I've been following the development of the Lifestraw water purifying "straw" for a number of years now. Highly portable, no moving parts, no batteries or power required, rated for 1,000L--sounds great, right?

It's been used successfully in Third World countries to reduce the burden of disease in these places by making clean water available. However, until recently recently, the Lifestraw was not available for retail sale and was only being distributed through aid organizations. Apparently, now they can be purchased. Anyone try these out yet?

It seems that the technology behind the Lifestraw has changed over time. The previous version used iodine-impregnanted beads as the primary purification method. There seems to be little to no info out on the actual technology in the current version, but it now seems to use some form of microfiltration membrane (think "reverse osmosis membrane" but with a larger pore size). The vacuum of sucking water through the Lifestraw is enough to move water through the membranes without any iodine taste that I assume the prior version imparted to the water.

I don't have one, but Amazon has it for $25: http://www.amazon.com/LifeStraw-Personal...6002&sr=8-1 .

I was just looking at water purification systems for a bug-out-bag. And here comes this thread, perfect timing! Thanks!

Looks like just cysts and bacteria, not virii, unless I'm reading it wrong. I'd rather have it than nothing but probably best used in conjunction with chemical treatment.

A chemical treatment takes time, iodine has a normal treatment time of
20min. Unless the iodine is in the water that long it is not dead, just passing thru an iodine bed will not kill the cooties.
IMO
The best bet going is the hollow fiber type unit, IIRC Sawyer was the first but all the major's have one now and all likely made in the same room. I bet hollow fibers are at the heart of the newer LifeStraw.

I just ordered two!

They are cheaper if you buy them direct from the master North America wholesaler, "EarthEasy". $19.95 each, $2.95 shipping for one, $3.15 shipping for two (to my Colorado address).

http://eartheasy.com/lifestraw

Buried down on that webpage is a blurb that says to send email to info@eartheasy.com if you want to be notified when the larger "LifeStraw Family" is available for purchase, expected sometime mid-2012.

i have mentioned previously that my SO was overseas doing NGO aid work in 3rd world countries for some years. Her take on the straw (and other similar products) is that although the straw probably does work as advertised, the downside is that these types of methods are slow and singular especially when you consider how much potable water a person needs per day. Also the fear of human cross contamination is a big factor as these straws are probably not stored nor sanitized and probably used by more then one person despite precautions. My SO also mentioned the cost of the straws. Even if they were $7-$10 per, there are not many aid agencies that could afford to equip hundreds or thousands of people with these straws as other mass water purification methods are much cheaper and more efficient on a large scale.

My take on the straws for what we would use them for is the real lack of advance use. Meaning that although you can safely drink through the straw as needed. it does you no good if you need to travel with water stored in bottles. Whereas other treatment methods allow you to treat water as needed and also that treated water then can be stored in bottles and taken with you and used where there may be no other replenishable water.

There is no perfect technique for purifying water, but I will continue to boil - it definitely takes care of the biological pathogens.

Personally, I think these LifeStraws are a fantastic device offered at a very inexpensive price.

My opening comments were based on your initial comments in the first 2 paragraphs of your original post....and also based on my SO's real world experience in 3rd world countries where water sanitation is a real challenge. I thought that information would of been useful or interesting but I guess not.

As for the effectiveness of the straw for personal use, that is up to the end user to decide. You posted and posed a question. I shared my thoughts on a possible shortcoming of the straw that perhaps others may not think of when purchasing these. If you don't appreciate my thoughts nor my SO's valuable experience and resorting to reply in such a snarky manner, then I will drop this forum...