MIOX Purifier and RCR123A?

Has anybody used RCR123A in a Miox Purifier?

Thanks

why would you even want to?

In an extreme situation, like living in a third world country for a while, where one must purify the water, however there is a lack of batteries available, and one happens to have access to electricity.
Let's say one is doing a long stint in West Africa.

good point... I'd take along a maintainable filtration system for backup as well.

I believe that's what extended treks take along.

electronics can do fail...

I have both a Katadyn Pocket filter and a Katadyn Mini. The problem with filtration, is that it does not take out viruses. Viruses must be KILLED. I've got some Powerizer RCR123A batteries and a charger with the 12V adapter. Was thinking I could pick up a solor unit from Iowa Thin Films to charge the Li-On during the day.

I know the Miox needs 4v minimum to operate, but the Powerizer's are coming off the charger at 4.16. I would hate to stick two in the unit, and POOF! No more Miox.

why don't you look at regulated li-ions. they sag under load to 3.0v

I've been using UVaquastar and MSR tablets. but that's only for short two week trips...

I was looking at the UVAquastar, it just appears a bit, shall we say, unable to roll down a rocky hill and survive. At least the batteries would not be a problem.

I'll have to check into some regulated Li-on.

Any idea who has them with a 12V car charger?

You should look into General Ecology's filters. They have a smaller absolute filtration size than the katadyn filters and they also take out viruses.

If I were you I'd take a filter with backup cartidges as a first line water solution and the miox with primaries as a backup. Remember to take a prefilter as the miox doesn't work very well if water has debris in it. The General Ecology filters have a prefilter but I wouldn't rely on its inbuilt prefilter for terribly muddy water.

When I've been hiking, the GE filters have saved me sickness and worry. I've had to drink water that came out of rivers and creeks anywhere from yellow-brown to green and when filtered, the water came out crystal clear. I don't have any experience with the katadayn filters.

I'm a bit worried about the UV style purifiers with regards to the heavily coloured water I mentioned before; in that situation I would feel more comfortable using a filter. I'm not sure if my concerns are justified but on an emotional basis I would prefer to drink clear water rather than water that still remains discoloured. I know I'm being irrational, but I would rather drink water without bacteria etc rather than water with inactivated/genetically mutated bacteria.

I will be in a similar situation to you with regards to water supply later this year when I am in southeast asia for 2 months. I plan on taking a general ecology filter with katadyn micropur tablet as backup.

good point about UVaquastar and Miox treatments. for dirty water sources, it's better to go two stage. filter water, then treat with UVaqustar.

when I used UVaquastar at Philmont scout ranch, water was pretty much crystal clear from high attitude streams.

at horse thief springs on telimena drive, OK. water was brackish. didn't get sick, but sure tasted funny. treated with UVaquastar. mine was the proto units...

cy, how many treatment cycles do you get per battery change? The manufacturers claim 60 per cycle; do you find that this differs?

I've been looking into a uvaquastar or steripen. Cost might be an issue but for peace of mind I might look into the 2 stage filter then uv treat route. Is there any compelling reason to double treat water, when the filter ought to be sufficient?

I always use two stage, and sometimes three stages to purify water from "bad" areas.
I use a Katadyn Mini ceramic filter with a Sweetwater prefilter on it. The Katadyne mini is tiny and the filter lasts forever (2,000 gallons), and just before it hits my water bottle, there is an inline carbon filter.
If there are mines (heavy metals) known to be in the area/water, I chelate the water first with alum.

The problem with General Ecology's filter is that, it in fact, does not take viruses out of the water! The EPA does not actualy test the units, they only go by what stages the filter has, and since the GE has an iodine filter, that qualifies it to be registered as taking out the viruses. Katadyn had made a filter with the same thing, but when tested, the "purified" water still had all the viruses left in it. Katadyn took theirs off the market, but GE has been playing thiers up. Unfortunately, it's not doing what they say it is.

Have a look at the results GE have published here for virus decontamination: http://www.generalecology.com/techmemocert.htm. I believe that page is a precis of this paper: http://www.generalecology.com/wemedmag.pdf

The research was done for them by the University of Arizona. I realise that funding is a source of potential bias for research and that only 3 units were tested, but the results look OK to me. I am unsure as to whether rotavirus sa-1L or poliovirus are representative of all pathogenic viruses but they were removed by the units tested.

Based on that paper I think that the GE filters do filter out viruses.

over a two week trip at philmont scout ranch. lost track of how many cycles, but it was more than 60.

keep in mind this was a proto unit treating cold mountain streams. I double treated all water due to cold water temps.

production UVaquastar increased treatment times, so should not need double treatments.

other changes added field servicable batt covers. pita to carry a tiny screw driver just to change cells.

we never got sick..

any filter that's small enough to take care of virus (questionable) will clog in the field. all carbon fiters have a finite life.

IMHO best method is to multi-stage water. first stage with a servicable ceramic filter. then treat with UVaquastar and/or iodine dioxide.

gold standard is still low tech, boiling your water

Grox said:

cy, how many treatment cycles do you get per battery change? The manufacturers claim 60 per cycle; do you find that this differs?

I've been looking into a uvaquastar or steripen. Cost might be an issue but for peace of mind I might look into the 2 stage filter then uv treat route. Is there any compelling reason to double treat water, when the filter ought to be sufficient?

Click to expand...

Have a look at the results GE have published here for virus decontamination: http://www.generalecology.com/techmemocert.htm. I believe that page is a precis of this paper: http://www.generalecology.com/wemedmag.pdf

...

Based on that paper I think that the GE filters do filter out viruses.

Click to expand...

From the paper it seems that the General Ecology units are removing viruses. The mechanism for removing the viruses is not size exclusion but providing a surface that the viruses will stick to.