SAWYER SP129 Water Filter

Product detailed description

The filter uses hollow microfibers whose walls form a membrane with a maximum pore size of 0.1 μm. With a total weight of 85 g and the ability to be rolled up into a small package, it takes up almost no space in your backpack.

PointONE™ technology  with an absolute pore size of 0.1 μm used in Sawyer filters guarantees the removal of 99.99999%  of all harmful bacteria (salmonella, cholera, E. coli, etc.) and parasitic protozoa (giardia and cryptosporidium), exceeding the very strict U.S. EPA and NSF standards. It also removes 100% of microplastics from the water.

Sawyer also collaborates with the World Health Organization (WHO) and significantly supports more than 100 non-profit organizations in over 70 countries worldwide. It’s easy to use—fill a bottle or container with water from a lake, stream, or river, screw the Sawyer filter onto it, and you have three options:

• Squeeze the bottle to filter water into your bottle or any container.
• Drink directly from the filter—it includes a flip-top cap.
• Connect the filter’s outlet to most threaded bottles (PET bottles) and pump/filter the water into it.

We’ve created this helpful video to demonstrate how to use and maintain the Sawyer filter in practice.

The filter can also be used in combination with a regular PET bottle instead of the supplied collapsible bottle. Another excellent option is the CNOC, which has a wide mouth like a CamelBak and is therefore great for drawing water even from shallow pools.

The latest SP129 includes:

• Two 1.0 L collapsible bottles (improved, with longer lifespan).
• Sawyer PointONE™ filter with a thread for screwing onto the bottle and a flip-top cap on the outlet.
• A syringe for cleaning the filter.
• Adapters for connecting to a hydration system.
• Mesh pouch for hanging the bottle.

Lifespan: filters over 3,000,000 liters of water!

Filter benefits:

• It is lightweight and compact.
• Compared to any competitor, it has smaller pores, ensuring higher filter efficiency.
• It has no moving parts that could break.
• It requires no pumping.
• It uses no chemicals, so it does not negatively affect the taste of the water.
• Higher filter flow rate than other competitors.
• For the average person, it essentially has an infinite lifespan—if the filter becomes clogged and the flow rate decreases, you can easily rinse it yourself using the included syringe.
• You can drink directly from the source through it like a straw.
• The filter bottle serves as a great water reservoir; once empty, you can pack it away and it won’t take up space in your backpack like a plastic bottle.
• You can purchase filter bottles in various sizes.

Disadvantages:

• It must not freeze, as this would damage the porous membrane (this applies to virtually all porous filters).
• It is harder to scoop water from shallow sources into a filter bottle—for these cases, it is a good idea to carry a small cup made from a cut-off PET bottle. Or get a CNOC collapsible bottle, which has a wide mouth for scooping water.
• The included filter bottle has a lifespan of only a few hundred cycles (for multi-month expeditions, it’s a good idea to have a spare).

Although this is the best mechanical filtration on the market, the filter cannot remove dissolved chemicals and viruses. Filtering out chemicals requires more expensive and heavier technology, which, however, has a very limited lifespan. From Sawyer, these include foam filters such as the Sawyer Foam Filter S1, S2, and S3 (compatible with the Micro filter). However, when used in nature, outside of industrial areas, this is not a problem. Furthermore, chemical tablets or UV water treatment do not address the issue of dissolved chemicals. Viruses, on the other hand, can be removed from filtered water using UV light, chemical treatment, or boiling.

If the filters are good enough for the World Health Organization (WHO) and its projects in developing countries, they’re good enough for our nature treks. On our 4,500 km-long Continental Divide Trail, we relied exclusively on the Sawyer SP129 for water; in the deserts of New Mexico and Wyoming, we filled up countless times from cattle troughs and always without any issues. The filter works perfectly. For those who still find the classic SP129 too large, you can try the even smaller Sawyer SP2129 Micro weighing just 52 g.