Professional Outdoor Guide- bad product

By HBrad Ranked #334 - Water Filters October 19, 2008

I've been an Outdoor Educator/Guide for several years, and I recently brought a group of 12 to the High Sierras and used this pump by recommendation.
We were pumping mostly from sources that were SO CLEAN, it was tempting not to just fill up my Nalgene and be done with it--- especially after struggling with this pump.
At first it blew my mind how quickly the pump worked for moving mass quantities of water. A+ there.
Then, although we back-flushed frequently, the pump became painfully slow and difficult to use. By DAY 3 into our 15 day trip it was completely worthless! At that point, my fellow guides and I worked for about 2 hours!!! on this thing trying to salvage it. NOPE. Luckily, I believe that moving parts have a propensity for failure in the backcountry haha, and always back up my water sanitation system with time-tested Iodine. Thank god, because our trip would've been over.

BOTTOM LINE:
I think that for a SINGLE person pump, for SHORTER trips- where mass amounts (40-50 litres per day) of water are NOT expected: this is a fantastic pump! It's fast, light, & packs small. Home maintenance/cleaning may be extensive, but outside you'll notice a big difference from other pumps. (B+)

HOWEVER, For any realistic expedition (ie, lots of water needed and frequent use), this Pump needs to go back to the design table stat! because it was really and truly terrible. Even back-flushing every 8-10 litres (as per instructions), it couldn't handle the quantities we were dealing with. Epic FAILURE.

View Details: MSR HyperFlow Microfilter

Helpful Votes: 1 Yes