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.