New SteriPEN Adventurer Opti

Posted by: falcon5000

New SteriPEN Adventurer Opti - 03/23/10 04:01 PM

I saw this new Steripen Opti at the REI site and thought I would give you guys a heads up to all the steripen/solar travelers out there. The new opti has a built in optical sensor for the water and a LED flashlight as a backup light. It's always nice to carry a back up light and have a water purifier at the same time.And as usual, no affiliation to anybody anywhere.

http://www.rei.com/product/799003

Posted by: ILBob

Re: New SteriPEN Adventurer Opti - 03/23/10 04:40 PM

I am not a fan of anything that needs batteries, and appears to be moderately fragile to boot.

Posted by: falcon5000

Re: New SteriPEN Adventurer Opti - 03/23/10 05:11 PM

I can see what you are saying ILBob, I've had good luck with my steripen adventure and have traveled overseas with it and also have deet marks on the cover but mine has always came through where ever I go. I have a stainless steel bottle and micro tabs as backups but so far I haven't had to use them. As for batteries, I use a solar cell to recharge my batteries and I can run the steripen all day long with no batteries in the unit operating 100% off the sun with no batteries in the unit. The catch is sunlight. That's why I have batteries for those cloudy days or when I don't won't to drag my cell out. The lamp life will last many years and I have dropped mine on concrete in Portugal's Azores islands and it hasn't failed me yet. I usually like drinking water now, not 4 hours later or 5 minutes after boiling or lagging around a general ecology filter. But to each is own, I would get strange looks in restaurants when using it overseas as well but never got even remotely sick. I could care less what people thought of it weather I'm in the jungle of Philippines or Mexico or in Europe at a bar, if I don't know where the water came from, I treat it.
Posted by: ILBob

Re: New SteriPEN Adventurer Opti - 03/23/10 06:09 PM

Originally Posted By: falcon5000
I would get strange looks in restaurants when using it overseas as well but never got even remotely sick. I could care less what people thought of it weather I'm in the jungle of Philippines or Mexico or in Europe at a bar, if I don't know where the water came from, I treat it.

I could see the utility of having it for disinfecting drinking water in such cases.

When I was in China and rural Mexico I brought a small pump type water filter with me. I only drank beer, near boiling hot drinks, bottled water, or soda in public places. The filter was used when I did not have access to those sources. The thing is that even if the water is disinfected, there is no telling if the glass you are drinking from is. or the dishes you are eating off.
Posted by: jzmtl

Re: New SteriPEN Adventurer Opti - 03/23/10 06:58 PM

How many uses can you get out of the 123a powered models on one set of primary batteries (does it take 1 or 2?)? My flashlights use 123a so I have plenty of them, and always have backups on me when outside.
Posted by: falcon5000

Re: New SteriPEN Adventurer Opti - 03/23/10 10:41 PM

It takes 2 CR123 batteries. The trick to it is only put your batteries in it when you use it and it will go a lot longer. I've not pushed mine on that, I would keep a set charging and change them out every 2 days. I drink a and use lot of water. I do keep 4 extra batteries on me when I carry it, but I haven't had to go to a second set when traveling because I am constantly charging. Kind of like my Droid phone, I always keep charging all the time in case I don't have the opportunity to charge. The specs say my rechargeables can do 40 to 50 a charge, which means about 640 oz or 5 gallons on the low side. I was doing about 2 gallons a day for myself for 2 days and would change them out to always keep a full charge.

update:
I just thought of something, I may be wrong about the 10 gallons, they are saying 40 to 50 treatments, I use the 32 oz treatment which I believe is a double dose, in that case it would be 20 treatments =640 oz or 5 gallons which sounds more right. A 16 oz treatment would get 40 treatments=640 oz again at 5 gallons.That sounds more right.


Battery: Uses two CR123 batteries (included)
Battery life: Disposable -- 100 treatments (16oz./0.5L); Rechargeable -- 40-50 treatments (16oz./0.5L)
UV Lamp Life: 8,000 treatments

http://www.steripen.com/adventurer-opti
Posted by: jzmtl

Re: New SteriPEN Adventurer Opti - 03/23/10 10:58 PM

50 liters on 2 123a, that's pretty decent, cheaper than pills even.
Posted by: falcon5000

Re: New SteriPEN Adventurer Opti - 03/23/10 11:08 PM

jzmtl, I think I steered you wrong, I changed my statement above, I'm thinking 5 gallons or 18.9 liters. Sorry about that, I was thinking a treatment was 32oz when it is 16 oz. Every time I treat, I treat in the 32 oz mode which is double treatment.
Posted by: jzmtl

Re: New SteriPEN Adventurer Opti - 03/24/10 12:45 AM

From the factory spec it's "Battery life: Disposable -- 100 treatments (16oz./0.5L); Rechargeable -- 40-50 treatments (16oz./0.5L)", which is where I get the 50 liter number from since I use disposable 123a, do you get less than that in your experience?
Posted by: oldsoldier

Re: New SteriPEN Adventurer Opti - 03/24/10 02:46 PM

For those of you who use this, or types of this, filter, I have a couple of questions. I have always used pump type filters for hiking. Hiking & living in New England, I have to deal with Crypto, so water is ALWAYS filtered when taken from water sources. I trust members here with real world experience far more than labels on boxes. That being said, provided I filter out all the muck & stuff with a bandana, all I would need to do is simply plop this into a bottle, and it will sterilize it? Does it work well for all types of waterborne diseases (lets say whats common in the US in the woods-nothing exotic like in 3rd world countries)? I keep leaning towards one of these filters, but am still clinging to my trusty pump one-partially out of comfort, and partially out of ignorance to the steripen brands.
Posted by: bsmith

Re: New SteriPEN Adventurer Opti - 03/24/10 04:25 PM

Originally Posted By: oldsoldier
That being said, provided I filter out all the muck & stuff with a bandana, all I would need to do is simply plop this into a bottle, and it will sterilize it?

the business end needs to be submerged in clear water for the appropriate time, depending upon how much water you are treating. 90 secs for 1 L.

Originally Posted By: oldsoldier
Does it work well for all types of waterborne diseases (lets say whats common in the US in the woods-nothing exotic like in 3rd world countries)?

yep. go here: steripen for a list of the uglies that this kills. if you look around the website you'll see numerous studies confirming it has a high kill rate.

i did find out the hard way that it doesn't work in the cold if the batteries are cold - they do recommend keeping the batteries warm if the
ambient temp = < 32F. i just didn't realize the temp was that cold at the time. yosemite @ 0600 in october. was hiking and was very comfortable!
Posted by: falcon5000

Re: New SteriPEN Adventurer Opti - 03/24/10 06:33 PM

jzmtl, sorry about the delay get back, I always use the nonchargeable so I do get less dosages, I haven't tried the disposables but I would venture to say you probably would get longer time. They do have a small field solar recharger but it takes so long to recharge the batteries (days) that it would be more beneficial to use a higher watt cell. Mine is 40 watts but I use it for a lot of things. I haven't tried it in extreme cold and when skiing up north it and the batteries stay in my pocket. I have the tablets in cas e the cold affects the use of the batteries but I think the Opti may help out a little. It kills just about everything in the water, do some internet surfing and there is a lot of good feedback in general. There was originally when it first came out many moons ago some issues but a lot of the bugs worked out. I think you will like it, they are at a very good price for the performance it offers.
Posted by: falcon5000

Re: New SteriPEN Adventurer Opti - 03/24/10 06:40 PM

oldsoldier, I can't speak for the cold climates but as long as you get the turbidity (cloudy water) relativity clear it will kill everything in the water but pesticides,mercury etc. You can clear the water (which I know you know) by using a bandanna, tee shirt, scoop the upper part of the water or just let the water stand for a while to get the water clear. It just needs to expose everything in the water with the UV light to kill it, muddy water acts like a shade in the sun and you have to remove the shade so they can't hide. I have heard people who have kept the pens in the pocket and batteries in the pocket have had success, I have only tried it in warmer temps to about 30 degrees.