Light weight water system

By Chad Poindexter Ranked #5 - Trail Running Hydration June 28, 2011

I have enjoyed using Aqua Mira Drops as my sole water treatment while on the trail, but recently I decided to pick up a Frontier pro filter to use in conjunction with the chemicals. The AM drops will kill the little stuff in 15 minutes (depending on water temp and turbidity) and then the filter will remove the big bad guys (Giardia & Crypto). So, I also decided to keep weight down, I would pick up some tabs (they weigh less than the drops).

20 of the tablets weigh in at 0.5 oz in the packaging. Sweet!

The packaging can be a little tough to open, so before leaving I snip the edges of the wrappers with a pair of scissors. This way when I use them I can simply tear at the snip. Still a little tough (especially if my hands are wet) but still manageable too.

These tablets will leave a strong chemical taste to the water if the water is not ran through a carbon filter. During the day I treated the water and then filtered it so I would only wait 15 minutes. The carbon filter removed the chemical taste very well. However, at night I dropped in the tablets and then did not filter the next morning since the tablets had more than enough time to thoroughly work. The chemical taste definitely woke me up! Wow. It was strong! Good thing I had flavored drink tablets to add to it, although they still did not cover the taste completely. (And just for the record, I have never tasted a chemical taste using the AM drops, without filtering.)

So, because of the strong chemical taste, I gave these a 4. Also, considering how expensive the pills are compared to the drops. But, I can only they assume that they do work (I haven't gotten sick anyway), however, they are the lightest water treatment option available. I will continue to use these, but I will definitely bring my filter along too!

View Details: Katadyn Micropur Purification Tablets - 30 pack

Helpful Votes: 0 Yes