Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had seen any credible reviews/reports on whether the Steri Pen is as effective for all kinds of bacteria/viruses/cysts/protozoa as boiling or the Katadyn Micropur tablets (my current preferred methods of water purification). How about in cold water/dirty water (I'd strain it as best I could through a cloth, but still...)? It seems like one of those "too good to be true" items...what's the catch? I know that it could run out of batteries, break, is heavy, costs a lot, etc., but I'm concerned with its efficacy foremost. I see that it "exceeds EPA standards"...does the EPA agree?

Thanks,

K.

I have the Steripen adventure and have had no problems with it. The only complaint with mine is that if you leave batteries in it when not using it, it will drain them. I use it and pull the batteries out, I have 4- 5 watt solar chargers (20 watts) to recharge the batteries (4 sets) if needed. They are working on a LED version but it's a long ways out, the Marine Corp is working with them to develop a field unit. UV has been around for a while and is used commercially and also is used through Nasa, the only thing the pen does is allow you to use the same benefits in a smaller package. Steripen has been around for a little bit of time and the earlier models had problems (lamp breakage) but since then they've come along way. I boil my water as a backup if the pen dies but I haven't had to do that yet and you can drink the water immediately unlike the Miox and you don't have to carry around salt or strips like the Miox.
When we also fill our 5 gallon jugs at Wallyworld at 50 cents a gallon, it uses a Culligan system with a UV filter at the final stage as well, we have backups for all our water needs since we have our hurricanes which includes Carbon filters for pesticides, UV for viruses, desalination for salt water and a portable back up distiller. We figure we can hold out for awhile as long as we have water and shelter, then we start hunting for food if it gets really bad.

steri pen solar case , just something I saw while site seeing on the net.

I was looking at the Steri Pen earlier today at REI. They work better with clear water so it would be best to filter the water first. They make a prefilter that fits on nalgene bottles. With turbid water, you need to double the treatment.

Hi Katie,

The Steripen is actually one of the lightest water sterilisation products on the market taking into account the total capacity of water the steripen can deal with.

For some background information on the effectiveness;
http://www.hydro-photon.com/testing.html

The Steripen system is superior to the Katadyn Micropur tablets for longer term use.

Advantages.......

The steripen is not effected by cold water unlike the Micropur tablets (a function of the time taken for the micropur tablets to take effect).

The steripen does not rely on chemicals additions. Long term use of residual chemicals based on chlorine dioxide, iodine etc is undesirable.

The steripen will sterilise 100-150 litres of water on a single set of 4 AA NiMh cells.

The steripen is very fast in treating water compared to all other water purification systems.

The steripen is simple and easy to operate.

The steripen can deal with water borne viruses. (most water filtering systems cannot deal with viruses)

Disadvantages........

The Steripen is an electronic battery powered optical device and therefore is not as robust as other water sterilisation methods in the field.

It runs on Batteries.

The water to be sterilised must be reasonably clear, therefore prefiltering of dirty water is required. i.e. something like a lightweight Millbank Bag maybe required. Micropur tablets are also not recommended with dirty water. Pre filtering would be useful with the micropur tablets aswell.

It cannot deal with chemical contamination.. but then again most water sterilisation systems cannot either including the firm favourite called the rolling boil.




For a good long term solution for water purification and sterilisation a combination of a steripen and Katadyn Pocket Microfilter would be useful.

Katadyn Micropur tablets are excellent in PSKs for short term emergencies where longer term solutions are not available.

Don’t know if you saw these reports on the SteriPEN web site, but they may answer your question a bit:

• EPA Protocol Test (University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ)
• EPA Challenge Water Test (A&L Laboratory, Auburn, ME)

The second report above (which is also the second listed on their site) and Some of the other test reports indicate its effectiveness even in turbid (muck-filled) water.

Frostbite, I wouldn't waste your time on the case, you'll have better results with a 20W solar charger. It will take days to recharge with the case, I have one and it sux, the way to go is 20W of solar cells and recharge in a few hours.

Katie, read some of the field reviews here:
http://www.backpackgeartest.org/reviews/Water%20Treatment/Ultraviolet/

morph, the prefilter will not work on the adventure, it will work on the steripen (original), you can get the same results with a head bandanna. There was a guy came back from India on a different forum and used it in very dirty water, almost sewage type and he said he had no other options at the time and treated the very murky water several dosages and said it tasted very bad but never got sick. The Steripen will not change the taste, it only kills the critters.

I was at REI (again) today and gave it another look. The floor model was broken to little bits (not a great sign), but it sure would be nice to drink some mountain stream water that tasted like it had come from a mountain stream, not a swimming pool. I'm pretty sure it would never be cost effective for me given the amount of water that I expect to purify, but it might be worth it anyway from the taste/smell standpoint.

It's like anything else, you either love it or hate it. I know a lot of store displays get the worse abuse which is good to see how the gear will hold up to abuse. I don't abuse mine, just use it when I need it and it works good. I had looked at other items before, the Miox, General Ecology, etc.. but the Steripen had a lot of good advantages that I was looking for. All in all it may not be perfect for everything but it's the best thing I have found so far for what it does. Lightweight, instant purification, compact, and no filters to worry about clogging, just batteries to worry about. I would definitely do some research on this and ask others for there opinions as well and see if it's something you'd be interested in. I'm happy with mine so far.

the steripen should not be trusted. The military has a report that lists the major players in the market and ran their own, unbiased, tests MP-1s always came in second only to sweetwater purifier. here is the pdf

http://usachppm.apgea.army.mil/WPD/PDFDocs/FinalReport.pdf

and here is the military website with easier to read results.

http://chppm-www.apgea.army.mil/wpd/CompareDevices.aspx

I saw this report, but didn't see the SteriPen reviewed, or any UV technology, for that matter. If you found a military report for the SteriPen, could you link to it directly? Thanks!

Katie, that first link is to the pdf, and it is long... you have to read through it. but, here it is in a nutshell

Great. That's the kind of information I was looking for. Thanks!

I would have to disagree with military report as there appears to be a bias for chemical treatments in the report. The report was for military use. The military does not care about long term health effects of using chlorine, chlorine dioxide and iodine based chemical water treatments on soldiers health. If the army was even the slightest bit concerned they would give their soldiers a way to sterilise water using heat treatment i,e a rolling boil. Instead the army gives exothermic chemical heaters to heat soldiers rations instead leaving the soldier no methods other than using chemical treatments for water sterilisation. Also, what soldier is going to wait around 4 hrs for a chemical treatment to do its magic i.e its 6 log reduction in bacteria(depending on the turbidity and temperature of the water). I suspect very few. The report does not mention the log reduction achieved by the micropur tablets for the intial 30s to 1 minute sterilisation time that the steripen can achieve. The steripen can achieve and does exceed EPA standards for non turbid (clear) water. For turbid water prefiltering is required. This caveat is made clear in the steripen documentation. And there is nothing sweet about the sweetwater system either. The army has different objectives in mind with regard to biological warfare criteria on the battlefield hence the bias towards chemical treatments. Drinking water that tastes like pool water rather than soldiers being infected by anthrax or plague, which has been sprayed on the battlefield is a worthwhile compromise for the army but it is not for me.

The Steripen can be trusted, folks just need to read the documentation and understand its limitations and its advantages.

well okay, lets give a scenario.

Will the steripen work for tap water in a hotel room in another country? yep! as long as the water is not turbid.

Will it out do mp1s? perhaps, provided the water is clear.

Will it work better than the mp1s in a river? Well, from my experience, nope. Why? I've yet to see mountain river water that was not turbid to some degree. Again, like you wrote prefiltering is recommended.



Of course, there are many, many, many in combat situations that will not be able to make fire to purify water.

Will I use the steripen? you bet under ideal conditions. will I trust it better than chlorine dioxide? Nope! Will either one ever replace boiling? Not today they don't.

got a 20w so I guess I'm covered-but so many things have solar panels that are only decoration it's hard to pick out quality items-now I can cross the case off my "get a closer look" list.

Hi Halcon,

According to the document at http://www.hydro-photon.com/PDF/A_&_L_Labs.pdf the 6 log reduction can be achieved by multiple UV doses even in turbid water (EPA challenge water) with UV times of around 180 sec i.e a double UV dose on the same water to be sterilised. 3 UV doses gives > 6 log reduction.

According to the document at http://www.hydro-photon.com/PDF/CoccidianParastites.pdf the steripen outperforms MP1s for destroying Cryptosporidium even after MP1s 4 hr sterilisation period.

These are independent papers/documents.

The Steripen when used in conjuction with a prefilter such as a Katadyn Pocket Microfilter is very useful for long term water sterilisation procurement at home. A lighterweight alternative (trekking) would be to use a prefilter such as a Millbank Bag.

Being in Scotland, I can generally leave the Millbank bag at home as well when drinking water from mountain streams.

am fear, thank you for the insightful info. What does this mean? I'm going to pull my hair out.

again thanks

I agree the steripen works as advertised in clearer waters but in murky or really dirty water you will have to pre filter it. You can use a bandanna, sand grass type filter, commercial filter, or let it stand for a while and let the heavy solids settle to the bottom. Down in Fla, I use a Katadyn combi filter with my steripen to get rid of all the pesticides down here and it also cleans down to .2 micron at a 13000 gallon capacity, then I follow behind it with the steripen. But when I get water out of our springs or clearer lakes, I just use the steripen without the combi. It's all in what you want to do, but I can make a homemade filter out of sand,grass and a bandanna to clear a lot of the murky junk out without the combi but the pesticides still pose problems in a lot of areas.

Here's a old article of them doing research with LED's but I guess they haven't got it to work this many years later.



http://bangordailynews.com/news/t/outdoors.aspx?articleid=104036&zoneid=115

To me that military quote says the SteriPen can be trusted, provided the water is clear.

One concern with this approach is whether there may be water left untreated, eg on the threads or outside of the container you are using.