Katadyn Base Camp filter

[Brewmeister]

Anyone use one of these?

 

After reading some good reviews of these I bought one. Tried it at home and it worked great. Took it on a backpacking trip, and we had a hand pump along also as a backup that used the same filter. Bag worked great for a few days--probably 6 gallons of filtered water--then slowed to a useless dribble.

 

Assumed the filter was sediment plugged even though it looked fine. Swapped out the new filter from the hand pump and it was working again.

 

But here's the thing--we put the supposedly "clogged" filter from the Base Camp bag into the hand pump and it worked fine.

 

So...??? Does the hand pump just have that much more suction power to draw water through the filter?

[le Voyageur]

Used one for several years...had the same problem to the point that it was no longer reliable for back country travel. As such, I've upgraded to the Seychelle's. Unlike the Basecamp, the Seychelle has two prefilters, the advanced filter (purifier) and the bag is ballistic nylon. At 40 bucks, it's the better buy then the Basecamp at 70 to 80....

 

http://store.seychelle.com/Pure_Water_Bag-Pure_Water_Bag_Advanced.html

[walk in the woods]

We had the same experience in the BWCA last year with that bag filter. We skipped the supplied pre-filter for a coffee filter on each bagful but that was only moderately better.

[Brewmeister]

Well that stinks. Good thing we had a backup ("Be Prepared!"). The supposedly clogged filter works fine in a hand pump so it's just the gravity feed I guess.

 

The Seychelle one is only the cost of a replacement Katadyn filter. I think I'll try one of those. I have a Seychelle filter water bottle that works very well.

[DuctTape]

 

So...??? Does the hand pump just have that much more suction power to draw water through the filter?

 

 

Quick answer, yes. The pump provides significantly more pressure than the gravity feed. Pre-filtering does help especially with sediment laden water. The pre-filter will help prolong the life of the main filter but will not make it filter faster. In fact, it will likely slow it down.

 

One reason the seychelle appears to work better is the pore size of the filter. The Seychelle is a 2-micron filter while the base camp is a 0.3 micron filter. The smaller pore size requires more pressure and will also clog at a faster rate.

[Builder]

The Seychelle is a 2-micron filter while the base camp is a 0.3 micron filter. The smaller pore size requires more pressure and will also clog at a faster rate.

Aye, there's the rub. There are critters that will pass through a 2 micron pore that you absolutely do NOT want in your body. Crypto, etc. is way smaller and .3 micron, while possibly needing greater than gravity pressure to use is closer to "safe". With most filters, pre-filtering to get the logs and boulders out of the untreated water really increases the time between filter cleaning or replacing. "Pre-filtering" can be a bandanna, coffee filter, or even just letting the logs and boulders settle out in a pot for 15-20 minutes before filtering.

 

The fastest my filter (MSR) ever got clogged was when one of my Scouts did an "experiment" to find out how efficient it was. He deliberately stirred up the pool of water we were using. Sure enough, within 1-2 quarts of water (waaaaaay less than we needed that hot and humid afternoon) it clogged and needed cleaning. I made him take it down and do the cleaning.

[le Voyageur]

The Seychelle is a purifier, not a filter.... from there website "The bag features Seychelles's in-line filter which contains EPA approved iodinated resin for extra safety, which has been proven effective against bacteria and virus to a reduction of up to six logs (99.9999%). Therefore, under EPA guidelines, the water bag filtering system is a water purifier. It also removes up to 99.99% of chlorine, chemicals, VOC’s, heavy metals and micro-organisms such as Giardia, E-Coli and Cryptosporidium"... The Pur filters are not in the same ball park. They'll remove the bugs, but not the nitrates and nitrites found in farm runoffs, nor the heavy metals found in storm runoffs from urban areas... To date, I'm still running water quality test on this bag, I'll soon be approaching the 50 gallon mark at which time I'll compare results with those at the 1st and the 25th gallon. Besides salt water, about the only other contaminants that I can think of that the Seychelle can't handle (or any filter) would be a water and petroleum mix of gasoline, and motor oils as well as battery acids which was common in the flood waters from our last hurricane..

[Brewmeister]

The Seychelle is a purifier, not a filter.... from there website "The bag features Seychelles's in-line filter which contains EPA approved iodinated resin for extra safety, which has been proven effective against bacteria and virus to a reduction of up to six logs (99.9999%). Therefore, under EPA guidelines, the water bag filtering system is a water purifier. It also removes up to 99.99% of chlorine, chemicals, VOC’s, heavy metals and micro-organisms such as Giardia, E-Coli and Cryptosporidium"... The Pur filters are not in the same ball park. They'll remove the bugs, but not the nitrates and nitrites found in farm runoffs, nor the heavy metals found in storm runoffs from urban areas... To date, I'm still running water quality test on this bag, I'll soon be approaching the 50 gallon mark at which time I'll compare results with those at the 1st and the 25th gallon. Besides salt water, about the only other contaminants that I can think of that the Seychelle can't handle (or any filter) would be a water and petroleum mix of gasoline, and motor oils as well as battery acids which was common in the flood waters from our last hurricane..

So are you using the bag alone, "scoop and drink," or in connection with another filtering device?

[Basementdweller]

Used one for several years...had the same problem to the point that it was no longer reliable for back country travel. As such, I've upgraded to the Seychelle's. Unlike the Basecamp, the Seychelle has two prefilters, the advanced filter (purifier) and the bag is ballistic nylon. At 40 bucks, it's the better buy then the Basecamp at 70 to 80....

 

http://store.seychelle.com/Pure_Water_Bag-Pure_Water_Bag_Advanced.html

Kinda spendy....39.95 for only 100 gallons of product

[DuctTape]

The Seychelle is a 2-micron filter while the base camp is a 0.3 micron filter. The smaller pore size requires more pressure and will also clog at a faster rate.

Aye, there's the rub. There are critters that will pass through a 2 micron pore that you absolutely do NOT want in your body. Crypto, etc. is way smaller and .3 micron, while possibly needing greater than gravity pressure to use is closer to "safe". With most filters, pre-filtering to get the logs and boulders out of the untreated water really increases the time between filter cleaning or replacing. "Pre-filtering" can be a bandanna, coffee filter, or even just letting the logs and boulders settle out in a pot for 15-20 minutes before filtering.

 

The fastest my filter (MSR) ever got clogged was when one of my Scouts did an "experiment" to find out how efficient it was. He deliberately stirred up the pool of water we were using. Sure enough, within 1-2 quarts of water (waaaaaay less than we needed that hot and humid afternoon) it clogged and needed cleaning. I made him take it down and do the cleaning.

IIRC crypto cysts are about 5 microns, so a 2 micron filter should suffice for them. Giardia cysts are even larger.

[DuctTape]

The Seychelle is a purifier, not a filter.... from there website "The bag features Seychelles's in-line filter which contains EPA approved iodinated resin for extra safety, which has been proven effective against bacteria and virus to a reduction of up to six logs (99.9999%). Therefore, under EPA guidelines, the water bag filtering system is a water purifier. It also removes up to 99.99% of chlorine, chemicals, VOC’s, heavy metals and micro-organisms such as Giardia, E-Coli and Cryptosporidium"... The Pur filters are not in the same ball park. They'll remove the bugs, but not the nitrates and nitrites found in farm runoffs, nor the heavy metals found in storm runoffs from urban areas... To date, I'm still running water quality test on this bag, I'll soon be approaching the 50 gallon mark at which time I'll compare results with those at the 1st and the 25th gallon. Besides salt water, about the only other contaminants that I can think of that the Seychelle can't handle (or any filter) would be a water and petroleum mix of gasoline, and motor oils as well as battery acids which was common in the flood waters from our last hurricane..

The Seychelle uses Iodine to kill the virii and bacteria. Some have a bad reaction to iodine, especially those with thyroid issues so this is something to be aware of. I believe pregaant women are advised to stay away from it.

 

I do not intend to knock the efficacy of the filter and chemical treatment as the tests do show it to be rather effective. However I am dismayed by the marketing ploy in the statement "up to 99.9%", this means LESS THAN not in excess. If one looks at the testing of the seychelle products it can be seen that some of the contaminants are removed at significantly less percentage than 99. This doesn't eliminate the effectiveness, but we should be aware of what the true effectiveness is and not be mislead by the manufacturer's misleading statement.

[Brewmeister]

The Seychelle is a purifier, not a filter.... from there website "The bag features Seychelles's in-line filter which contains EPA approved iodinated resin for extra safety, which has been proven effective against bacteria and virus to a reduction of up to six logs (99.9999%). Therefore, under EPA guidelines, the water bag filtering system is a water purifier. It also removes up to 99.99% of chlorine, chemicals, VOC’s, heavy metals and micro-organisms such as Giardia, E-Coli and Cryptosporidium"... The Pur filters are not in the same ball park. They'll remove the bugs, but not the nitrates and nitrites found in farm runoffs, nor the heavy metals found in storm runoffs from urban areas... To date, I'm still running water quality test on this bag, I'll soon be approaching the 50 gallon mark at which time I'll compare results with those at the 1st and the 25th gallon. Besides salt water, about the only other contaminants that I can think of that the Seychelle can't handle (or any filter) would be a water and petroleum mix of gasoline, and motor oils as well as battery acids which was common in the flood waters from our last hurricane..

I've been using the Seychelle water bottle "scoop and go" for a while now and it does well...or at least I haven't gotten any ill effects...

[Brewmeister]

As luck would have it: http://www.scoutmastercg.com/sawyer-3-way-water-filter-review/?fb_source=pubv1

 

Looks like I can easily retrofit the system to put the filter outside the bag and use the bag as just a reservoir. What are the thoughts on the Sawyer system? Says 0.1 micron.

[DuctTape]

As luck would have it: http://www.scoutmastercg.com/sawyer-3-way-water-filter-review/?fb_source=pubv1

 

Looks like I can easily retrofit the system to put the filter outside the bag and use the bag as just a reservoir. What are the thoughts on the Sawyer system? Says 0.1 micron.

I have no personal experience with it. The Sawyer Squeeze has become very popular among the backpacking crowd lately due to its low weight and effectiveness. Inline filters have been popular for quite some time, and the DIY crowd loves them as they can be used within any system.

[Brewmeister]

Used one for several years...had the same problem to the point that it was no longer reliable for back country travel. As such, I've upgraded to the Seychelle's. Unlike the Basecamp, the Seychelle has two prefilters, the advanced filter (purifier) and the bag is ballistic nylon. At 40 bucks, it's the better buy then the Basecamp at 70 to 80....

 

http://store.seychelle.com/Pure_Water_Bag-Pure_Water_Bag_Advanced.html

Amazon was running a sale on these so I bought one. It does flow but it is really SLOOOOOW. Did you notice that?