Okay, so I am at the sporting goods store checking out gear, and I am looking at the water filter systems, and I see this little "Purifier" unit from MSR that looks like a portable tire pump for a bicycle. They call it the Miox. Apparently it uses regular salt and raw freshwater and an electrolytic process is created from a pair of CR123s to convert the brine into MIxed Oxidants that, well, I'll just let you read about it here:

http://www.msrcorp.com/filters/miox.asp

Now it looks quite promising, but it looks a little pricey to me. I do believe that this little gem is one of those breakthrough items that ushers in a new gendre in gadgetry for us ETS'rs.

I've got one, my wife bought it for me for fathers day a year ago. Works well, at least I've never gotten sick. It's small, light, easy to carry, and makes your good water taste like it's been chlorinated. That said, it will kill viruses and cryptosporium and all the nasties that a filter might miss. The taste lessens with time and it's not horrible, but it's not all that great either.

On a side note i saw a UV light that goes into a Nalgene bottle and is supposed to be as effective. I'm tempted to try that one.

jm2bits

Hello Benjamin

I have just switched over to a Miox purified after using a Katadyne ceramic/active carbon pump for a long time.

I find the Miox is much lighter, such that it has become a part of my EDC. I regularly head up into the hills with as little as possible for a few days camping at a time and the less I have to lug the better.

The downside of the Miox is that it won't treat chemically polluted water, unlike the active carbon in the Katadyne - not a problem where I am, but it might be an issue for you. Also, it really does make the water taste like chlorine.

Still, it's light as a feather, really cheap to run and as I say it takes up almost no room in my bag. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

On ETS's Gear section Doug talks about the Miox purifier:

http://www.equipped.org/watrfood.htm#WaterPurification

Ken

I have a Miox and take it not only when I go outdoors, but when I travel too. It goes through, or used to go through airport security with no problem. I take it along with iodine crystals in solution (my low tech back up version). And I just ordered some MP-1 tablets as I am not sure if the MIOX will go through security and I know the iodine solution will not.

The MIOX is, as mentioned is a great water purifier for non-chemically contaminated water.

You may want to check out this post that has some links to previous postings on both the Steri-Pen and MIOX>

Steri-Pen and MIOX Postings

Pete

Pete

I recall someone mentioned the oxidants created by the MIOX are also helpful for sterilizing wounds. Can you shed any light on this?

A few of those MP-1 tablets might be more practical for EDC, but this looks like just the ticket for that "home away from home" scenario.

I'm not exactly a chemist, but It sounds like this device just electrolyzes a saturated salt solution to produce a sodium hypochlorite solution, AKA "bleach". Ref:
http://chem.lapeer.org/Chem2Docs/chlorine.html
I guess the advantage is that salt and lithium batteries have a longer shelf life than liquid bleach or tablets.

That brings up a question - On the ETS site it seems to say that only MIOX and Micropur MP1 tablets will reliably kill *everything* including Cryptosporidium. For some reason, I was under the impression that bleach is 100% effective also?

Bleach will kill the cyst based pathogens, but it takes time. Warmer water and highly filtered (little organic matter) will help with that. I don't recall anywhere on here where Chlorine Bleach doesn't take care of the same things. Bleach just isn't something that's easy to pack into a kit, and it loses potency over time rather quickly.

I was thinking that having to have battery plus salt (two consumables) for this tool was a negative, but shelf life changes that assessment. I think this would make a great addition to a BOB, but you have to remember that it can't filter toxic water. In a long term survival situation, getting salt and batteries might be easier than procuring bleach and keeping it stable. Plus, it's much less dangerous to handle salt. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />