Does anyone have any advice on the best gravity water filter system? I’ve always used a Msr mini works pump, but I’m looking to upgrade to something that can be a little more hands off.
My brother has the msr gravity water filter and he loves it. I think I’m going to get one as well, then I can use it in the camper and out on the trail.
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I use the katydyne 6l gravity filter. Has worked great for us the last two years and relatively cheap like 60-80$
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I also started out with the Katydyne 6L and it worked great initially. But after about 24L filtered the flow rate declined significantly. This was on apparently clear, flowing small streams in the Rockies. If you read the reviews, I think you’ll find that people either love the Katydyne or they have this experience with its throughput suddenly dropping off even on fairly clear/clean water.
I removed the filter from the Katydyne, kept the bag and hoses, and added a Platypus Gravityworks (https://www.rei.com/product/813800/platypus-gravityworkscleanstream-replacement-cartridge) inline filter on the hose out of the Katydyne bag. This option is still going strong and I’m probably well over 200L of use.
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+1 on the Platypus Gravityworks recommendation. I took it to the Sierras last summer and it was incredible. Pumping for a family of four took forever when backpacking. The thing saved sooo much time. Best part is that with a little ingenuity (buy the quick connectors) you can set it up so you don’t even have to take the bladder out of you pack to refill.
https://www.rei.com/product/812023/camelbak-quick-link-conversion-kit
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The Grayl is something in between a pump style and a gravity feed style but Im still on my first filter and it has gotten me through a couple months in Africa before covid and a couple months drinking out of a creek in colorado last July and August. I would fill it 5 or 6 times filling up all of our containers from the non-potable wells at the campgrounds in Africa, it’s only now getting slow to filter.
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Thanks for the tip- I’ve been really happy with their product (I’ve had my miniworks for 20 years…whoa, getting old). I didn’t realize they made a gravity filter. I’ll do some more inquiry.
Thank you, after looking this one up and seeing that tube-pinch, I have actually seen this one in action. Good to know it’s got some longevity in it.
My MSR has this problem sometimes, but I just take a scott scrubber to the ceramic filter element and it gets going again. It looks like these have replaceable filters- but would you say that the issue comes from the filter protector itself?
This was my original idea, but for some reason the duel bag system turns me off. That output time is pretty comparable, though. Thanks for sharing your experience. I used to use a bladder system, but have moved back to Nalgenes because I can just toss them in the dishwasher. I can’t tell you how many times I had to replace my bladder. Bleach can only save the day so many times 
. I wish I was better, but after 20 years of not doing the due diligence, I might have to accept my faults.
I just saw these for the first time at REI yesterday! I used to have a french press setup from GSI that worked like this, but the seal where the two canisters merged always leaked. Tossed the dang thing in the recycle bin after a few months of failure. Have you had any issues with drip?
Never had any issues with leaking or anything like that, the construction is so solid! There are seals all over the place since the filtering part is replaceable. I’ve abused the crap out of mine in the year and a half I’ve had it. I’m sure I’ve used it for more than 300 cycles, Probably 200 cycles in the couple months I was in Africa alone, and it’s still going strong
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I never tried to scrub the surface of the filter. My recollection is that it was a pleated material in a cylindrical shape and then covered by a plastic mesh protector/ coarse screen. So scrubbing it would just have gotten to the outer protector and not the folds of the fine filter. But, I could be wrong in how I’m remembering it.
Thanks for the clarity- sounds like a definite flaw. I did some more research after your comments. I definitely saw a lot of this complaint. I’ll definitely be steering in an alternative direction. Thanks for sharing your experience.
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I do know my msr pump style filter has a solid filtering component. That you can definitely scrub with a green scour pad to refresh your filter.
But with the katydyne one it definitly has the mesh exterior so no scrubbing and cleaning of that filter.
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Did some more research and I can see that mesh exterior now. I’m going to take a pass on this product until they update their design. Nothing really beats the quality and efficiency of the MSR for me right now. I think I’ll hold off on a gravity filter for now until the technology advances.
Others really like that platypus setup, but for some reason I can’t get past the two bag system.
I am an additional proponent of the Platypus system. I’m not sure I’m grasping what you mean by two bag system. We use ours to fill up direct our nalgenes (my partner occasionally prefers to use her camelbak) and it works great filling up either.
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Recently read an article about using a couple drops of bleach per liter of water.
Try that lol
Jk I’m sure it works but if you went on a week long backpacking trip and drank a gallon or so a day. That’s a lotta damn bleach
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I have actually heard of friends doing this. It’s only a few drops per gallon, but I don’t think I could get past the optics of it: the bleach going in, or the debris in the water when drinking.
I’d also recommend the Platypus GravityWorks system–was on an elk hunting trip this past October and a guy in our group had one. Can’t even begin to explain how nice it was to just fill up one bag and bring it back to camp to top off all our bladders and bottles rather than sit down at the creek with our tiny little hand pumps. When empty they compress down into nothing, just hang it from a tree or the GFC at camp and let it do the work while you relax.
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