Weekend's gear testing - Thoughts take II

fluffkitten

Full Member
Mar 8, 2014
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Nottingham
My camp setup:

img_2997_sm.jpg

This photo really makes me smile, it brings back loads of very happy memories. :D
Substitute a bright orange tent fly for the basha and a lilo for the Exped and that's how I spent many, many nights when I was still living in Australia.
 

cbr6fs

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Mar 30, 2011
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Athens, Greece
The platypus softbottle is for drinking from, not for the water filter. It would only be used for clean water. The thread on my sawyer is only on he dirty side, so the incompatible threads would help to not get dirty and clean water the wrong way round.

Julia

If you use a bladder that is compatible though you have redundancy in your dirty bottle/bladder ;)
 

cbr6fs

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Mar 30, 2011
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Athens, Greece
Yes, but then what do I filter the water into ?

Julia

A cup, pot, bowl, you can even drink straight from the filter.

You can manage without a clean bladder, it's extremely difficult to filter water effectively without a dirty bladder though.
You'll be reduced to sucking up water directly from source, tough going.

The bladders these days are pretty tough and even if the worst happens punctures can be repaired with duct tape most the time, but if you are buying a bladder anyways you may as well buy one that offers some redundancy just-in-case.
 
Jul 30, 2012
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The dirty clean water debate is solved by the argument of needing to have more than 2 litres at night. Almost all evidence I've seen points to 1 solid and one collapsible container.
 

cbr6fs

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Mar 30, 2011
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The dirty clean water debate is solved by the argument of needing to have more than 2 litres at night. Almost all evidence I've seen points to 1 solid and one collapsible container.

Mate you probably drink 6 litres of tea while you're sleeping :p

:lmao:

In all seriousness i have seen reports of the old Sawyer bladder busting at the seams.
That's unlikely with a Platy or Evernew, but my point is:

IF your dirty water bag fails how are you going to filter water?

If you use a clean bag that has the same threads as your filter then you can use this to scoop up dirty water and filter it into your cup, pot, rucksack drinking bladder etc etc etc.

If you only have 1 dirty bladder and it fails
 

Quixoticgeek

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Aug 4, 2013
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The dirty clean water debate is solved by the argument of needing to have more than 2 litres at night. Almost all evidence I've seen points to 1 solid and one collapsible container.

Can you elaborate and explain a bit more about your reasoning here please?

In all seriousness i have seen reports of the old Sawyer bladder busting at the seams.
That's unlikely with a Platy or Evernew, but my point is:

IF your dirty water bag fails how are you going to filter water?

My current plan was to have 1x 1L & 1x 0.5L platypus soft bottles, and 2x 1L sawyer pouches. So I have redundency.

If you use a clean bag that has the same threads as your filter then you can use this to scoop up dirty water and filter it into your cup, pot, rucksack drinking bladder etc etc etc.

If you only have 1 dirty bladder and it fails

Oh I would never rely on just the one bladder, that would be foolish. They are light enough to have a spare in the bottom of my pack.

That said, tis annoying that they are different threads.

Julia
 

Quixoticgeek

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Aug 4, 2013
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Are you sure the sawyer mini is incompatible with platypus pouches on the dirty side, indications are it has a universal thread:

"I’m grateful the Mini uses standard threads because it meant I could use it on my Platypus water bladders and “disposable” water bottles alike."

From theultimatehang.com.

The sawyer squeeze on the otherhand is not compatible with platypus pouches, from what I can find.

Thanks

Julia
 

Quixoticgeek

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Aug 4, 2013
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Also found this quote on hikelighter.com:

" I spoke with Sawyer last week and they did not change the threads. I was told that the threads are compatible with the Platypus bottles."

J
 
Jul 30, 2012
3,570
224
westmidlands
Can you elaborate and explain a bit more about your reasoning here please?

When at night, most use larger amounts of water than the day reservoir allows, so people take various things as extra containers, 2 litre saucepan, dry bag, sea to summit bowl, msr dromidary, plastic folding water bosh etc.

Point taken about the failure of the folding back up cbr6fs, one reason I went off the hydration bladder idea, another being some of the bladders weigh a tonne. I may wake up and make a brew and have a midnight smoke!
 

cbr6fs

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Mar 30, 2011
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0
Athens, Greece
Are you sure the sawyer mini is incompatible with platypus pouches on the dirty side, indications are it has a universal thread:

"I’m grateful the Mini uses standard threads because it meant I could use it on my Platypus water bladders and “disposable” water bottles alike."

From theultimatehang.com.

The sawyer squeeze on the otherhand is not compatible with platypus pouches, from what I can find.

Thanks

Julia

Absolutely certain Julia.

The thread pitch is pretty close, but it is different.
The result is if you have the threads loose it drips, if you try and tighten it then the threads slip and it's loose again.

Tough to see in pics but the distance between the threads is slightly different on the Platy (left), the thread doesn't wrap around the head as much either, so if you try and tighten it up the threads slip.

DSCF2275-1.jpg



From what i can gather Sawyer and Evernew use a standard type thread used for many soft drinks bottles.
I've found 1.5l Coke bottles, 300ml fizzy orange bottles that are the same, likes wise some water bottles.

Platy decided to use a different standard of threads, i guess they wanted people buying their caps rather than using them from water bottles and the like.

To confuse the issue apparently some older Platy bladders do work, not sure if that's because they used to use the standard coke thread or just because their threads were slightly different, but apparently they did work.

I had a platy bladder and was able to bodge it up so i got a 1/2 decent seal, so it can be "improvised"

Thing is though if you are buying the bladder from the offset then if you intend on using the Sawyer you may as well buy bladders that work with it.
I have both Platy's and Evernew bladders there really is no advantage (other than the threads) for going platy over Evernew or vice versa.
The Evernew bags are around the same price, come in useful sizes and are just as tough as the platy ones.

As i say, if you already have the platy ones then i'd say make do, but if you're buying them anyway it just makes more sense to go with ones that have the same thread.


BTW the sawyer squeeze and mini have the exact same thread.
 

jacko1066

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May 22, 2011
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march, cambs
So which bag would you go for cbr? Could you link me up please as in not entirely sure what to look for, just wouldn't mind a collaspable back up to my 3 litre source bladder.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

cbr6fs

Native
Mar 30, 2011
1,620
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Athens, Greece
So which bag would you go for cbr? Could you link me up please as in not entirely sure what to look for, just wouldn't mind a collaspable back up to my 3 litre source bladder.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Depends mate

If you are using one of the Sawyer filters then i'd either go for one of the Sawyer bladders or a Evernew.
When i bought my Evernew bladder they were about the same price as the Sawyer one, if that's still the case then for the money i'm of the opinion the Evernew in better.
Quick check on t'bay and this one came up the cheapest, please please check though and sort by "Price + P&P" because the postage to the UK will be different to here (in Greece)

That's the 2L bladder, they also do
1.5L
900ml
600ml

For weights i'm seeing:
2000ml = 45g
1500ml = 37g
900ml = 31g
600ml = 27g

I've bought all the sizes in the past, to be honest though i tend to just use the 2L now, if i don't fill it then it folds down like a stuff sack to the water line.

As i say i used those as examples for the bag, please double check on the prices inc postage as i know for me the ones from the seller in Japan were cheaper because they guy in the states charged crazy postage fees.


Cheers
Mark

*edit
Should add, if you are not using the Sawyer filter then to be honest there is very little difference between the platy and evernew quality wise, so in that case i'd just go for the ones you can find cheapest in the size you want.
 
Last edited:

Quixoticgeek

Full Member
Aug 4, 2013
2,483
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Europe
Went into an outdoors shop today, connected my sawyer to a platy bag, no problems. I wasn't able to test that it sealed and didn't spray water when squeezed, but it gave a good fit.

My understanding is that the thread on the sawyer is a universal one that is able to take both the "standard" thread that is used on coke bottles sawyer bags, etc... but also the thread used by platypus. What vintage is your sawyer filter ?

Julia
 

cbr6fs

Native
Mar 30, 2011
1,620
0
Athens, Greece
Went into an outdoors shop today, connected my sawyer to a platy bag, no problems. I wasn't able to test that it sealed and didn't spray water when squeezed, but it gave a good fit.

My understanding is that the thread on the sawyer is a universal one that is able to take both the "standard" thread that is used on coke bottles sawyer bags, etc... but also the thread used by platypus. What vintage is your sawyer filter ?

Julia

Julia,

It's your money your choice, all i can say is i am telling you as a person that has had several platypus bladders and 5 Sawyer filters and counting.
The Platy bags do NOT fit on the Sawyer filter securely.

As you can see from the pics the threads are different (they are not my pics btw).

They feel like they fit but it's not a water tight fit.
When you then try to tighten the filter/bladder it's threads skip (as you can see in the pic the Swyer/evernew thread has 2 lines of threads going round the neck, the platy has 2 lines of thread in places but only 1 in others, it's this that causes the threads to slip when tightened.
You can and i have bodged repairs but it's a problem that only gets worse the more you use it and the more the threads wear.


You have to think that even if you use the filter as a gravity filter that's still a fair bit of water pressure on that thread.
Once you start trying to squeeze it, it gets even worse as the water comes out everywhere.

Might sound like nothing, but that's dirty unfiltered water, if that gets into your clean supply then there was really no point filtering it in the first place.

You don't know me and have never met me, so i can understand you being unsure of a strangers advice.
Hand on heart though i'm the type of person that if i'm not sure then i would say so, as it is i am absolutely 100% certain that a Platypus bladder from the last couple of years and newer does NOT fit correctly on a Sawyer squeeze or Mini.

The age of the Sawyer does not mater, for the squeeze and Mini they're all the same size.
 

jacko1066

Native
May 22, 2011
1,689
0
march, cambs
Depends mate

If you are using one of the Sawyer filters then i'd either go for one of the Sawyer bladders or a Evernew.
When i bought my Evernew bladder they were about the same price as the Sawyer one, if that's still the case then for the money i'm of the opinion the Evernew in better.
Quick check on t'bay and this one came up the cheapest, please please check though and sort by "Price + P&P" because the postage to the UK will be different to here (in Greece)

That's the 2L bladder, they also do
1.5L
900ml
600ml

For weights i'm seeing:
2000ml = 45g
1500ml = 37g
900ml = 31g
600ml = 27g

I've bought all the sizes in the past, to be honest though i tend to just use the 2L now, if i don't fill it then it folds down like a stuff sack to the water line.

As i say i used those as examples for the bag, please double check on the prices inc postage as i know for me the ones from the seller in Japan were cheaper because they guy in the states charged crazy postage fees.


Cheers
Mark

*edit
Should add, if you are not using the Sawyer filter then to be honest there is very little difference between the platy and evernew quality wise, so in that case i'd just go for the ones you can find cheapest in the size you want.

Ah yes, sorry mate I should have wrote I'm using the sawyer mini.
I just want a light weight solution for holding dirty water in camp other than using a traditional hydration bladder. I'm not worried about having a clean and dirty bladder, I just treat them all as dirty and then screw the filter on or put it inline like I do my 3 litre source.

Without going off topic I wouldn't mind hearing about hiking in Greece, I will pm if that's ok?

Sorry to hijack Julia :)

Cheers
Steve


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

cbr6fs

Native
Mar 30, 2011
1,620
0
Athens, Greece
Ah yes, sorry mate I should have wrote I'm using the sawyer mini.
I just want a light weight solution for holding dirty water in camp other than using a traditional hydration bladder. I'm not worried about having a clean and dirty bladder, I just treat them all as dirty and then screw the filter on or put it inline like I do my 3 litre source.

Personally i'd go for a Evernew bag then, you can screw it on the filter without any problems.

I do like to have a bladder of filtered water knocking about camp though.
I tend to use it for cuppa's, washing and brushing my teeth and for a drink at night if i get thirsty.

If i've got plenty of water i'll use filtered water for everything, washing pots, pans and cups, i'll even use it for my boil in a bag cooking.
Might seem a bit excessive especially for cases where i'll be boiling water anyways, but i have a 2 litre clean bladder i fill up (gravity setup usually) so it's easy to fill and there is plenty of water to go around.

Only real exception is if it's really cold, i don't want my bladders and filters freezing up so i'll filter as i need and keep everything in a dry bag at the bottom of my sleeping bag.


Without going off topic I wouldn't mind hearing about hiking in Greece, I will pm if that's ok?

Sorry to hijack Julia :)

Cheers
Steve


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Yep PM away Steve
 

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