As usual, I bought a pack of the four different colored Sawyer Mini Water Filtration Systems from Amazon, but it was not apparently registered as a verified purchase (this happens to me very frequently)!The Life-Straw revolutionized the ability of an individual to obtain clean pathogen-free water infested/infected water sources. This product has thus been used by masses of people in and visiting locations were the water quality is suspect. This system relies on microfibers with pore sizes of 0.2 microns (2 x 10-7 meters). While 0.2 microns pore sizes are used on most water filters, we have found that a proportion of very thin pathogenic water-borne bacteria (enough to then culture: e.g. Leptospira interrogans) can get through 0.2 micron filters (See some of MY published articles). This unit is designed for individual use, costs $ 20.00, contains a useful lanyard, is very light-weight, and is used for purifying water directly from the water source by sucking (i.e. negative pressure only), and is stated to purify up to 1,000 liters (264 gallons) of water.Subsequently, hollow fibre technology has been used to obtain smaller uniform and absolute pore sizes of 0.1 (all bacteria, parasite eggs, protozoal cysts and trophozoites) and 0.02 (all pathogens including viruses) microns! This technology has been extensively developed by Sawyer (USA) who now provide the best water filters in the world, which are guaranteed to filter up to 1 million gallons of water, are light-weight, and at very reasonable prices.The smallest of the Sawyer water filter systems is called the Sawyer Mini Water Filtration System costs a mere $ 20.00 as an individual ($17.00 each for the 4 (blue, green, orange and pink) colored unit), is supplied with a straw for direct (negative pressure) use from the water source, a small 16 fluid oz. (500 ml) bag which can be filled with water, directly connected to the filter unit (screw threads), and squeezed (positive pressure) through the filter, and a 60 ml syringe which is use to back-flush the filter unit to prolong its life which is stated to be up to 100,000 gallons!IMPORTANTLY, THE SAWYER MINI FILTER UNIT CAN BE COUPLED TO A FAWCET FOR POSITIVE PRESSURE FILTRATION USING A FAWCET/TAP TO TUBE ATTACHMENT (AVAILABLE FROM HARDWARE STORES OR CONTAINED WITHIN THE ALL-IN-ONE SAWYER WATER FILTER SYSTEMS). THUS, YOU COULD USE THIS SYSTEM FOR FIELD FAWCETS, OR FAWCETS IN HOTELS AND HOUSES WHERE THE WATER SUPPLY MAY BE SUSPECT. IN ADDTION, THIS UNIT CAN ALSO BE USED FOR GRAVITY FILTRATION AS ALSO USED IN THE SAWYER 2 AND 4 LITER AND ALL-IN-ONE FILTER SYSTEMS.Thus, Sawyer Mini Water Filter System can be used with either positive (active fawcet or squeeze-bag force, or gravitational force) or negative pressure (sucking force) unlike the Life Straw which can only be used with negative (sucking) pressure, has a slightly smaller, but important, pore size than the Life Straw (0.1 versus 0.2 microns), costs the same ($ 20.00) as the Life Straw, can filter much (> 380 times) larger volumes of water than the Life Straw (100,000 versus 264 gallons, the Sawyer Mini is supplied with a squeeze bag and you can get more even large capacity bags ($ 9.00 for 3 x 1 liter bags), the Sawyer but not the Life Straw is supplied with a syringe for back-flushing, and (for those who care) the Sawyer Mini Filter comes in five different colors!For those interested, you can even get the Sawyer Mini in 5 different colors so you do not get confused who owns each of the different filters. One is provided in black as a limited edition model, while those of blue, green, orange and pink can either be obtained individually or as a 4 pack ($ 67.51 = Thus, I STRONGLY believe that anyone who has compared these two water filters would clearly find that the Life Straw has clearly been surpassed by this Sawyer Mini Water Filter System in absolutely every aspect and therefore I rate the Sawyer Mini Water Filter System as a 5 star product!Thus, while the Life Straw was a revolutionary product at one time I can only give it a 3 star rating, since it is clearly been surpassed in every aspect by the incredible Sawyer Mini Water Filter System.The author declares that No Conflicts of Interest Exist in the review of these products or any other products mentioned in this review.P.S. While the Sawyer Mini Water Filtration System is designed for 1-2 people, readers who wish to purify water for a much larger group of people should look at the Sawyer 2- and 4- liter bag water filter systems, the Squeeze Water Filter System and the All-In-One (0.1 or 0.02 micron) Squeeze, Fawcet or Gravity Water Filter Systems: e.g. some of the many different Sawyer Water Filter Systems on Amazon:

I've used my Mini on 3 trips and it works great. The first trip I used the tiny included "dirty water" pouch and spent way too much time squeezing and spilling.The second trip I used a second 2L Platypus water bladder as the "dirty water" pouch. I filled that with dirty water, pulled the mouthpiece off my platypus hydration bladder's hose, and hooked that hose directly to the Mini's fresh water tip.Instead of squeezing I just let it gravity feed by putting the dirty water bag on a rock. No more squeezing! Best of all, I can keep my hydration bladder in my backpack's internal sleeve for the entire trip. It's pretty much impossible to slip a full bladder into that sleeve if the backpack is packed, so that's a real hassle-reducer.The only downside is Platypus bladders don't use standard threading (WHY!?!), so unless you're super careful (lucky/patient) there will be a small leak where the dirty water bladder screws into the Mini. Not a huge deal, but on my 3rd trip I bought an Evernew bladder because it uses standard threading and doesn't leak.The thing I don't love is carrying that syringe around. It's light but bulky and feels wrong somehow. I bet I could just squeeze the fresh-water bladder hard to accomplish the same thing, but I'm not confident enough to leave the syringe behind. Are there any other uses for that thing?

The Sawyer Mini is a great product; it's a great fit for the majority of people and the majority of outdoor activities. It's very small, very light, compact. It works exactly as it's supposed to, it's cheap, and the filter supposedly last a pretty long time. I recently went on a 3-day canoe trip, and recommended beforehand that everyone in my group buy one of these, since they're only $20 or so. Glad I did - No more sharing water filters. I used to be the only one of my friends w/ a water filter on a backpacking trip, and after sharing with a few guys for half of a week, the filter would be shot and would require replacement (at $50ea) by the end of the trip. This sawyer is a perfect solution to that problem of mine.I will say, though, that there are cases where I'd prefer my previous Katadyn Hiker Pro over the Sawyer Mini. The bladder/bag/reservoir that comes with the mini is very small (don't remember exactly how many ounces), so even to fill a medium-sized water bottle requires at least two rounds of fill-and-filter. This discouraged me from filling my 3L Camelbak bladder, because it would have taken me 10+ minutes and several rounds of filtering. In comparison, although it is more cumbersome to use, the Katadyn Hiker Pro will fill my bladder in 90 seconds of pumping, and my water bottle in another 20sec. Another challenge with the Sawyer is capturing enough water in a shallow water source like a small stream. It's tough to get that bag full of water when you dont have 6-10" of water to completely submerge it.It's really kind of a trade-off, because the Sawyer is so small, light, simple, and inexpensive - but multiple rounds of fill-and-filter gets old FAST, and can really take up a lot of your time if you're really consuming a lot of water throughout the day. On the other hand, the Katadyn Hiker Pro is 5x more expensive, with replaceable filters that are by themselves 2.5x more expensive then the Sawyer. But you can filter more volume in less time.Ultimately, the huge difference is price is going to win out on this, so the $100+ that you'll wind up saving in the short term and long run make the Sawyer worth the extra effort. It gets the job done for a fraction of the cost, and everyone in your group can afford to pick one up. Glad I found this product.

Couleur de l'eau, goût et simplicité d'utilisation en fonds le meilleur de sa catégorie. J'ai longtemps comparer les modèles sur internet et je regrette pas mon choix. Il est facile et léger à transporter au fond d'un sac. Je le recommande sans probleme

I relied on this filter on a recent walking trip to Skye, and it did not let me down. I mainly used it with two short sections of silicon tubing as this allowed me to drink from burns without the fiddle of squeezing the bag or having to bend over too far (useful if you are carrying 12kg on your back with old knees. When I needed to fill a bottle I tended to use the syringe, which is fiddly but it saved having to lug the bag as well.Very handy and I seem to be alive still! Importantly, I have not picked up any intestinal worms or parasites (a risk from the highland deer). I generally drank from flowing streams (I think I would trust this to drink from a puddle, but I have not needed to so far, there is plenty of water in Scotland!) and it worked very well. As others have noted, you need to suck like drinking a think milkshake and there is generally some air from the filter in the water, but it works very well. I always set off with 500ml of water 'just in case', but I never needed it. I kept this in my pocket (just make sure you use the capon the end to keep it clean and stop any dribbles). This tiny little filter meant I could keep myself well hydrated in the warmth without carrying kilos of water.I had a 'cheap' ebay pump (which cost about the same as this) but the water is much clearer coming from this Sawyer filter and was a bit murky from the ebay one. I am not confident enough to trust in the cheap one now that I have seen the difference. If you go where you need clean water but have access to natural sources, this will be just what you need.If you found this helpful, please click on the 'Helpful' button. See my other reviews for similar good value hiking and camping products.

Excelente producto, lo probé con agua de un arrollo durante varios días y no tuve inconveniente alguno, resultó una muy buena compra muy recomendable para quienes realizan actividades al aire libre.

Ein Wasserfilter ist ein sehr wichtiger Begleiter auf Touren in der Wildnis. habe schon von Katadyn Pumpen gehabt, die ich alle nach kürzester Zeit in die Ecke gepfeffert habe. Der Filter von Sawyer ist einfach in der Handhabung, klein, leicht und mit einer Plastikflasche anstatt des Beutels auch einigermaßen fix (mehr Wasser in der Flasch eund besserer Druck). Reinigung ist ebenfalls sehr einfach. Würde ich wieder kaufen? JEDERZEIT!

浄水出来てるのかな？と思うくらいに簡単な浄水器です。簡単過ぎるのでなんとなく信用してませんが、試しに試しにと何度か川の水(中流辺り)を濾過して飲んでますけど体調は悪くなりません。ちなみにめちゃくちゃお腹は弱い方ですけど。