Customer Reviews

Katadyn Base Camp Water Filter

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This was perfect for our 4 day 8 person hike. No pumping required, just someplace to hang it. (We took turns holding it up in some cases). The filter lasts for a long time, the water tasted great, it was light, and compact. I love this product.

9 of us went into the Back country of western Adirondack Park. I had High hopes of the camp filter not bringing the usual back up hand pump, just iodine tablets. We filled it the first time at 1 pm Thursday and it ran flawlessly for three days basically non stop till Saturday late afternoon when the drip started to slow to a slow fizzle. We figured we made between 150 to 175 gallons of water that was used to cook and drink. Would have liked to hav just brought a back-up filter. The extra insurance would have been well worth the $. Excellent product.

Katadyn's Base Camp water filter filled a need for us. We normally hike and camp as a family and our group size numbers between 7 and 10. In years past we have carried at least two water purifiers. One an MSR and the other a Pur Hiker. In order to produce enough water for our needs we would pump long and often. This product fit our needs well. The filtration is accomplished by gravity flow. The clean water released to a large storage container for storage...(additional purchase needed here, ours was a 2.5 gal collapsible). My only complaint is a minor one. It took much longer to filter than advertised. If our group needed immediate access to fresh water we needed to use our personal water filters. We found ourselves planning ahead to take care of our water needs. We would "harvest" the available water before bedtime to ensure our needs the next morning. By planning ahead we managed a consistent supply. We will supplement this product with at least one handheld purifier for immediate fresh water needs.

I'm glad so many people are so pleased with their purchases, but as a biotech student in progress I naturally have been looking for the specs on this thing to see what it can or cannot filter out to no avail. Kadayn's website provides no detailed information about the filter; what types of pathogens it may be permeable to, what compounds can slip through the membrane. Heck! Is it even membrane technology or is it just as good as a few coffee filters stacked one on top of another?

What about ions? Arsenic is present in much of Arizona's water simply due to mineral erosion. And while I believe a little arsenic isn't going to kill you (it is in a lot of things and I'm by no means a hypochondriac/health nut), a greater amount find in, say, areas below where mining has been done (where arsenic was once used to break down raw materials and leave the metals behind) the water will definitely contain a higher amount that could make a nice expedition into a sour one.
And in some areas there was uranium and radon mining. You usually HAVE to get specifics about those and they can be in any water source within a mountainous area geologically. I don't know and have had no luck finding any of this information out..

Then there was someone who mentioned that scrubbing his filter caused lose pieces of fiberglass to stick out. What IS it made of? Does the process of filtering water only cause the filter itself to release more unnatural contaminants?

A warning to all outdoor enthusiasts; Do not buy a product without requiring the company you intend to purchase from for the basic facts. You deserve it. You are a customer and they should be looking out for your needs and acting competitively to do so. The fact that Kadayn has not posted the specs for this model on their own website (they don't even SELL it; they have a link saying "Buy from your favorite online retailer") waves a red flag.

I am currently in the process of emailing them to see if they have anything to offer in regards to technical specifics. I will post and report what they have told me on here and will follow up with lab analysis. If it passes the test, I'm buying a few for family and friends.

In order to appreciate this filter, you need to understand how it works. The best way to sum it up is "slowly but surely." You should not think of this as a water dispenser, even though it does dispense water. You may notice that the bag and tube resemble an IV drip bag. That is a fair analogy. When the tube is unstopped, water flows faster than a drip, but a good deal slower than your Gott 5-gallon cooler. I would estimate that filling an 8-ounce cup takes about 20 seconds. The stream that the tube produces when the bag is full is steady but weak. To put this device to best use, unstop it and let it flow into a water bottle or other holding container from which you can dispense at a more desirable speed. Now that you know what to expect, you will appreciate the device for what it is.

I love the simplicity of the design. There are no "moving" parts, aside from the piece that screws on and off to replace the filter, and the plastic stopper at the end of the tube. When empty, this unit is very compact. And perhaps the best part of the design in terms of water filtration, which is sort of the whole point of this soon-to-be piece of your backpacking kit, is that the water goes directly from the filter to your cup. There is no opportunity for contamination in-between (provided you dispense directly, follow the directions, etc).

The potential weakness of this filter is that, if the bag is breached, it's a good deal less effective. I suppose that if the bag was punctured high up, it would still work ok, but if it got punctured down lower, I don't know if you could easily patch it. The bag is quite sturdy, a heavy synthetic canvas-type material with an inner coating or membrane, so I'm not too worried about that. Carrying one of these along with a pump and collapsible water bag would make for good redundancy in the water department. Recommended cleanup is to run a few cups of watered-down bleach before putting back in storage. In conclusion and in summary: This is a good, lightweight personal filter.

I work in the tropics 4 months out of the year; we drink river water because the site is secluded. This filter is a life saver; I wish I purchased it sooner. I love it. The water tastes great, the amount of water filtered can last for days, and you don't have to pump or put in chlorine tablets. The only disadvantage: pouring water in can be a challenge if you are by yourself, but I've managed to do it anyway. Overall I think it is worth every penny.

We've used it on two trips on Adirondack ponds, and it works great! No complaints.

I purchased this filter in September 2007 for a camping/fishing trip to the Chattooga River. Four of us had a great time of it and the filter was a good addition. We had more than enough clean water always.
The only fault I found was it could be a pain to fill. A bucket solved that. For seeps and very small water sources it would be difficult.
I liked it well enough that I bought another for a present.
Great for base camping.

I've used the hand pump purifiers before. On a hot day, it feels like you are burning off as much water as you are able to produce with the pump. The Katadyn Base Camp Water Filter is the exact opposite. We camped by a river and hung this from a tree. It was amazing. We had fresh water whenever we needed it. The flow rate was amazing, about one liter a minute with zero effort.

If you can't find a tree you can use your trekking poles to hold it up. Also, it is a good idea to carry an empty plastic water bottle or jug (like the 1 gallon water jugs at the grocery store) to fill this with. That way you don't have to dip the bag into the unfiltered water and have unfiltered water run down the side and onto the nozzle.

Overall, this is a great product. It packs down really small and the weight is comparable to the smaller handheld pump filters.

Finally, this thing is rated to filter down to 0.3 microns, which is as small as any of the hand pump filters.

Imagine that; clean, great tasting water in the back country, without all the effort!

We recently took a four day trip into the BWCAW in northern MN. This water filter, a birthday gift for my husband, proved to be as easy to use as the advertisement. The video advertisement is deceptive, however, in its portrayal of how to fill the bag. But it was extremely easy to fill from the side of our canoe. We hung it from a tree back at camp and it worked great! It was so easy to use and store and the water was delicious. The only reason I didn't give the bag four stars was that the clean water output was quite slow. But when you're on a camping trip like this, who's in a hurry? We are definitely glad we bought this filter.