Care and Feeding of Water Filter

[Neil]

I just bought a Katadyn Hiker filter. The booklet says to use chlorine bleach on it after each trip. Is this really necessary?

 

[poison ivy]

I sure hope not. I've had mine (well the Pur Hiker as it used to be called) for two years and I've never used bleach on it and haven't had any problems. I just change the filter when it gets particularly difficult to pump.

- Ivy

 

[hillman1]

I have the former pur version also, and I've never used the bleach. Still no GI problems.

 

[Warren]

A friend of mine is a microbiologists so pure water is important to her work. Keeping the filter from contamination is integral to that and being a wet dark place on the inside of the thing it's a candidate for a colony of some little buggers. The bleach warning is likely there to cover this possibility.

I have the miniworks. I just disassemble the whole thing post trip and let it dry out for a week.

 

[insight]

A friend of mine is a microbiologists so pure water is important to her work. Keeping the filter from contamination is integral to that and being a wet dark place on the inside of the thing it's a candidate for a colony of some little buggers. The bleach warning is likely there to cover this possibility.

I have the miniworks. I just disassemble the whole thing post trip and let it dry out for a week.

I've given some thought about this as well.. I've taken mine (both the older PUR and the newer Katadyn models) out after months of non-use and was a little amazed to find there's still some water trapped inside when I'd pump it dry. Figuring that IF the filter is actually doing it's job (and I'm sure it is!), then some of that water probably contains some sort of bacteria.....and after being stored in a warm, dark place, I imagined there might be quite a high concentration of some nastiness inside that -- who knows -- might be a bit higher than the filter is made to filter... *shrug*

That bleech thing is sounding like a good idea about now...

 

[Neil]

After reading the replies to my post I won't bother with bleach. So far, the water I've filtered has been from clean, running streams. Once home, rinsing the filter and letting it dry completely makes pretty good sense.