Customer Reviews

MSR Miox Water Purifier with Batteries

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After using this product twice weekly for the past year, I feel pretty qualified to add my two cents worth, especially concerning ease-of-use issues. You see, I live on a small island and most homes have municipally treated water or get theirs from a well. Not me. Unfortuanately, I get raw lake water out of my taps. After hauling water from town every week, I bought a MIOX pen, and while the batteries are expensive, the system I use works great.

I disinfect 2 gallons at a time. That means I fill the MIOX pen up with salt and use the 4-liter setting twice. It's for the water that goes into the teapot. For drinking water, I take MIOX treated water and fill a carbon-drip filter pitcher. My water is clearer and cleaner and better tasting than the town water I used to haul.

Here's some tricks for getting the MIOX pen to work consistently every time:

1. While the instructions that come with the thing tell you to fill the electrolosis chamber to the top, then capping it and shaking it through the screen, I found this to method to work only about 30 percent of the time. Instead, I use the old "finger-over-the-end-of-the-straw" principle:

First, I leave the cap MAIN cap ON, unscrew the smaller TOP cap (where one adds salt) and add water to the salt there. I then place my thumb over the top of the now watery salt chamber and shake for a few seconds until the water and salt have had a chance to co-mingle thoroughly. I remove my thumb and unscrew the main cap, letting the salt water flow back down into the red electrolosis chamber. I shake out a few extra drops and hit the button. Works every time. Hope this alternative method helps those of you who struggle with the thing.

After a year, I have no regrets save for the cost of the batteries. Still, this thing goes with me when I travel and backpack. It works great. Take two smaller bottles and drink one/disinfect the other. When I backpack, I'm without a carbon filter, which would remove most nasty tastes, and it's true, when properly dosed, one CAN taste a faint chlorine taste. (It's mostly a faint chlorine smell, but one need not beleager that point here.) Nonetheless, the water in my nalgene bottle isn't as neutral as store-bought mineral water. Oh well, I got over it. I never expected it anyway. I did expect to drink purified water and keep myself from getting sick, which I'm pleased to say has been my experience.

If you're looking to save weight, this little guy can't be beat. It imparts a bit of a chlorine taste to the water (depending on how strong you make the solution), but it's a lot better than iodine. MSR includes some chlorine testing strips, which seem like a bit of a hassle, but you can forego them (and shorten battery life) by overtreating the water. Interestingly, this device was developed for the US Military, and has been shown to neutralize a lot of biological agents, including VX nerve gas. I'd give it five stars, but the chlorine test and the recommended test strips affected my rating.

I took this out during the summer of 07 and had a great experience. It took some getting used to but once I figured it out everything went smoothly. Very slight pool water taste/aroma at first sip but diminished after a an hour of so. It does take some planning. Once I set up my camp I treated lots of water at once to have during the day. I would recommend it to my friends. The one that was shipped to me had test strips that were set to expire and the battery was old too. That was a bummer. All in all I am pleased though.

I went camping with a good friend a few weekends ago. After we set up camp and got settled in, I announced "Check out my new water purifier" an pulled out my new Steripen. He said I got one too and pull out a MSR Miox. I knew nothing of his brand and he knew nothing of mine, at the time. We both swapped the purifies and were checking them out like kids with new toys. We decided to try them out. After walking to the edge of the stream and each scooping up a nalgene bottle full of water, we went and sat back down. He did his little routine of pouring a little water into the Miox unit, watching it bubble, then dumped it back into his water container. I took my Steripen turned it on and stirred my water. When the light went out I went to sip the water..... Thats when we noticed the difference. He said he had to wait a few hours to drink his water. I could make 90 liters of water in the time it took him to make 1, actually I could have built the fire and boiled some quicker. His went back in the pack and we used mine the rest of the weekend. Sure, the Miox looked a little more space-age, but the Steripen worked right then and worked fast. If you don't want to wait on your water or if you are purifying water for a family or group then a Steripen is the way to go. I know MSR makes really good equipment but before you purchase either one READ THE ONLINE PDF MANUALS. Long story short... his was returned and swapped for a steripen (and got $60 back from the price difference).