When traveling to developing countries the first thing you are told is “don’t drink the water.” So what do you do when can’t fill up your water reservoir from the tap?

There are several options: you could buy chlorine tabs, iodine, a SteriePen, or a water filter.

After trying iodine and chlorine tabs, and seeing the price of the SteriPen and knowing how it eats batteries, I figured I’d start looking for a more tasteful, non-battery operated solution to our problem.

The Katadyn Pocket Microfilter was at the top of the list on countless backpacking and camping sites, and after some investigating, I found the facts.

The first fact, and the head turner for me, was that the Katadyn had a lifetime warranty. I was almost sold on that feature alone. Most of the other investigated filters’ warranties maxed out within a couple of years. This, to me, painted a telling picture of their construction. The filtration unit also has a 50,000-liter life span and could filter out particles down to .2 microns. That’s small enough to effectively filter out the elusive Chrypto** protozoa, the culprit behind the dreaded Traveler’s Diarrhea. I stopped my online research and decided to check out an actual unit at a local outdoor shop. Within a day, I had made my purchase.

The unit is about the size of a standard 20-oz. bottle of soda and feels very solid in construction. It weighs in a bit heavy compared to other filters on the market at <weight of unit>, but that is easily forgiven when looking at its incredible 50,000-liter life cycle. The filter is also incredibly easy to maintain. Since we left, I have only needed to clean the filter twice.

Cleaning requires unscrewing the end pieces and lightly scrubbing the ceramic filter with an included scouring pad. After scrubbing, you just need to let the unit dry completely, and then screw the unit back together after applying some of the included silicon on the o-rings.

Of course, it is a little more work to filter water than it is to buy it, so we haven’t used it 100% of the time. Still, the Katadyn has been a nice piece of hardware to have when buying bottled water isn’t possible, you want to save money, or you want to reduce trash. All in all, the unit has given us the ability to save India a great deal of plastic waste (of which there is no shortage) by filtering countless bottles. We think that alone is worth a lot. Would I bring it again? Yes.

Bring or don’t bring?: BRING

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