General Ecology First Need XL Water Purifier

Anyone have any experience with this?

First Need water Filter on Amazon

Yes they do work, I had one for years and gave it away.
Considering the strainers available today that one would not be
my 1st pick, maybe 6th or 7th.
It does work.
It is also fragile.
The filter does not last long and is tough to clean.
If you what a cartridge type then check out the Ceramic
types, they allow you to scrub the filter clean.
IMO the best bet for your hard earned $$ right now
are the Sawyer inline filters.

ALL filters, ALL makes require a decent pre-filter
and no one makes one, you must do that yourself.

I have a Sawyer, among others. It was the first I had seen this one, and their web site talks about removing chemicals as well. Not much feedback on them except on Amazon and their web site.

Frediver, any advice on building a decent pre-filter?

The easiest is made by using a 50ml catheter syringe.
Cut the body to about 1/2, ie cut off at about the 25-30 ml point.
Trim the cath tip just a bit to create a wider opening that will still
fit in the intake hose. Load the syringe body with some poly fluff
to strain the floaties.
Using my current Sawyer Black inline filter I unscrew the
body and put a bit of poly fluff in the input side of the filter,
it has plenty of room.
My next option will be to find a serviceable inline gas filter, if I can find one that is small and light weight and use the body of it as a fluff holder.
Next and what I would consider if you worry about chemical contamination
would be to use a normal inline serviceable carbon cartridge, I believe
Katadyn makes one, just checked, they do. I see that Platypus also makes an inline carbon element but it seems to be sealed, I would pass on that one due to limited capacity and no ability to service.
I also see that Sawyer makes a male and female cap ends, if they will screw
together that could also be a basis for a prefilter or even a carbon element
or both together.

I have one but have never actually used it. I purchased it due to its ability to remove things (bugs and chemicals) other filters wont and because it has lots of adapters (nalgene, soda bottle, etc.). It's way too big and heavy to take backpacking so it sits in my emergency kit hoping to never get used.

I use my SteriPen for backpacking. Full review here:
http://adventurereports.blogspot.com/2011/06/steripen.html

Memory's....

My first water purifier, 20+ years ago. It was/is big, clunky and it purified water from tree stumps for over a week straight while I was stuck on a tropical island after a hurricane with no power. The cartridge doesn't last long under heavy use. Tech today puts this down on my list of purifiers I would choose first.