Thursday, August 16, 2007

New Gizmo Water Thingy

Hopefully I've run out of potable water for the last time with the purchase of this UV SteriPEN. Seems to work fairly fast (48 seconds) 16 oz water bottle.

Hopefully I can run with a lighter load with this purchase on training runs up in the mountains. Fill the hand- helds and use streams to replenish.

Anyone out there used one of these before?




11 comments:

Unknown said...

I like to feel like I am one with nature when I am drinking out of the streams without filtering. You can tell me that you told me so when I have to wear diapers everywhere I go when I get giardia.

Olga said...

This looks mighty suspesious to me and reminds me...not for public blogs thingy.
But in general, I am with Rob - drink up, worry later, and worse comes to worse, loose a pound or few in a toilet:)
OK, very immature. But no, I won't carry it on the run, may be on backpacking trip.

Journey to a Centum said...

Rob - I like being one with nature as much as the next guy. I don't want to be one with the toilet.

Olga - There is actually a warning in the instructions for this Water Thingy not to use it on any part of your body. I'm sure they are concerned about sunburn or something.

I look forward to seeing you next weekend!

I certainly would not carry the SteriPen during a race unless it meant being able to carry less weight.

Olga said...

Rob might need this on his Plain idea.

Journey to a Centum said...

I could loan Rattler the SteriPen for during the race or I could loan him the Depends my really funny 18 year old son gave me for my birthday when the giardia hits. I think I'll loan the Depends. That way Rob won't need to carry any more weight than he has to during the event. I'm sure there would be more "Hester Joy" if he were to drink from the streams.

Anonymous said...

Kinda looks like you're supposed to pee on it. Hmmm. . . would it sterilize that, too? OK, I know, you really didn't want to go there, did you?

Journey to a Centum said...

Annette - Next time I'm looking for a yes or no answer I'll try that!

Meghan said...

Happy -belated- birthday, Eric! I missed the boat on this one! I hope you had a fantiastic day!

Olga's comment was funny. So was Annette's. They had me chuckling. In all seriousness, I've backpacked with a person who had this, and it was the niftiest little contraption. As someone who has suffered the consequences of (unintentionally) drinking untreated water, I'd carry it verus not treating. Dysentary sucks!

Ryan said...

Yes happy B-DAY btw! This looks funky but worth carrying in case of the need for water in the backcountry...let me know how it works.

Sarah Elaine said...

That is a most unusual looking little device. I will be interested to see how it works for you.

To answer your question, I did see Elvis. (How did you know?!) He said to tell you to look for him at Cascade Crest. :-)

Jon said...

I've seen that thing before at REI.

The reviews seem ok, but judge for yourself with two pretty indepth ones:

http://www.backpackgeartest.org/reviews/Water%20Treatment/Ultraviolet/SteriPen/

Personally, I think that if you carried that around you'll be ok for a few reasons:

1.) Lightweight
2.) Kills bacteria and viruses in the water. A bonus for you since we definately don't want any more germs infecting you like last time!

Although it won't remove poisons, I don't think you'll have to worry about poisonous chemicals in the streams out there.

This site did a really good review and provided some good tips (e.g. Don't put ice in your water before purifying since the UV rays can't properly pass through ice cubes, etc.):

http://www.thetravelinsider.info/travelaccessories/steripen.htm