And so it was over the last few days the thought came upon me that I should check my stored water filtration devices of which comprised two Sawyer Squeeze filters and an old MSR Miniworks EX, to find horror upon horror the two Sawyers had lost their rather impressive flow rate, one sort of dribbled and the other was a complete no go, to think oh eck they're not goosed are they.
To there through much Youtube research learn it's quite common for these filters to suffer what I had found and though some folk toss them when they are confronted with the problem there is a cause and with it a solution, a rather rapid effective solution once you know how.
The problem is a condition called ' mineralisation ' of which is what occurs when you post outing flush the thing with tap water ready for drying and storage, mineralisation in that the minerals in tap water form crystals within the filter to block the filtering pores to at best restrict flow, but worse impede it completely as was with one of the Sawyers.
And so following Sawyer advice I flushed and back flushed immersed in hot water and yes somewhat improved on the flow to deem the repair acceptable with the first filter, but the same wasn't happening with the second to give up and toss the thing in neat white vinegar for half an hour and wow after force flushing the vinegar out what an improvement for the flow had returned to far better than what I have deemed acceptable on my first to find the filter could pass a litre of water in thirty seconds to consider that filter at least was pretty much as good as new. So I tossed the other filter in the vinegar to achieve the same.
Now on preparing for storage I am sanitising with Miltons before flushing with de-ionised water, de ionised as I understand de-ionised water is mineral free.
But a video that explains all;
I chose the Sawyer Squeeze models as they with the addition of another Sawyer kit (SP158) convert the filter into a bucket filtration system of which answers my needs for an emergency home filtration assembly living in a place that fairly regularly suffers mains water supply outages, sometimes for days.
The video that convinced me to invest in Sawyer;
The MSR? Well it still works, it just needs a new inlet hose of which I have found is easily obtainable from catering equipment suppliers or indeed Amazon - ( 5mm ID x 8mm x 1500mm OD platinum cured Silicone hose)
Maybe it's not just Sawyer filters that suffer this problem
To there through much Youtube research learn it's quite common for these filters to suffer what I had found and though some folk toss them when they are confronted with the problem there is a cause and with it a solution, a rather rapid effective solution once you know how.
The problem is a condition called ' mineralisation ' of which is what occurs when you post outing flush the thing with tap water ready for drying and storage, mineralisation in that the minerals in tap water form crystals within the filter to block the filtering pores to at best restrict flow, but worse impede it completely as was with one of the Sawyers.
And so following Sawyer advice I flushed and back flushed immersed in hot water and yes somewhat improved on the flow to deem the repair acceptable with the first filter, but the same wasn't happening with the second to give up and toss the thing in neat white vinegar for half an hour and wow after force flushing the vinegar out what an improvement for the flow had returned to far better than what I have deemed acceptable on my first to find the filter could pass a litre of water in thirty seconds to consider that filter at least was pretty much as good as new. So I tossed the other filter in the vinegar to achieve the same.
Now on preparing for storage I am sanitising with Miltons before flushing with de-ionised water, de ionised as I understand de-ionised water is mineral free.
But a video that explains all;
How To Clean A Sawyer Squeeze - Maximize & Restore Your Flow Rate!
I chose the Sawyer Squeeze models as they with the addition of another Sawyer kit (SP158) convert the filter into a bucket filtration system of which answers my needs for an emergency home filtration assembly living in a place that fairly regularly suffers mains water supply outages, sometimes for days.
The video that convinced me to invest in Sawyer;
EXPOSED - Sawyer Products isn’t who you think they are
The MSR? Well it still works, it just needs a new inlet hose of which I have found is easily obtainable from catering equipment suppliers or indeed Amazon - ( 5mm ID x 8mm x 1500mm OD platinum cured Silicone hose)
Maybe it's not just Sawyer filters that suffer this problem
