User Review: Katadyn Hiker PRO

vote up

vote down

December 18, 2012

JimmieJackson
112 reviewer rep

Rating:
Source: bought it new
Price Paid: $85

Summary

Failed me miserably on my Appalachian Trail thru-hike in 2012. Seriously.

Pros

Works well for about a week

Cons

Handle can break
Becomes extremely sluggish after awhile
Replacement cartridges are obscenely expensive

Don’t you dare buy this. Don’t. OK, that’s harsh, but this thing was the cause of much anger for me.

It says that it can filter about 750 liters, but I’m guessing that is 750 already clean liters of water. When you’re in the backcountry, there will be silt and such that constantly clogs the cartridge. For me it started to clog after the first week, which ended up with me taking about 30 minutes to get my water, my muscles straining to push down on the handle, and the vein in my neck bulging with anger. I heard from other people that had this that they pushed on the handle so hard, that it actually broke.

If you still decide to get this, do yourself a favor and remove the weight on the end of the prefilter where the water enters because that only drags it down into the silt and muck. You can also, from what I hear, get a coffee filter and wrap it around the prefilter to keep large particles from entering. If you have to replace the cartridge, it’s like $50 or something ridiculous.

Go with the Steripen/AquaMira combo.