Advantages or disadvantages? I know from what I read that Miox can treat bigger quantities of water while UV is faster. Size wise Miox is smaller.

Any ideas? Anyone used both?

Yes, I have used both during trips in Ecuador. While each has inherent advantages and disadvantages, I will say I prefer the MIOX.

Why you say? Just my opinion, but the MIOX is sturdier then the Steri-pen (I have the original version, the new one may be better) and has the added advantage of producing a solution that can be used to disinfect surfaces. I know, I know, I promised to run an in-depth qualitative study on using the MIOX solution in concentrated form on surface disinfection and someday I will. For now, I did a quick “experiment” a while ago using a 4X solution and spayed it onto a heavily (bacterial) contaminated surface, culturing the surface at 10 minutes and 20 minutes and achieved a significantly reduced bacterial load (qualitative only). For me this is important, as my trips are for providing medical care in remote areas. I use the solution to decontaminate tabletops, etc. between patients. I know this not an approved use, but in the field it works.

The Steri-pen is good if you someone offers you a glass of water and if you can without insulting your host use the Steri-pen, it provides one the ability to accept water from almost anyone. I have used the Strei-pen, but for me, found it awkward to pull it out in front of my hosts to sterilize the glass of water they just gave me. I actually found it less awkward to kindly refuse their offer, saying that I had my own water (previously treated).

Pete

Polak187, I have the Steripen Adventure and love it, you do need to get extra batteries for it when traveling so you can solar charge one set while the others are ready to use. If you leave the batteries in the unit while in storage, they will drain faster. I leave them out of the unit until I need them. I have yet to need to replace the rechargeable batteries that often if you keep then out of the unit. Several days of use. I thought about the Miox but on another forum from Alaska but they have had failures of the circuitry at altitude. The steripen has had the same with earlier models, I think now both are great units where the bugs are being worked out, Steripens weakness is the UV bulb which has a certain number of hours.
We use UV at work and I'm a big fan of UV, I will boil my water as a back up in a failure.

Matt I got to goto work, check out this link (I'll see if I can find some more info tomorrow):
http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB2/viewtop...a82d8154fe6fae1
http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB2/search...._results=topics

Just a note; neither of these are filters. They do not remove anything they just kill the bugaboos.

Wow I really like the Steripen Adventurer kit!

Re falcon5000

In your photos I was interested in the combined 12V cigarette adapter/step down switching voltage regulator. It looks like it can adjusted to be set to various output voltages. Do you have any details as I have a La Crosse Technology BC900 AA charger which requires 3V DC and want to use it with my Sunlinq folding solar panel? I'm sticking with the normal Steripen/nalgene bottle filter setup which uses Eneloop AA cells for the moment.

It is not as compact as your setup but I find the rechargeable Lithium CR123Rs seem to self discharge quite quickly and cannot be relied on just when they are needed without first topping them up.

24 watts of portable cooling breeze - neat.

Thanks billym and bentirran, the case and the vector dc to dc converter I got at super target or you can also get the converter here http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?...d=1074787382733
which it works great. I had bought the charger for the batteries here http://www.all-battery.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=34
and I use the 700ma charger instead of the 900ma. It's a fast charger so out in the field I have backups plus I'm carrying a guyotdesigns 32 oz bottle which works awesome with the steripen.
When I first got the bottle I thought it was double walled,but they had sent me a new one fast thinking there was an error and I got the new one in yesterday and it is just a design feature. It was an error on my part, so I'm sending the new one they sent me back. They are a great company to deal with and when I get some more time I will try to do a review on this product. It will boil watter in a pinch if the steripen is out of sun and batteries.
guyotdesigns

Thanks man interesting read. I'm going back to Nepal and was looking for other options besides tablets. Need to find more details on why the Miox didnt work in high altitude.

Hey Matt,

When are you going?

Hopefully, if I can find the funds, I am planning on returning to Ecuador mid-July. Quito is around 10,000ft., so I could try mine there to see if I encounter any problems and let you know.

Pete

Polak187, I remember reading various comments about the Miox MSR somewhere a while ago and I just found the webpage. You might find some interesting information here. Someone from Miox is actually answering people's questions there.

There is a specific comment regarding the Steri-Pen vs the MSR. On that webpage, just do a search for "Katie Bolek [12:51 PM March 31, 2005]" and you'll see the comments.

Basically, the Miox rep is saying that the Steri-Pen's one great advantage is speed, however the MSR is more flexible in terms of treating less-than-clear water and can reliably treat a wider variety of pathogens. I have an "older" Steri-Pen and batteries could be another Steri-Pen advantage (AA vs CR123a). Looks like the new Steri-Pens use CR123a's now, too, so no difference there.

The main problem people mention with the MSR is a "low salt" indicator light, which apparently is maily a design flaw with an early model. Doesn't really affect the operation, but is a false warning due to the brine solution getting trapped in one of the compartments (I've never handled one so I'm not quite sure "where" it gets trapped)

Someone does mention quickly discharged batteries, but that sounds like a defective unit (sucks when you discover the problem out in the field, though). Sounds like the low salt thing often surprised people because it worked fine at home.

Anyway, I think you'll find some of the info to be interesting.

Yeah got the same light straight out of the box and realized I need to read the manual instead of following my gut instinct. After that it was smooth sailing and acctually got it right.

Wednesday

This time I will use lodges to trek as opposed to hiring kitchen staff like I did on previous treks. It is cheaper that way but requires more planning and that?s how that entire filter thing came up. I always carry Aqua tabs but needed another plan. I had a pump filter that I haven't used since 2002 and everything inside just turned to dust when I went to test it. I got really spoiled with tabs in the past.

My trip was planned, booked and done in about a month. Kind of on tight schedule but it's a pleasure trip so no much logistic involved. No meds or medical equipment this time. Plus friends I made there last year came of big help.

For me speed is an issue, mainly because chemical treatments leave me feeling vague about how long I need to give it. The Miox thread mentions 5 minutes for some pathogens, 30 for others and 4 hours for others. How long you leave it for seems to depend on how lucky you are feeling today.

The Steri-Pen comes in several models. I bought the standard one last week, and it still uses 4 AAs. The Adventurer is smaller (and more expensive) and uses CR123s. So Steri-Pen gives you the choice.

Hope you have another great (and safe) trip. I look forward to see those great photographs of your exploits.

Pete