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Boundary Waters Quetico Forum :: Gear Forum :: Sawyer filter vs crystal light
 
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yellowcanoe
12/12/2017 06:23PM
  
I use a 70 oz Dromedary. Filter the water into it naked. Unflavored
Add flavorings as you like
the beauty of the Dromedary is you can throw it up on your neck while portaging and thats when you need the most hydration.


Yes I am muddying the issue. I never have carried a water bottle on any canoe trip except for carrying gorp.


Filter the water first before adding any flavorings may add a very pleasurable new discovery for you. Sweet water.


I am fortunate enough to live in good water country. So good its sold commercially. I do ergo choke on city water.
 
schweady
12/13/2017 10:32AM
  
I'm won't weigh in on the debate re: filtration of previously flavored/colored water, but will note here that our entire men's group -- mostly chest-beating unfiltered water dippers who argued that "nobody's been sick in any of our trips over the years" -- noted that the water coming through the Sawyer gravity system I brought along last summer tasted pretty doggone fine and increased their water intake significantly. It has been a years-long process to convince them that it is worth bringing in a filter at all. I think it's often the pollen in the water that "makes a guy thirsty drinking it."

 
bwcadan
12/12/2017 08:01AM
  
Wick: We take a sun shower and use filtered water in it every day. A second sun shower is filled with filtered water to create a drinking station. We add flavor to the filtered water when desired. Since we travel in July, Even cloudy days do not stop our daily shower. By waiting until the water heats up is not an early morning shower, it certainly feels good and is well worth the time. To have plenty of water for all the other uses, we actually take 2 gravity filters. Also, In our case, the Sawyers we have are still performing well.
 
boonie
12/12/2017 05:21AM
  
Additional information from Sawyer: Drink mixes will only clog the filter faster if they are not dissolved completely. The lifespan will be unaffected.
 
nctry
12/10/2017 06:53PM
  
I don't know why you'd flavor water before you filtered it. I'd only flavor the water I was drinking. I wouldn't want to rehydrate food with fruit flavored water.
 
Wick
12/10/2017 06:54PM
  
quote mjmkjun: "
sidenote: as others stated won't work to add flavor to personal sawyer bottle w/ filter. Of course, once you get to camp and have buncha filtered water ........"


You must have read it wrong, from the email reply boonie posted, sawyer says it will work fine. Their filter will not remove the taste or the coloring of the added “enhancement” to the water.
 
Wick
12/10/2017 06:54PM
  
Why am i double posting?
 
Wick
12/10/2017 07:01PM
  
quote nctry: "I don't know why you'd flavor water before you filtered it. I'd only flavor the water I was drinking. I wouldn't want to rehydrate food with fruit flavored water. "


You missed the original post.
 
mjmkjun
12/11/2017 07:26AM
  
Wick: "quote mjmkjun: "
sidenote: as others stated won't work to add flavor to personal sawyer bottle w/ filter. Of course, once you get to camp and have buncha filtered water ........"



You must have read it wrong, from the email reply boonie posted, sawyer says it will work fine. Their filter will not remove the taste or the coloring of the added “enhancement” to the water. "
Thanks. I did read it wrong.
FYI: Double posting = system hiccup.
 
jcavenagh
12/11/2017 10:31AM
  
butthead: "I have one filter/purifier that takes out the taste of everything I have put through it, without a carbon filter. First Need XLE Purifier Between backpacking where it got the crappiest used in small ponds/creeks, to purifying the nastiest water I have found in the BWCA. It all comes out with no noticed taste to me. I have several other filter choices that are lighter, smaller, and more convenient, but none that remove flavors like the First Need. While my testing of a Saywer Mini did not alter the taste of Kool-Aid or remove the color, I think it will clog the filter quicker.
By the way the First Need did remove the flavor and color of the same Kool-Aid.
butthead"
This post highlights the difference between a water filter and a water purifier.
Most filters will stop things like bacteria from getting to your mouth, but not viral or chemical impurities.
Purifiers will remove just about all viruses and often remove chemical impurities like ag runoff.
 
Wick
12/09/2017 11:39AM
  
quote butthead: While my testing of a Saywer Mini did not alter the taste of Kool-Aid or remove the color, I think it will clog the filter quicker.
By the way the First Need did remove the flavor and color of the same Kool-Aid.



butthead"


Kind of messed up my decision making there butthead.


Are flavor and color in the same class/size that “things that make you sick” are in? Class/size is probably a bad description, but i do not know how to put it any other way. I guess, if a filter lets taste and color thru, will it also let bad things thru?
 
Northwoodsman
12/09/2017 12:32PM
  
A standard filter will let the color and flavor through. I also don't like the taste of water, not even most bottled water. I do however really like the taste of most of the water in the BWCA. You will want to flavor the water after you filter it, not before. There are filters that remove bacteria, some that remove viruses, and some that remove color & flavor.

If you don't want to mess with building a gravity system, or the expense of buying a ready-to-use one, the bladder bag listed below works well. I brought two of them this year to collect water with to supply my gravity system. The Sawyer Squeeze filter or Mini filter will screw right to it and you have an instant system.

Sawyer Water Bladder
 
Wick
12/09/2017 01:30PM
  
I was thinking of the sawyer water bottle that has a filter inside, and a folding straw type top. You would dip it in the lake beside your canoe while traveling,,dump in the flavor,,put top back on and drink thru straw/filter. I would be adding the flavor to unfiltered water.
 
Savage Voyageur
12/09/2017 03:59PM
  
A first need has a carbon filter also inside it that removes any taste. So you get filtered water that also is flavorless.


You also should get a water pitcher for your home use that has a carbon element in it.


Just like in an aquarium, you need charcoal or carbon to remove any waste. If you were to have one pound of activated charcoal it would be the equivalent to 100 acres in surface area. Looking at it under a microscope you will see millions of tiny holes that trap minerals and impunity’s.


Wick, To clarify what butthead said was the Saryer filter (did not) remove the color or taste. But when he tested the First need filter he said that it (DID) remove the color and taste. These are two different filters. The First need filter is a filter and a purifier. I would not filter koolaid or flavored drinks because it would clog the filter prematurely.


Get the First need filter for your needs.
 
Wick
12/10/2017 09:29AM
  
quote boonie: "The reply from Sawyer customer service:



Thank you for reaching out to us. Our absolute micron filters will not remove the flavoring of any fully dissolved drink mixes. The filter will also not removing the coloring."


From that answer, it sounds like the flavor and coloring are as small as virus particles, would pass thru, and would not plug the filter any faster.


That makes sense with buttheads test of the koolaid and First Need, which filters virus, and does filter the color and taste from the koolaid.


I think i have it all straight, thanks again guys! I’ll be back, many more questions before my sept trip!



 
Wick
12/10/2017 10:30AM
  
quote boonie: "We have many answers, and some will be right (for you).


Personally, I have no problem just drinking the plain filtered water, but some people say I have no taste. :)"


The water problem will be the worst thing on the trip for me. My wife has been laughing about me having to drink “plain old water”. Well, that and not having a hot shower everyday to get my joints warmed and moving in the morning.


I will enjoy everything else.
 
Northwoodsman
12/10/2017 11:11AM
  
This is my daily water plan. The day I leave I prefill two 25 oz. bottles with drinking water and I add a small amount of flavoring. That will normally last me all day ( I paddle in Sept. when it is cooler). When I get to camp I set up my gravity system and start filtering. I refill my bottles, along with a 1 gallon bladder and my cooking pot. As I drink water in camp, I filter more. When I go to bed at night, all of my water bottles are full, as is my water bladder, and my cooking pot for breakfast. Before I pack up my filter I make sure that everything is topped off. If I think I will need more water while on the move I will fill one of my clean bladders or I will use one of my smaller Sawyer Squeeze bags and Sawyer mini or Squeeze filter and fill it out on the lake. Regardless of my filter I do not drink of filter water anywhere near a beaver dam/house.
 
zski
12/10/2017 11:30AM
  
i like to add a little flavor to filtered water but crystal light gives me headaches. i can eat or drink anything np but aspartame give me headaches every time.
 
fadersup
12/10/2017 02:20PM
  
Hey Wick, I feel ya on the taste thing. Tap, bottle, whatever always have off flavors.


Consider investing in a Berkey filter at home. Makes my Chicago tapwater taste as clean and fresh as the cold well water at my parents house. It's incredible.


It's a bit pricey up front but the filters are cleanable and actually are classified as purifiers since they remove viruses and heavy metals. They last and last. You won't regret it.
 
mjmkjun
12/10/2017 03:06PM
  
quote Wick: "I hate the taste of water. All my life, my grandmothers well water was delicious,,but no water since has been drinkable.


I put flavor in all water i drink, so i wondered, if i put crystal light or some other flavor in my water that i dip out of the lake into a sawyer bottle,,will the filter take out the flavor? Also curious if it filters out the color? "
The county water at my home is awful. Try the 3 gal or 5 gals. sold at Lowe's. Good tasting water. Taste like fresh rain water that my grandmother used to collect in her cistern. Well, almost.
Propel sells small flavored packets w/electrolytes. Grape flavor might work for you. Look nearby the Crytal Light. I don't detect any off-taste in lake water through a personal sawyer bottle w/filter. The best tasting water I've had in the BW is when my Katadyn filter clogged on Kelly Lake (slightly tannic) and I had to drink unfiltered lake water to curb dehydration. Tasted SO GOOD! ;-)
sidenote: as others stated won't work to add flavor to personal sawyer bottle w/ filter. Of course, once you get to camp and have buncha filtered water ........
 
Wick
12/10/2017 03:59PM
  
quote Northwoodsman: Regardless of my filter I do not drink of filter water anywhere near a beaver dam/house."


I will remember that!

 
OCDave
12/10/2017 04:38PM
  
I grew-up on deep well water. We used to joke that it was hard water, hard enough you needed to chew it.


I like water you can taste. Kind of like the "terroir" associated with wines from around the world, I equate the taste of the water to reflecting the landscape around me. Grassy, tannic, minerally ect.


Perhaps rather than finding a better way to cover the taste, embrace the taste differences. Let me know which lake has the best tasting.


Good Luck
 
scramble4a5
12/09/2017 02:16PM
  
That won't be good for the filter. Use the Sawyer squeeze bag someone mentioned and put the clean water into a separate bottle with your drink mix.

 
OldFingers57
12/09/2017 05:33PM
  
I would think you would mess up the filter trying to run Crystal Light thru it. Maybe not but I would want to screw it up and not have a filter out in the wild when I needed it.
 
butthead
12/09/2017 06:09PM
  
Savage Voyager, Gary did a better job explaining than I (except I do not think The purifier cartridge has a carbon element, I took an expired one apart). I'm a serial putzer and disassemble and rebuild lots of stuff.
The First Need may be overkill for the BWCA, and while I still use mine I also use simpler and lighter filters when the First Need is stretching my packing.
Think of your filter just like any automotive filter, in dirtier air it needs to be replaced more often. Adding extra flavoring (any flavoring adds coloring, flavoring, and other stuff), will put more stuff in the water to filter out. As long as you realize the additions to make water palatable also add to the stuff being filtered and accept a quicker used past effective point, I think it is not a problem.
Personally I accept possible failures and plan accordingly.


"if a filter lets taste and color thru, will it also let bad things thru?"


Short answer, YES. But with reservations as to where you are filtering and potential "bad stuff" to filter out. The critters of importance found in the BWCA are mostly large protozoan and cysts. If I'm hiking/backpacking in agricultural areas with possible runoff, the First Need is taken. Now I have other choices in the BWCA.


butthead

PS: Having a backup is a good idea. Another spare Saywer Mini is cheap and light, same for some chemical treatments. Boiling is also a possibility but time consuming and somewhat inconvenient. bh
 
boonie
12/10/2017 06:52AM
  
The reply from Sawyer customer service:


Thank you for reaching out to us. Our absolute micron filters will not remove the flavoring of any fully dissolved drink mixes. The filter will also not removing the coloring.
 
boonie
12/10/2017 09:46AM
  
We have many answers, and some will be right (for you).

Personally, I have no problem just drinking the plain filtered water, but some people say I have no taste. :)
 
Wick
12/09/2017 10:11AM
  
I hate the taste of water. All my life, my grandmothers well water was delicious,,but no water since has been drinkable.

I put flavor in all water i drink, so i wondered, if i put crystal light or some other flavor in my water that i dip out of the lake into a sawyer bottle,,will the filter take out the flavor? Also curious if it filters out the color?
 
SevenofNine
12/09/2017 10:32AM
  
It will do neither of what you mentioned. You need a carbon filter to take out the taste and color. I use this Platypus filter from REI attached to my Sawyer filter. Works great.



Filter
 
awbrown
12/09/2017 10:38AM
  
I find that I will drink more if I flavor my water. Helps keep me better hydrated. I use Mio flavors, which I add after filtering.
 
butthead
12/09/2017 10:51AM
  
I have one filter/purifier that takes out the taste of everything I have put through it, without a carbon filter. First Need XLE Purifier Between backpacking where it got the crappiest used in small ponds/creeks, to purifying the nastiest water I have found in the BWCA. It all comes out with no noticed taste to me. I have several other filter choices that are lighter, smaller, and more convenient, but none that remove flavors like the First Need. While my testing of a Saywer Mini did not alter the taste of Kool-Aid or remove the color, I think it will clog the filter quicker.
By the way the First Need did remove the flavor and color of the same Kool-Aid.


butthead