Outdoor Water Filters

If you love the great outdoors as much as I do, then Outdoor Water Filters are a must. You can get backpacking water filters or hiking water filters that are lightweight, easy to carry, small in size and can give you safe and clean drinking water from any outdoor source, like a lake, river, stream, waterfall, creek or pond. These are usually filters that can transform muddy water, with sediment and microbes into drinking water that won't give you Montezuma's Revenge.

Backpacking Water Filter
Camping Water Filter
Hiking Water Filter
UV Water Purifier

There are a few types of water filters that are great for when you are outdoors and need to be able to filter water from mother nature's natural sources. These are portable type water purifiers that will make outdoor water sources safe to drink. I keep one just for an emergency, besides the one I use when I go hiking. You can use any of these water purifiers to have access to clean and safe drinking water wherever you are.

Backpacking Water Filter

The best Backpacking Water Filter can save your hide out in the wild. It should be a manual one, that requires no electricity so you can use it in an emergency where you don't have access to any charging units. They are also known as manual pump filters. These use pressure from a pumping action to draw dirty water into the filter and force it through the microfilter that only allows small water molecules to pass through. It rejects the larger things like sediment and microbes.

My favorite is the Katadyn Pocket Water Filter (the one the guy backpacking in the picture above is actually using). It is by far the best and most sturdy, and needs no electricity to operate and give you ultra clean and pure drinking water. There are also other specific types of filters that can be used along with these backpacking outdoor water filters.

Most backpacking ones can be used for hiking, and camping ones can be a little larger and more heavy duty. They can all be used in case of any emergency and should be in your travel pack, day pack or other area where you can get to it when you need to. There are also UV (ultraviolet water purifiers) that don't actually filter the water, just make it safe to drink by zapping away any microbes like giardia or e-Coli. You need ease of access and lightness when backpacking.

Camping Water Filter

Using a Camping Water Filter allows you to refill any of your outdoor water filter units or water bottles with purified water. They can be a little bigger as you are not usually lugging them around like the backpacking or hiking water filters. You can use them for healthy, chemical and fluoride free drinking and cooking water. Makes your coffee, tea, soups and foods taste their best too.

My favorite filters for camping are the gravity water filters like the Big Berkey Water Filter. Strong and sturdy and built to last. You fill the upper chamber with the water you need to purify and it will fill the bottom chamber with highly purified drinking water. They are very powerful filters that last a very long time. You can even get spare parts if you happen to accidentally run it over, or it gets mauled by a bear, lol.

Hiking Water Filter

A good Hiking Water Filter can prevent dehydration and heat stroke when you wonder off farther than expected, or heaven forbid get lost. It's happened to me, no matter how well I prepared. So now when I go hiking I use a water bottle filter type like the Sport Berkey Water Bottle filter because it is lightweight, takes up just as much space as a regular water bottle and can filter out water from a river, lake, stream or pond if needed.

I still like to keep my Steripen (which uses UV light to purifiy microbes out of water) for emergencies when the water is really murky or may be contaminated. The UV filters are small enough to easily fit in your pocket. They can be charged with any solar or USB charger. I can easily carry both around without a lot of hassle and enjoy my hike. Either way I will have access to clean drinking water from any source if needed.

UV Water Purifier

A UV Water Purifier is a small electrical device that exposes water to ultraviolet light which effectively sterilizes it from the microbes and parasites that can make you sick from questionable or contaminated water. They are small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and can recharge with a solar charger or USB port.

They work well, although I still prefer a bottle type filter or Katadyn (shown in a section above) to be used befor my UV Steripen, because they filter out sediment and contaminants where the UV doesn't filter out anything, it just sterilized it. I sterilize it and then pass it through my bottle or katadyn filter. The main takeaway is that you have at least one of these good filters in your emergency kit, backpack or RV that you can use when you don't have any access to clean drinking water from normal sources.