UV-light water purification devices

I'm looking at these for emergency preparedness and possibly travel abroad. The two UV light products I have read about are the steripen http://www.hydro-photon.com/index.html and uvaquastar http://uvaquastar.com/. Both seem to do the same thing although the aquastar uses an led (wrong-both are uv-c tube I think)and the steripen does not use led at this time. (I maybe should have put this in the general light discussion forum.)

I would like to know if anyone has experience with these two products and any comments they can share. Both are pretty pricey so I don't want to just pick one blind.

edit: I found Craigs review of the aquastar. Also noted that it uses cr123 batteries and the steripen uses AAs.

Can anyone compare them with the miox purifier as well, since it would also do what I am looking to do.

thanks,

Gary

Seen those, but have no experience with them or know of anybody who has them. Maybe someone here. . .

Enjoy!

I do have the UV Aquastar, but have not seen or handled any other UVC water purification devices, so I am not in a position to offer any comparative analyses.

Msr's device requires the water to wait up to 4 hours after treatment for disinfection.

I bought the uv aquastar for a trip I am taking. But I've not gone yet. And _really_, you don't know if it worked unless it doesn't work (you get sick).

I've used UVaquastar in the field on a two week backpacking trek at philmont scout ranch and at Robbers state park, Tehlamena, Okla.

only allow myself and my son to use UVaquastar. due to risk of getting sick from a beta product. We were constantly getting water from creeks as we were in remote areas with no other water source.

I followed a strict procedure with cycle time, filling bottle, backflush threads, etc.

We never got sick and had access to potable water almost instantly VS everyone else was using MSR tablets issued by philmont had to wait for tabs to work. back flushing threads was part of procedure.

beta unit was not easily field serviceable, due to tiny screwdriver needed to open batt cover. that feature has been upgraded since then.

also number of cycles UVaquastar delivered was not up to par. in all fairness I double treated everything due to temp of water. so this cut battery life in half. so take lots of extra cells and backup MSR tabs.

This issue has also been adress in current production unit. I picked up the current UVaquastar at shot show and hope to test further in the field.

here's a pic of beta model and current production. cycle time has been increased slightly for current model.

Have you considered a regular filter type water purification system? Even if you UV zap the water you will probably still want to filter it, unless you like drinking sand and silt.

I have used the Sweetwater Guardian on many backpacking trips. There are a bunch of small portable water filtering systems out there.

I would personally rather use something less complex while out in the field. Too much stuff could go wrong with those UV systems for my tastes.

Ras_Thavas said:

Have you considered a regular filter type water purification system? Even if you UV zap the water you will probably still want to filter it, unless you like drinking sand and silt.

I have used the Sweetwater Guardian on many backpacking trips. There are a bunch of small portable water filtering systems out there.

I would personally rather use something less complex while out in the field. Too much stuff could go wrong with those UV systems for my tastes.

Click to expand...

Filtering is all fine unless you encounter cryptosporidium.

Unless you drink from a ditch, finding clear water is not too much of a problem around here.

I have a katadyn pump type microfilter. I am looking at the uv devices and the miox to take care of crypto and the like. I don't think a microfilter can do that, but you have to have clear water for the uv purifiers to work. Also, a small device that could be used during travel would be cheap insurance against getting sick.

The aquastar is about 2/3 the price of the steripen and appears to do the job just as well (thanks Cy). I like the option of using rechargeables with the steripen though and the pen (I think) attaches to standard nalgene bottles. The aquastar may do this now too.

Thanks for the helpful replies.

Gary

http://www.msrcorp.com/filters/


UV is not the only way to get rid of crypto. Some of these filters take out crypto. You can also configure them for virus elimination as well.

Ras-
I am also looking at the miox, which is an MSR product listed in your link. It is basically a chemical method and takes longer than UV plus imparts some taste.

I don't have any experience with that one, only the sweetwater guardian, which is what I use when backpacking.

I have an older model, and my Virus guard setup is a little different. I can't say I ever really was bothered by the "taste" the virus guard imparted to the water. But to be fair, I would often mix my water with the drink mix from a MRE, crystal light, or make tea with it.

Spudman said:

Ras-
I am also looking at the miox, which is an MSR product listed in your link. It is basically a chemical method and takes longer than UV plus imparts some taste.

Click to expand...

miox is an excellent product. at philmont we used a tablet form of same chemical. basically you are treating water simular to what a municipal water system would.

you must follow the drill of waiting the specified time and backflush threads too.

UVaquastar has the advantage of almost imediate availability of water. at philmont my son and I were drinking water most of the time. while everone else was waiting their time period before being able to drink safely.

but in all fairness miox and tablets have the advantage of being fail safe. whereas an electronic devise allways has a failure factor.

safest is to take UVaquastar with miox or tablets as a backup.

Hello Spudman,

I have had very good performance from the MIOX system.

It does leave a bit of a "taste" to the water, but I picked up some 500 mg chewable vitamin C tablets. I would put 1 tablet into my 1 liter bottle and it would dissolve during the 4 hour soak time. This seemed to neutralize any taste, and had the side benefit of keeping my immune system charged up.

I happened to be on a kayak trip and was not concerned too much with weight. I had four 1 liter bottles. Two were ready to drink and the other two were soaking. This worked out quite well.

I talked with MSR and they informed me that everything but the cysts were taken care of in the first 15 minutes. The cysts are larger and the 4 hour soak time is required for them. In an emergency, they told me that I could quadruple the chemical mix and drink within 15 minutes.

Tom

Thanks for all the helpful replies, especially you Cy. You've obviously got the hands-on experience I was looking for. I am still leaning towards a uv method but with a tablet backup. I wish one of these was on sale somewhere. I'll probably wait a bit and watch for a deal.

Thanks again,

Gary

Thanks Silverfox. You must've posted while I was typing my last post.

note UVaquastar doesnot kill cryto, but renders it not able to reproduce.

cryto passes thru and you don't get sick. definately not for brackish water. I'd high grade filter first, then treat with UVaquastar. note since you are not filtering water, what ever taste in water will come thru full strength. but you will not get sick.

did a three week trip to mainland China a few years ago. sure wish I had UVaquastar with me on that trip. all tap water was suspect. Hong Kong had safe tap water if I remember correctly.

CY: backflushing the threads? I assume this means that once you have treated the water, you tilt the bottle so that some of the treated water pours out, over the threads in order to flush away any untreated water which may have remained there?

Cycle time has been increased for current model - interesting. That's what I planned to do with the beta one, double treat it just to be sure.

I bought the beta during the CPF special, but I have never actually had to use it in production. It's more an emergency/travel use device for me. Whenever I have a choice of known clean/good water, that would always be a first choice.. in the past year, that's mostly been the case.

Didn't do much travelling either, apart from a visit to a first world country where water was safe to drink straight from the tap. Forgot to bring the UV Aquastar too. (I survived )

Kevin, that is correct. back flushing threads is a good thing to do.

there were not very many beta units sent out. if you contact UVaquastar, betcha they will send out a new unit.

have not timed two units yets, but I suspect UVaquastar UV time was increased to compensate for cold water usage.

KevinL said:

CY:
I bought the beta during the CPF special, but I have never actually had to use it in production. It's more an emergency/travel use device for me. Whenever I have a choice of known clean/good water, that would always be a first choice.. in the past year, that's mostly been the case.

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There was a cpf special? Arghh!

I emailed aquastar when I started this thread to see if they would run a cpf special but I never heard back. I know they were at SHOT but they should be back by now.

spudman, cpf special was long ago for us beta guinea pigs

they've made improvements based partly upon feedback.