LifeStraws

[MCavity]

found this on the net the other day....

http://www.firebox.com/product/6149/Life...w&NL_pos=5

For £30 it seems to be a no brainer. Has anyone got / used this & is it any good?

[bigpaul]

I've got one paid £18.14 for it although I think the current price is £25, haven't had chance to use it yet, as a one person personal water filter it seems ok, for the same price around £25 you can get one that pumps it through a filter rather than sucking it that's what i'm after next.

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I think the lifestraw has a finite life..once the filter is blocked you have to throw it away and get another one, with the other one-the one that pumps you can get a replacement filter--just unscrew the top chuck out the old one and replace with the new filter..you could in theory store as many filters as you like..their £10 each.

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ebay search : "pure ceramic 2000L soldier water filter purifier cleaner for outdoor survival"

[TheFalcon]

Ive got to admit it does look good,I Need to work on water filtration all ive got is a shitload of water purification tablets

[Skean Dhude]

I've also got one and I agree with BP on his assessment. It is lighter and easier to carry than the replaceable filter unit so handy to carry in a BOB or EDC.

I have a couple of these straws for those purposes but my stores have more of the replaceable units and a lot of the filters themselvesfor everyday living until I can get my sand filters up and running.

I paid £20 each for mine, providing 1000L while I paid £24 for a 10,000L replaceable unit and £10 each 10,000L filter. There is a place for both.

[Mortblanc]

The Lifestraw will filter enough water for one person's drinking needs for one year.
What more could one ask for when prepping for a short term or one year event?

I have one in each of my vehicles in the get home kit.

Over here I get them for Half what you guys are paying, why I do not know.

[Skean Dhude]

It is because of taxes, import duty and the million and one ways our government imposes stealth taxes on us. It has always amazed me that no matter what the exchange rate $1 = £1 at the counter. But if we buy direct and add postage cost and the theft at customs, import tax, we are better off buying in the UK.

However, some items you just can't buy in the UK so we have to bite the bullet, buy from the US and pay the taxes.

[bigpaul]

on occasion I buy (on ebay) from China, the stuff is exactly the same quality but sometimes half the price like with the water filter and I have NEVER had any problems with the delivery.

[Tigs]

a 1000l frm a purification straw is the best I have heard of the best before this was 700l and cost about £32 each

[bigpaul]

yes, the max seems to be 1000L with the life straw, the pump filter will do 2000L before it needs changing then all you have to do is pop in another filter, with the lifestraw that's it you have to buy another one, and of course post SHTF this wont be possible.

[Little Lou]

I have several similar to the Life Straw - the Water Straw from drinksafe systems - and have tried one out on an overnight hike in the Lake District.

How good it is at taking out bacteria I can't say - only that I didn't get ill or drop dead. I'm not even sure whether it improves the water taste, since water from Dungeon Ghyll is beautiful anyway. What I CAN say is that it had no discernible 'chemical' taste or odour, and tasted only of clean, fresh water.

A couple of tips, though:

1) The first time you use it you need a really good hefty suck to get it started. It does get easier, but the effort involved is still more like sucking up thick milkshake than ordinary water.

2) You need a good 3-4 cm depth for it to work properly, so you might struggle with a puddle or tiny rock pool. What I did was scoop up water in my bottle then apply the straw to that.

One other good point for the Water Straw is that it blocks automatically when the filter has expired. Yes, as BP points out, that means a whole new straw - but it does mean there's no risk of you slurping up nasties before realizing the filter's doing nothing.

Like SD, I think there's a place for both this and the pump versions. I have Water Straws in both BOBs, my EDC and GHB, the car glovebox, in a cache between me and my long-distance BOL, and I'm also going to put one in a cache between London and my house. Each one should last a person more than a year - so as Mortblanc says, what's not to like?