The image of sipping water from a cool mountain creek might be heavenly, but it loses its effect when you start thinking about what might be finding its way into the water further upstream.
Call me paranoid but I can’t help but imagine an animal carcass lying in the creek, a hiker defecating far too close, or a dodgy farmer pumping who knows what into the water. I’m knackered enough after a good hike, without a case of gastro or giardia to finish me off.
So, as you can imagine, I’ve used a few different solutions for treating my water while hiking – a hand pump filter, UV treatment, iodine tablets, and even the Lifestraw. They all have their strengths (okay, maybe not so much the iodine tablets… eeeeww) but the Fill2Pure Water Filter Bottle is the most convenient method I’ve used. It doesn’t get much quicker and easier than filling a bottle, screwing the lid on, and sucking. It seems to get rid of bad tastes, too (although I haven’t tried drinking out of the Yarra just yet).
These bottles are primarily aimed at the travel market, and it’s easy to see the benefits for people travelling in developing countries. I shudder every time I think about the number of empty plastic bottles I left behind all over South America. I did have my Nalgene bottle with me, but it didn’t serve much purpose when there was no clean water to fill it with. A water filter bottle would have solved that problem. I’ll definitely be travelling with my Fill2Pure next time.
Obviously they’re great for hiking too. I even took mine along on a day-hike. Now, that’s not something that’s really necessary for a day-hiker (although there was that one time I got so desperate, after massively underestimating how much I’d need to bring, that I ended up licking water off a slimy rock-face), but when you can use it as a container to carry extra tap water, why not have the filter just in case you run out?
So what else does one say when reviewing a water bottle? I’ll start with the technical stuff, I guess. The lab tests show that it’s good for removing 99.9% of water-borne nasties (clearly I’m no scientist but they’re listed against the average of results from other brands). Oh, and it’s BPA-free, which is always good.
The 2 micron filter is fully replaceable, and apparently needs to be replaced after about 500 refills. Replacement filters can be ordered online from Fill2Pure for about $40 (including postage), which seems fairly reasonable to me.
It’s made from soft plastic, meaning you don’t need to worry about it cracking when you accidentally drop it, as was the fate of my beloved Nalgene, and unlike most of my other water bottles it doesn’t leak.
The only flaw I’ve found with this bottle is that it’s a little hard to suck the water through the filter but, when you consider that you’re sucking water through a filter, this is probably to be expected. Fortunately it isn’t so bad that you feel as though your head will implode, and I found by tilting the bottle that it can be easier to suck if you find the right angle. The soft plastic also means that you can give it a squeeze as well.
The Fill2Pure Water Filter Bottle can be ordered online from their website for $59.99 plus postage (it is available elsewhere but Fill2Pure seem to have the best price). Okay, so that is quite a bit of dough to splash on a water bottle, but when you compare it to other filtration and treatment methods (and even to other water filtration bottles), I think it’s worth the cost.
After a few days of testing (and no emergency toilet dashes thus far), I can honestly say that I’ll be getting a lot of use out of this bottle. I’ve often found myself making the decision to go without water while hiking, rather than stopping to go through the filtration process. Not anymore.
Fill2Pure provided me with a water filter bottle, and have sponsored this review. As I made very clear to them when they first got in touch, this has no influence on the opinions I put forward in my review. I maintain impartiality and any negatives I found while using the device have been mentioned here.
Have you ever tried Fill2Pure’s water filter bottles? Tell us in the comments section below.
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Thanks for this review. I’m curious, its been a number if years since this review was published, so, in the time since you wrote this review, have you noticed any potential drawbacks not listed in the original review? Or any issues you might have found with it? Has the bottle itself lasted well and stood up to knocks and dings?
Hey Matt,
Honestly, I don’t use the bottle any more because the filter started to wear out (or at least I felt like it was wearing out) and I never got around to buying a replacement. Up until that time, though, I didn’t find any drawbacks. The plastic its made from gets a bit scratched up but since it’s sort of soft and flexible, it held up well to drops. Hope that helps!
Cheers
Neil
Hey Neil,
Thanks for your thoughts. I get it 🙂
That is definitely helpful, I appreciate it.
Matt
Glad I could help, Matt!
Great work Neil! I appreciate the demands of balancing real life and meeting some uncommonly high demands expected from readers…. That’s why I read and comment on lots of blogs in the health and wellness space and expect some different responses. Having said that, sponsored and paid posts are perfectly acceptable and informative and help give me a s a reader an idea of what is on the market and what I might expect should I be looking for a similar product.
Well done, and thank you
Bren
I understand the need for sponsored posts and think it’s great you’re having a go. But as the comment obliquely points out, it would be more valuable to your readers, and you would have and retain more credibility, if you were to review other competitors at the same time. Refraining from copy-pasting their claims without independent verification would also help… If the sponsoring company are confident about their product, they shouldn’t be concerned about other products being mentioned, as there’s will clearly come out on top.
Hi Sally,
Thanks very much for the comment. Believe me, providing value to my readers is something that I’m very conscious of and I do my best with the resources I have to make that a priority at all times. Unfortunately, I’m a parent of young children, have a full-time job, and my wife and I mostly work opposite shifts, so reviewing multiple water bottles at the same time isn’t something I have the time to do. I barely have time to publish an article of any kind every week. It has nothing to do with the manufacturer having any objection, as if this was the case I would refuse to work with them.
I have repeated the manufacturer’s claims but I feel that I’ve been transparent about what I have and haven’t been able to test out for myself.
Having said all of that, I will take your comments into consideration for future reviews.
Cheers
Neil
Hi Neil!
Enjoyed your review, just thought that I would offer up another filtering solution which I have found to be fantastic. This is the Sawyer Squeeze system. I purchased mine through eBay at a cost of about $50au delivered from the US.
The system consists of a small filter, a bag-type water bottle and a flushing syringe. The complete package is very small, weighs next-to-nothing, and filters down to 0.1 micron. This means it will remove sediment, bacteria and other contaminants (99.99999% of bacteria and 99.9999% of protozoa) but won’t remove viruses, which don’t seem to be an issue in developed countries, from what I can find out.
The bag/bottle (once filled with unfiltered water) screws onto the filter (same thread as common soft-drink bottles, which is very useful!). The other end of the filter has a pop-top cap just like on kids drinks. It’s then just a matter of popping the top and drinking straight out of the filter, or squeezing the bag gently and filling your containers with filtered water from the outlet cap. The filter never needs replacing (it’s guaranteed for 1 million gallons!), and if the flow slows down, you use the syringe to reverse flush the filter with clean water and it’s back to original flow rates.
As I mentioned, it takes up hardly any space in my pack, so I take it on every hike (just in case) and is super simple to use.
There are plenty of videos on youtube showing how it works, just search for “sawyer squeeze review”
Happy Trails!
Dave
Hi Dave,
Thanks for the comment and suggestion. Sounds very interesting. It’s hard to picture how it works but I’ll do a search as soon as I get a chance.
Cheers
Neil