Is a million gallons long-term enough for your water purification needs? LOL

And it filters out viruses to boot...

I've been looking at Sawyer Water Filters for quite a while now, and recently they added the Sawyer Complete Water Purifier Sytem: Viral (SP194) to their lineup.

.02 Micron Absolute Filter
Gravity Fed
Viral Filtration to 99.9997% (>5.5 log)
Biological Filtration to 99.99999% (7 log) bacteria and 99.9999% (6 log) protozoa
1 Million Gallon Guarantee

I'd still put an activated carbon cartridge backup on it for chemical filtration, but otherwise this system looks great.

the 4 Liter setup runs about $140.00 at Bass Pro Shops.

That's a lot cheaper than a Big Berkey and more portable, too. Not as durable though, but that's okay.

-Blast

How about The Sawyer Bucket Kit then?

OK, I have to admit I'm wanting these. .02 is pretty good.

I got one of the bottle viral units and was somewhat disappointed. It took a long time to prime, and the flow rate was never good, even after running for a few hours. Haven't used it in practice, but I'd hate to have to prime it in a disaster situation. Now, the bag arrangement may be better, where you can hang it up and leave it for a while.

Good to know.

Thanks for the hands on information!

Beware putting all your eggs in one basket.

I would rather have three smaller filters than one really big one. Things can and do go wrong. having several smaller ones means they are more portable and allow you to use them at multiple locations.

The actual filter part for the setups being discussed are fairly small, less than the size of an average soda can, so you could pack a few of them if you felt the need.

I already have one filter in my BOB, so this as an addition could only add to my setup, and it's actually smaller than my current filter.

On Sawyer's website a video for the bucket setup claims the filter can purify 5 gallons in less than 20 minutes.

Does that sound about right?

EDIT:

Upon further research, the filtering time above is not for the viral filter, but rather the biological filter only. The time they quote for the viral filter is 4 liters in about 15 minutes.

Does this sound similar to the flow rate you were getting?

Thanks for any information.

Boiling it, for zero minutes, remains the surest way to eliminate pathogens.