User Review: MSR SweetWater Microfilter

Summary

This comes with me every time I hike. Old, reliable product now purchased by MSR and keeping its great name.

I started using this when my father bought it from the Pike St. REI many years ago. I was a kid, and he taught me how to use it: push and pull on this lever, and let the clean water squirt into the bladder. Then pull out the pin, collapse the lever, unscrew the top and clean the unit with 4 strokes of the brush.  

Simple, effective design has made the Sweetwater what it still is; the most reliable water filter I've seen.  ut the black hose in the stream, and the white hose in the water bottle.  

I have a hunkering that my family is part of the reason these hoses are color-coded, as my brother and I accidentally switched the clean and dirty hose when dad wasn't watching, and we all ended up with Giardia. When I went to college and bought my own filter, I noticed that they had changed the colors. Thank you.  

We took this on the Bowron Lakes circuit in Canada, and others in our scout group had other filters. They got frustrated after a few days and started using our Sweetwater. I recently took this as part of my fast and light ensemble (I know there are smaller filters for F&L) and it did great.  

If all you need to survive (on a day hike) is food and water, then put some Clif bars in your bag right next to this.  Refill at streams, and forget about packing extra water. Man was first bound by how far he could carry water from streams; this makes any stream potable water, that will beat out any other filter system for speed and reliability.  

Note: clean it when it starts squeaking on pumping at regular speed, as that means there is gunk in the filter.