Kit thats come and gone ...

Countryman

Native
Jun 26, 2013
1,652
74
North Dorset
Sorry I have it as an iPhone App. Just type Norgie into Amazon. Can only see them for £5.99 ish delivered now. Go for the British army ones with the towelling inside.

Fashion smashion give me comfy and warm


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rik_uk3

Banned
Jun 10, 2006
13,320
28
70
south wales
Slow, bulky, heavy and serves no purpose as in it doesn't purify water enough to guarantee it's safe to drink.

Millbank bag? It serves a great purpose, it clears out muck and debris from water before you treat it, have you ever used one or looked at their design purpose? Perfect combined with the likes of the Sawyer filter and cuts back a lot on the need to 'back flush' you filter of muck and grit. The bag is not meant to be a purifier.
 

shaggystu

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 10, 2003
4,345
33
Derbyshire
Millbank bag? It serves a great purpose, it clears out muck and debris from water before you treat it, have you ever used one or looked at their design purpose? Perfect combined with the likes of the Sawyer filter and cuts back a lot on the need to 'back flush' you filter of muck and grit. The bag is not meant to be a purifier.

It's pretty fast, compact, and lightweight too Rik :)
 

John Fenna

Lifetime Member & Maker
Oct 7, 2006
23,312
3,092
67
Pembrokeshire
It's pretty fast, compact, and lightweight too Rik :)
One of the best bits of water treatment kit going :)
I would not want to travel without one as they make the purifying section of effective treatment - chemical or physical - so much more efficient, purely by getting so much particulate out of the water!
 

rik_uk3

Banned
Jun 10, 2006
13,320
28
70
south wales
One of the best bits of water treatment kit going :)
I would not want to travel without one as they make the purifying section of effective treatment - chemical or physical - so much more efficient, purely by getting so much particulate out of the water!

Thank you John, the very word I was looking for in my aged brain.
 

cbr6fs

Native
Mar 30, 2011
1,620
0
Athens, Greece
Millbank bag? It serves a great purpose, it clears out muck and debris from water before you treat it, have you ever used one or looked at their design purpose? Perfect combined with the likes of the Sawyer filter and cuts back a lot on the need to 'back flush' you filter of muck and grit. The bag is not meant to be a purifier.

It's a water filter that doesn't actually do anything to ensure the water is safe to drink, i.e. pointless.

Back in the day they were useful as they filtered out most of the larger bits of detritus, so made either chemical or boiling a little safer (larger clumps of detritus can protect/shield certain bacteria/viruses from weak chemical or insufficient boiling).

These days water filters are smaller, quicker, lighter and actually filter the water to the point where it's safe to drink so have made the system pointless.

With regards to back flushing compared to using a Millbank bag.
Back flushing takes 1 min to do and even using dirty water it only needs doing once every 5 days or so in my experience.
It's a simple procedure using a very light weight syringe (34 grams).

You're suggesting carrying a bag that weighs around 200g dry, filtering the water through that, which takes mins rather than seconds, THEN filtering to water again to make safe.
All this effort, expense, weight and time EVERY SINGLE TIME you filter water just to save 1 min every 5 days :confused:

I think yours and my definitions of perfect are a fair bit off.

As i say years back they served a purpose, these days just use a filter, if the flow slows take 1 min to backflush it.
It's light weight, simple and effective.
 

Bishop

Full Member
Jan 25, 2014
1,720
696
Pencader
I distantly recall rubber capsules of lighter fluid hanging on a card behind the counter of the village shop till around the late eighties. About one inch long, just enough to get a fire going under typical Welsh conditions. Best photo I could find was this empty tin
mkiUPhbdOmhTKQWulZIgIpw.jpg
 

janso

Full Member
Dec 31, 2012
611
5
Penwith, Cornwall
One of the best bits of water treatment kit going :)
I would not want to travel without one as they make the purifying section of effective treatment - chemical or physical - so much more efficient, purely by getting so much particulate out of the water!

+1 for millbank bags; for so many reasons they are still of use. Naysayers probably haven't used them in anger in all sorts of conditions - unless they happily wear filters out before their time!

And Ron hills? Still have em; but just to look at!!


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cbr6fs

Native
Mar 30, 2011
1,620
0
Athens, Greece
Ronhill Lycra trousers......nuff said


Orric

Was wearing me Ron hill a couple of weeks ago on a 5 day wild camping hike in the Lakes.

Warm, quick drying and very comfortable, only downside is they're a bit heavy at just over 300g.

+1 for millbank bags; for so many reasons they are still of use. Naysayers probably haven't used them in anger in all sorts of conditions - unless they happily wear filters out before their time!

And Ron hills? Still have em; but just to look at!!


Sent from my hidey hole using Tapatalk... sssh!

Used Millbank bags countless times, as i say they've served their purpose it's just that purpose is no longer needed, things move on.

Certain water filters like the type that require pumping can and do wear out, it's usually very cheap O-rings that wear out though and using a Millbank bag won't slow down or prevent this wear.

With filters that have no moving parts like the Sawyer there is literally nothing to wear out.
Worst that can happen is the flow rate drops as the dirty side of the filter clogs.

As i said in a previous post though this is extremely easy to clean out.

You can also use pretty much anything else with a similar size fabric weave to pre-filter.
I've successfully used everything from coffee filters, sponge to cotton wool to great effect in the past.

Now days because the Sawyer filter is sooooooooo easy to back flush i don't bother using anything to pre-filter, no point even with really dirty water.
 

vizsla

Native
Jun 6, 2010
1,517
0
Derbyshire
Iv been using my millbank bag for years I fact iv never used any thing else, filter into pot and boil,simples
I can understand if your collecting water on the go it could be a faf but for camp it's spot on
 

ex-member BareThrills

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Dec 5, 2011
4,461
3
United Kingdom
Iv been using my millbank bag for years I fact iv never used any thing else, filter into pot and boil,simples
I can understand if your collecting water on the go it could be a faf but for camp it's spot on

yeap i think thats the case. if you want water on the go then a milbank isnt the best way forward. In a base camp its a spot on bit of kit

 

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