[Cdt-l] SteriPEN

[Scott Piddington]

Andy,
I love my SteriPen
Adventurer. Just for a little background, I used my first SteriPEN, the predicessor
to the now Classic model, leading week long teen backpacking trips for 10
weeks for each of 2 summers. Then I used it for an AT thru-hike in
2004. The battery clip broke somwhere in VT or NH but it still worked
to get me to Katahdin. When I asked for a replacement battery clip from
Hydro-Photon, the manufaturer, they apologized for not having the clip
and shipped me a new Classic model with an improved battery situation.
After 4 years of heavy use I upgraded to the lighter Adventurer for 2 thru-hikes of the PCT in 2007 & 2008.

Read the directions! Especially learn how to take the cover on and put it back on. It's easy but can avoid possible damage. Treat it with care. If you tend to fumble stuff or have no mechanical feness, maybe it's not for you. I have been using
SteriPens since 2001 or 2002 when they first hit the market. The
Adventurer uses a pair of 3volt Lithium batteries
of type 123. A pair of them weigh in at just over an ounce. The price
can vary widely. Some times they are sold as a pair and sometimes
individually. I found them at pharmacies, hardware stores, WalMart and
some big grocery stores. Some places they were $10 for a pair and some
places they were $12 each. Crazy.  They would usually last me 3 weeks or
more. If I was camped near water I would not treat my cooking water. I
treated all my drinking water unless it came from a cache or a public
faucet. After considering the cost of all those bottles of Aqua Mura or replacement cartridges, there really isn't much difference in the cost of operation.

The Adventurer got me through a thruhike of the PCT in 2007 and then again in 2008. One of the great things was being able to just preifly pause to fill a bottle from a creek or lake and just keep walking. The SteriPEN lived in its holster on my hipbelt. I would treat water as I walked. There was no fussing with or waiting for chemicals. There was no time consuming tedious pumping and fidling with hoses. There was no need to even take off my pack! OK. So I'm weird. I don't like stopping and taking my pack off.

The Adventurer weighs in at just under 4 ounces with lithium batteries included. With the holster it comes to about 4.5 ounces. This is far less than a filter. The Classic (blue & white) weighs about twice that but uses 4 standard AA batteries. Use Lithium or NIMH, not alkaline.

Now, about water bottles. The Classic (and I think the new Journey) can be used with virtually any bottle, even with a mouth as small as a soda bottle. In fact, with a soda bottle the Classic (and I think the new Journey) will seal with the bottle so that the pair can be inverted with the bottle on top of the SteriPEN. That way the bottle doesn't have to be completely full for the Classic to turn on. The Journey looks good but I haven't used one.

On the other hand the smallest mouthed bottle I can find that the Adventurer will fit is a 1 liter (quart) cranberry juce bottle. I like thes bottles quite a lot. This looks like the same size as a GaitorAid bottle but they didn't work the last time I tried. Of course a Nalgene bottle will work with any of them. I don't like Nalgenes because they are too heavy, expensive and I can't drink out of them while walking.

So you may have figured, I highly reccomend the SteriPEN.

Voyageur
AKA Scott Piddington



Message: 1
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:15:51 -0400
From: "Andrew P. Brown" <BROWNANP at student.gvsu.edu>
Subject: [Cdt-l] Two Questions
To: cdt-l at backcountry.net
Message-ID: <1236798951.aa41481cBROWNANP at student.gvsu.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

Greetings all,

1.)  I'm looking to hit the trail, starting at Columbus, around April 12. 
Any suggestions on how I can get from the airport in Albuquerque down to the
border?

2.)  Anybody here have experience using the SteriPEN (www.steripen.com). 
Sounds like an
 interesting device....

Thanks ya'll

Andy Brown




      
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