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