I've been looking for a better treatment solution than MicroPUR tabs.
They work great, but we usually only let them sit for a half hour. In icy cold or dirty water, the recommended time is 4 hrs. I've always wondered if we are just being lucky when we are using very cold water from most of the streams around here.
So what are my other options?
Chlorine Dioxide also comes in liquid form – which has a faster reaction time.
Aqua Mira has had a two-part product on the market for quite some time. However, it requires pre-mixing before adding to the water – which sounds like too much effort.
KlearWater is a newer product that is pre-mixed and has a decent shelf life. It comes in small 9ml containers, that weigh 1.22 oz and treats 9 liters+. Ryan Jordan talks about a way to re-pack them down to 0.5 oz and a strategy that can stretch this to get 25 liters of treated water.
Another interesting 
product is the Aquamira Frontier Pro Filter, shown on the right. This is inline filter is a mere 2oz in weight and fits onto the opening of a platypus bag and the other end to a hose.
I love the idea of not needing chemical treatment and having instant water, but I need to read some more reviews before I'm sold.
Agua Mira and KlearWater (like MicroPUR) are chlorine dioxide based and recommend the same 4 hrs for treatment as MicroPUR. With any chlorine dioxide treatment, bacteria and viruses will be killed within roughly 1/2 hour even in cold water but crypto can take up to 4 hrs in very cold water (probably not that much time is needed but they recommend for legal reasons). I still like MicroPUR better than Aqua Mira (because it needs to be mixed) and KlearWater (because it has a short shelf life).
Hello,
Have you considered or used the Sawyer Inline Filter at 1.75 oz.? Looks interesting.
Bernie
hey bernie,
i haven’t. i remember reading about it on section hikers blog (http://sectionhiker.com/2008/04/30/sawyer-inline-water-filter/) last year.
at this point, the micropur is working well for me and it’s really easy. i played with the klearwater stuff from BPL, but it seemed like too much effort.
what do you prefer?
-brett