Outdoor Water Filters Make Your Outdoor Adventure More Healthy

Outdoor water filters have come a long way in recent years, thanks to new technology and knowledge about what contaminants make water unsafe to drink.

When spending time in the outdoors, it is essential to have a clean source of drinking water, but if you’re hiking or biking, it is impossible to carry enough water to sustain yourself for a long trip into the back country.

There are several different types of compact outdoor water filters you can use, depending on your needs. Individual water bottles are now available with built-in filters capable of transforming virtually any water into clean fresh drinking water. Just fill the bottle from any lake or river and let the filter do its work.

For camping trips or when hiking in groups, you may choose a pump style filter with a larger capacity. Another design that can be convenient when camping is a hanging bag filter that can be suspended from any tree, dispensing clean water as needed from the bottom. One advantage of the bag style filter is that it is very compact to carry because there is no bulky canister to accommodate. There is also an innovative filtered drinking straw available that will clean up to 500 litres of water (approximately 9 months of use) It has a safety cut-off that prevents water from passing through it once the filter reaches its capacity.

Outdoor water filters are great for the outdoors, but they are also extremely helpful when travelling in foreign countries where the quality of the water supply is questionable. A filtered drinking straw can be discreetly used in restaurants, pubs or anywhere else you might drink the local water.

Some filtered water bottles are even capable of removing viruses, which makes them safe to use in even the most contaminated areas of the world. According to UNICEF , distributing filtered water bottles to families in third world countries could save millions of lives in areas where people die every day from drinking the local water.

Most outdoor water filters are designed for use with outdoor water supplies, so some of them have a disinfectant such as iodine integrated into the filter. The best outdoor filtration systems use a combination of ceramic, iodine and charcoal. The porous ceramic is ultra-fine and capable of removing objects as small as a single water molecule. The iodine disinfects the water to ensure that even the tiniest viruses will be neutralized. The charcoal removes the foul taste of the iodine and also filters out metals and many chemicals that might find their way into water, such as pesticides.

Some filtered water bottles use this type of system, but not all of them. You should choose your filtered water bottle according to the type of protection it offers, rather than according to price.

Regardless of which style of outdoor water filter you choose, the most important thing is that you do not venture into the outdoors without one. Making sure that your drinking water needs are covered will make your outdoor adventure more enjoyable, and may even save your life.