lightweight too.”

“I'll stick with the filter & only use tabs in an emergency. For 35 years I have taken water direct from springs with no ill effects.”

“I just got the Aqua Mira from Thru-hiker.com and plan to try that system out. Seems pretty simple.

For a couple of years now I have only used iodine tablets and neutralizer. No taste! and more importantly I don't have to work as hard to carry that extra pound. Nor do I have to sit around pumping that #&%!$ for ten minutes.

Pumping water was my least favorite thing to do on the trail. Mosquitoes biting your ass while you toil away. Now I just drop some tabs, laugh at all the mosquito swating pumpers, and hike on. Much more fun if you ask me!”

“Do you have any knowledge of the efficacy of Aerobic 07 against cryptosporidium? In all the info I could find, no claim was made regarding this pathogen, which is fairly common in the streams and lakes in the southeast. I'd like to try this stuff, but it almost sounds too good to be true.”

“Interesting subject, water is one of the things I don't feel I have right yet...

I've mostly used filters, a First Need and then a Pur Hiker. It's pretty hard to beat the ease of use and I feel safe with them, but the weight, and more importantly, the bulk, bother me.

I have a Safewater drip filter I've used a dozen times or so. It works, it is lighter and smaller. I can't say I really trust it not to plug yet. It does take care of thinair's concern - you fill up a platy, get away from the water and the bugs, & let it drip at camp.

I tried iodine for a season and got giardia. It might very well have been something I did in the way I handled the water, I'll never know.
I didn't like my bottles getting yellow. I think I almost got used to the taste.
FWIW you don't want giardia...

I tried Aqua Mira several times, one of my hiking friends uses that only. I think this is the way to go... not as simple as filtering, you have to mix two fluids, and you need a watch, but it's tiny, especially if you repackage it, and I'm convinced it's very effective. I just never get around to ordering it as it’s not available in any of the usual places.

I don't understand how it works, but if you want to read a scientist’s (and a backpacker that I respect immensely) opinion, go
" target="_blank">http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/00145.html”> here .”

“http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/00145.html\\\"> Aqua Mira


MS Word strikes again...”

“I agree, lS, Aqua Mira seems to be the way to go if you're tired of the bulk and hassle of filtering. Binks has it at backpackingdeals.com. BTW, giardia and cryptosporidium are both resistant to iodine and chlorine. There is just not enough scientific or even anecdotal evidence to make me comfortable with the stabilized oxygen compounds out there. Then again, my good old WaterWorks ll filter has never let me down, either. It would be nice to get rid of the weight and bulk, though.”

“That's my thing Daddy Xmas. I want to cut my 1 lb (with wet filter cart) filter down to a few oz. I think I could handle waiting 30 mins or so for the aqua mira to work, just have to plan ahead a little. I guess if your boiling water when cooking it doesn't really matter if you treat it. The only thing then is when you get "dirty water" you might want to strain it through a handkerchief or somthing.”