Customer Reviews

SteriPEN Water Purification System Pack

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I spent Memorial Day hiking in the San Gorgonio Wilderness with my wife and a friend. It's always beautiful there but this trip took a turn for the worse when I found that my water filter had cracked. This happened in a dry year when water flow in all the creeks was pretty low. Happily, some friends shared their steripen with us and I was amazed at how quickly we were able to purify water with the UV light. It takes about 45 seconds per quart. They had purchased the full system: steripen, pre-filter, and Nalgene bottle. It weighed considerably less than my filter even with batteries--under a pound. I'm sold and am purchasing my own. You can get the steripen and prefilter (good for removing particulates) separately, which I will since I have many Nalgene bottles, but if you are looking for a good all in one purification system, this is it.

Took my SteriPEN for 8 days in the Smoky Mountains. It worked every time and must have done the job because there were no ill effects. Do use lithium batteries however.

For anyone having problems I found this at http://www.backpackgeartest.org/reviews/Water%20Treatment/Ultraviolet/SteriPen/Owner%20Review%20by%20John%20Heubi/

I was able to determine that the extended outdoor use seemed to create too much humidity within the unit and caused this malfunction. The malfunction occurred with a much greater frequency during periods of extremely high humidity and periods of extended rain. I was able to "fool" the unit when I got a red light by waiting for the indicator light to stop blinking and then placing the unit in the water, just as if I were purifying the water. Then I would pull it out of the water, just as if I had completed the purification, then push the button again. The SteriPEN would then work just fine for any number of uses. I am certain that this would not even be an issue to anyone using the SteriPEN for weekend or week long treks. The problem also goes away after the unit is in a controlled environment (inside) for approximately 1-3 days to get a chance to get completely dried out.

I would love to be able to recommend the steripen because when it works, it works great. What I can't figure out is why it works perfectly at home, but is very sporadic on the trail. On a recent weeklong backpacking trip in Utah three of us had these along and all experienced the same problem. It would only work correctly about 25% of the time - meaning that the light would successfully stay on for the required amount of time. The other 75% of the time we would all get the red failure light. I can assure you this was not operator error. It would often take three or four tries of having the light on in order to get it to work. Other times it would go straight to error and we had to give up.

If you disregard this review and take it into the backcountry I strongly suggest that you bring either chlorine or iodine tablets as a back-up.

you have to press the button first, wait for the green light, then immerse the light tube into the water. Great for traveling to another country where the water condition is unknown.. and yah.. NIMH battery is a must or else you will be running through the alkaline batteries like there is no tomorrow... too bad they didn't provide it.

The product did perform as describe. I order two sets of the Lithium Ion battery from another source, one set worked and the other did not.

After a week of constant use, about 6 times a day, it needed a new set of battery. Rechargeable NiMH battery also worked in the unit.

I purchased the combination set with the bottle and pre-filter. The main advantage is the fileter adapter allows the SteriPEN to be inserted into the bottle and form a water tight connection. This makes it easier to shake or swire the bottle without worrying about spilled water.

It took me a while to figure out what was the sediment filter. I thought at first it was missing, but it was the funny thing sticking out the middle of the adapter. Removing the filter from the adapter allows the SteriPEN to be tightly inserted into the bottle. For most purposes, the filter serves no useful purpose, so I just put it away for safe keeping.

I used the unit to purified all my drinking water in Inner Mongolia and any water used to brush my teeth in any hotels in China. At the Beijing Airport, when leaving the country, it did raise some concern about what the device was, and added an extra step to the out processing when they attached a photo of me with a x-ray picture of the unit.

I will take the unit on my next back packing trip to truely purify my drinking water. I have never been sick from just using a water filter on previous trip, but this unit is convenient.

VERY DISPLEASED! I and a backpacking friend purchased the SteriPEN System Pack. We were initially impressed with what we had read from the company, primarily with its weight. We were heading into the backcountry 7-8 days and wanted to save as much weight as possible. The one star I give SteriPEN is for its weight (especially with lithium batteries) and only that. The bottle caps leaked at multiple places, losing water when purifying and along my leg while hiking, nice. My friends quit working on the second use, the bulbs were defective or just very fragile. Mine ate through the batteries in three days (Duracell), so bring extras (more weight) if needed. If you have clear running water it tastes good, however any other type and SteriPEN leaves the tastes, discolor, smells and floaters. My pre-filter webbing tore away from its plastic frame by simply using it, this created more and larger floaters in the water, bugs etc. If you are truly relying on this for survival and must purify from the water sources you are using, if you drop this thing on a rock or even the ground it could break. The lamps are apparently fragile or my friend simply received a defective one. Going back to pumping water, I never had any problems with my pump and it is much faster. I can't take the chance again with this product; my life depends on the ability to have clean water on my explorations and especially extended adventures.

I brought my SteriPEN into the Himalayas during a month-long trek. It failed, for no reason, on the fourth day of my ever using it and never worked again. I tried new batteries, drying it, I tried it over and over. I found this product to be completely unreliable and quick to fail. I have since spoken with other trekkers in Nepal who had the same experience with it. The product is a good idea but should be taken off the market until a more reliable product can be produced. It is a waste of money.

I've owned the classic SteriPEN for several years and found it to be reliable on 10+ backpacking trips, including several 3-4 day trips. It's lightweight and fast compared to other treatment methods. A few things to note: 1. If you don't follow the proper protocol, the pen will not work and you will become frustrated until you realize your operating mistake. 2. Use lithium batteries so you have plenty of power; regular batteries run-out too fast. 3. It is possible to break the pen, so keep iodine tablets as a back-up on long trips. 4. The device will occasionally fail to complete a sterilization cycle and must be restarted.

The steripen is awesome. I took it backpacking for the first time a couple of weeks ago and I have to say that this is probably my best investment for backpacking equipment I have ever made. The pre filter works better than I expected, and as I watched my friends use their pump filters I was watching the river roll by while using the UV light to kill any thing that could make me sick. My steripen took less time to get the job done and was a lot more portable. Everyone wanted it for day hikes. Best tool I own.

Used it the first weekend that I had it. My wife and I went camping and the temp's soared to over 100 and we used it to purify a gallon of water from the river for more drinking water. Worked great and I think I'll take it with me to Mexico this year just in case.