Steripen Opti (CR123 batteries)

Any recent experience and/or reviews of this steripen. I've researched this for my long bike ride this summer and it seems they fixed a lot of problems with the units eating batteries even when off and the Opti is a much improved design over the older revisions of this.

I think CR123s are also used in the digicam industry so I'm hoping they are somewhat findable in small towns out west.... But first, just wondering if anybody here has any recent XP with the Steripen Opti that they can share.. How reliable is it, works good when cold, etc.?

Jay

Mine has been reliable, but I always carry spare batteries if I really need it.
Be careful taking the cap off. Take it straight off or you can tweak the bulb and break it (I know).
Did some temp tests. Did NOT work right out of freezer, DID work out of refrigerator.
Sorry, don't remember the exact temps.

(For estimation purposes, ordinary household refrigerator and freezer temps are typically about 40F and 0F, respectively.)

Since this is a summer trip, I'm not too concerned with the cold performance, but that is what I've read with older generatio steripens. My bike trip goes up to around 11k in some passes but I don't expect to be up there too often and it still would be summer..

REI has the new USB charging model on sale in a few days but I'm looking at the li-ion one because I wont have a solar panel to charge it. and extra batteries are cheaper and smaller than a Solar Panel thing.

Looks like the CR123s can be mailed too...

http://about.usps.com/news/service-alerts/international-updates.htm


Jay

I have a generally negative view of this company. I purchased a steripen for use in the winter to save fuel and time, but the bulb would never ignite in cold water. Despite my conversations with their tech support, I was run in circles about having bad batteries or improperly using rechargeables.

About two years after my purchase, they updated the data sheet to put some temperature limitations in.

The reason why the pen will never work out in the cold is that it is not practical to try and ignite the (mercury/metal) vapor in the UV bulb at low temperatures.

Now if you want to heat the water without boiling so it in within their temp limits, it should work. You will still save fuel if you are going to use it in cold eather.


While I am complaining, I should also point out that I am running into problems with my MSR Miox. After 4 years it seems to report that salt concentration is too low unless I use hot water. This problem is reported in many places on the web. I suspect that a resistor inside of it has drifted or become damaged by the small amount of corrosive gas it produces; the gas may be entering the housing under pressure.

Thanks, this is primarily for a summer trip, but we might be at elevations up to 11k so I don't expect to see temps below the upper 30s (I hope anyway )..

Jay