Steripen to purify water?

[Lonesome George]

Am heading to southern africa soon and was thinking I might need some water purifying tablets. Came across this - the steripen. Used ultraviolet light to kill bugs. Does it work? Has anyone used it? What advice would you have for getting safe drinking water in southern africa.

[url=http://www.ellis-brigham.com/kit-list---kilimanjaro/steripen/265351/steripen-adventurer]SteriPen Adventurer by SteriPen for

[shu...]

I used a steripen through Turkey, the 'Stans, Russia and Ukraine.

I mostly used it on water from hotels and other sources where the water was clear but not necessarily fit to drink. I used it a few times on water taken from streams- again clear water.

The unit is easy to use (read the directions!) and worked reliably- at least I did not get sick from water on the 3 month trip.

Take a few sets of extra batteries, the size they use (Lithium CR123A) were not easy to come by.

..........shu

[Desert Ways]

They work fine on perfectly clear water, but if there is any particulate matter at all; sand, silt, twigs etc then you would need to filter first.

[PaulD]

I have been using the Steripen for about 3 years now, the Australian Army uses it, as well as some hosipitals. I have found it excellent. But I don't really think you would need one in Sthern Africa as you can buy good bottled water everywhere.
Cheers
Paul

[Lonesome George]

Thanks for the comments. Still haven't made up my mind but I did come across this:

Eco 100% stainless steel micro purification filter pure water bottle with dustcap 1600 litre: Amazon.co.uk: Garden & Outdoors

a filter water bottle. Looks like it would do.

[dlh62c]

Originally Posted by shu...

I mostly used it on water from hotels and other sources where the water was clear but not necessarily fit to drink. I used it a few times on water taken from streams- again clear water.

Take a few sets of extra batteries, the size they use (Lithium CR123A) were not easy to come by.

..........shu

If your filtering just tap water which is clear and you suspect is tainted. Could you just use simple chlorine bleach, to kill the bugs, then use a DIY filter to improve the taste?

YouTube - Make it yourself water filter

daryl

[shu...]

Originally Posted by dlh62c

If your filtering just tap water which is clear and you suspect is tainted. Could you just use simple chlorine bleach, to kill the bugs, then use a DIY filter to improve the taste?

YouTube - Make it yourself water filter

daryl

Yes, you could. The advantages of Steripen are: you have drinkable water in 90 seconds. Using chemical treatments you are often told to wait as much as 4 hours contact time before drinking.

I'm not a doctor so you should do your own research- mine tells me that chlorine may or may not be effective against some pathogens. Also there seems to be a general recommendation against ingesting water treatment chemicals over a long period.

For example, this: Ultralight Backpacking Water Treatment

Treating with bleach should be thought of as an emergency method. Although countless websites list this method of treatment, they do not show data for effectiveness against giardia, cryptosporidium, and other pathogens. And these sources do not list the effects of long-term use on the body.

Whether this is true or not, the Steripen does not seem to have these disadvantages.

My traveling partner solved the problem by buying all his water in bottles. I didn't want to be throwing away 4-5 plastic bottles everyday, or spending my travel money on water (though the price of the steripen probably makes that statement ridiculous.)

Anyway, no clearcut answers I think. I was happy using the steripen.

.........shu

[dlh62c]

Originally Posted by shu...

The advantages of Steripen are: you have drinkable water in 90 seconds.

Anyway, no clearcut answers I think. I was happy using the steripen.

.........shu

I didn't know that the original poster had a specific time limit regarding the treatment of water. It may take 4 hours to kill the big stuff, but less for the small stuff.

It wouldn't be a waste of time to view some of the You Tube videos on DIY water filters. The more you know the less you need to carry. What knowledge one stores in their head weights nothing.

This is what I carry: YouTube - Ultralight Gravity Pro Water Filter.

Its not perfect either, but it's light, small and compact. Doesn't need batteries and has no moving parts. But it does have a 50 gal limit. I hoping to push that, if I need too, by frequent back flushing.
YouTube - AquaMira Frontier Pro UQC (military version)

daryl

[tmotten]

Went the steripen route as well. Haven't used it yet though. I find I usually buy water as it's almost everywhere. I always used to travel with a filter but got sick of carrying it around when I nearly never use it as it's really only as a back up. So for those instances the pen is the way to go. You really don't end up drinking out of muddy streams anyway. At least I never had to. AA batteries are everywhere as well, and on a bike you always have power for rechargeables.