Thanks Mike! 🐾👍

Indeed, Oasis water purification. I'm always calling them 'puritabs' but I think that harks back to British Army ration pack days I think: can't quite remember. Haha, the stout! Man, you are a hawk eye guy: awesome! I like the observational analytical reasoning mind style you have. ✔ Yeah, for sure, winter can be a bummer. Best intentions fall to a warm caravan and all that! Good to hear from you sir, all the best!

Thanks Patrick! 🙂🐾👍 Yeah, I love my CNOC bag and Versa Flow. I was away on a 6 day hike there and I was trying out the BeFree filter system. Great flow rate etc but doesn't have the gravity system. As it's winter and I have to sleep with my filters I found the shape to be kinda 'diggy-inny' so prefer the Versaflow for that. Plus if you were to burst the bag on the BeFree you couldn't just use a standard bottle and would be screwed (pun intended 😉). So yeah, the BeFree is great but definitely not as robust with redundancy built in like the CNOC bag and VersaFlow system. That defo what I'll be sticking with for long and especially remote hikes. Cheers! 🐾👍

Thanks Gordon! Appreciate that! ✔🐾👍👍👍

Is that the fb & Insta posts? Aye, that was really nice of them! ✔🐾👍

Aye, defo a great system, isn't it! 🙂🐾👍

I'd check that out for sure, cheers! 🐾👍

I just now seem the Sawyer S1, S2 and S3 series which can apparently do viruses and heavy metals etc. Pretty interesting!

@@HoundsofHowgate Did not know about that one. Thank you! I just had a quick look on Amazon and could barely see one good review. Doesn't seem like people like it very much. Currently I think the Grayl is the best I've seen. It's shaped as a bottle so it saves space (you'll carry it as both a filter and a secondary bottle), it doesn't really have any moving parts so there's less to break, and it seems to work. Has good reviews. The only real complaint is that it gets harder to press but to be fair even if it is harder and even if it takes 12 seconds instead of 7, it's still the fastest filter I've seen to date. If you want to fill up a 1L bottle as well as the Grayl itself, for instance, it shouldn't take more than 30 seconds of a combined effort.

@@HoundsofHowgate Yes. I just watched a few reviews of the Sawyer S series and neither are very good. People say the process takes a long time and the silicone bottle isn't very robust. Some people even got pieces of the inner material falling off after one use. I've seen the Grayl Geopress in this video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/l7ajo5Oc08zVnJc.html It just seems simple, quick and effective. My only concern is how my wife will react with the idea of me buying another gear item! Cheers.

@@ZDWildCamping haha! Just hid it and keep it secret! 😉👍

Ah, ✅ interesting! 🐾👍

Haha! 👍

Mabies man, I've been hiking a lot up North lately! Can't quite remember where aboots I was then. Cheers! 🐾👍

Thank you! 🐾👍 Well, it's 220g if you use the full system. I only use 1 bag and screw my water bottle onto the other end. So more like 135g. If the bag were to break you can just screw another plastic bottle on the dirty water end. For me I like this particular inline filter over the sawyer as it has screw threads either side and has a window so you can see how smelly it is inside or not and I prefer the inline filters over pumps (lighter ones) because there is less to break and they are easier to use: When I used the MSR trailshot it worked brilliantly for the first few times but then the flow rate slowed way down: when I was trying to filter over 5L of water a day and it was taking over 100 pumps per litre my forearms ended up killing me! Plus it kept clogging at the pre-filter. So I was cleaning that a lot, plus flushing the filter after every use. This was on a 2 week 240 mile hike with no resupply points and that could have been problematic. Luckily I had a sawyer as a backup as I'd not used the TrailShot in earnest before. Now of you were going to be using the TrailShot infrequently for a litre here or there then great. Plus if your water was really smelly the pre-filter would be handy. But as I'm drinking out of Scottish rivers and burns and trying to batter the miles in, so I can't be foolin' wae hunners o' bits, backflushing all the time and burning my forearms out due to having to spend so long pumping water. The problem is that it is a grip pump. If it was a wee handle it would be better. *Talking about handled pumps, I've had the Katadyn Hiker Pro recommended to me. That's 231g and seems next level from an inline. Again though, there are more moving parts etc to go wrong and if you are out for a long distance hike that could be problematic. That's why I always carry purification tablets in my first aid kit too. Ultimately it all comes down to balancing your specific needs and what you are willing to compromise on really. That's why I called this 'My Favourite Water Filter' and not 'The Best Water Filter', know what I mean. Like, otherwise we would all be carrying about huge things that filter everything. What's best is very subjective. Plus none of these filters filter out viruses. So hiking location is important too. Nothing much to worry about in the US or Europe regarding that but... Are you in the market for a filter? If you are, you could maybe tell us your style of hiking, trip durations, environment etc and I might be able to put some thoughts out there for you to consider. 🙂🐾👍

@@HoundsofHowgate That's a proper reply that is. Cheers. Funny, I actually have the hiker pro and I was looking around for new videos to see what 2019 has to offer which is how I found your video. To be fair, I've had the hiker since 2016 and used it on several thru hikes with absolutely no problems. I actually have two more filters that I never used because the hiker is so good at prefiltering my first filter never needed changing despite being 3 years old. The reason I was in the market for new filters is the weight and size. I found this filter called DEERFAMY Outdoor Mini Water Filter that claims to filter at 0,01Um which is obviously not as fine as the Life Saver which filters at 15 nanometre which is 0.015 micron but it's really cheap. It's like 24 quid on amazon but I don't know if I trust their claims. Dunno. You certainly made me think. I don't want to bust my wrists and forearms either. Appreciate your reply. Thanks!

No worries! I'm always keen to hear what other folk are thinking about stuff like this as it's like shortcut info: awesome! Plus real world views are always better than any marketing spin. Spot on, cheers! 🐾👍

Oh yeah, it's on my Cape Wrath Trail series I trailed the Trailshot and my experience with it is in those vlogs; kinda peppered throught, so I couldn't point you to any specific parts unfortunately. This is the 1st in the series: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/p-Cmd5Oimc_ZZmg.html

It was this Irish Stout that had a picture of some standing stones on it: super expensive from Marks & Spencer's. I was totally exploited by the marketing: standing stones=John's interest!

I had a look online and the micro has a male thread on the output end so you can screw sports caps etc onto it. So you couldn't screw it onto a bottle etc. Jean Ward mentions you can get an adapter for it so you can though, so that's good.

Nah, it's not bad: it's just the slower flow rate is all. Now that's not a problem usually unless you are on a hike that is weeks long. If you are out for more than a few days then you'll be filtering an awful lot of water. In that sort of situation you really start to appreciate a faster flow rate as filtering water gets old pretty quickly. The more easily you can collect water and the easier and faster you can filter it the better. Besides, you can still gravity feed with the mini if so. You just need a different filler bag or bottle than the ones that come with it. As it has the screw thread that's all good. I wouldn't bother with the bags that come with it; trying to fill those can be a right pain in the rear. The MSR Trailshot on the other hand would be an absolute nightmare for anything other than infrequent water collection and filtering. Too many parts, slows quickly, labour intensive etc. So no, not a bad purchase. I mean I used a Sawyer mini for the 2 weeks I was out on the Cape Wrath Trail. But defo get a bottle or after market bladder to use to squeeze the dirty water through rather than messing with the Sawyer bags: they are a nightmare to fill in most situations. 🙂🐾👍

Cheese board knife. ✔👍

Should be good to go after the winter passes and it doesn't fall below 2°C (can't pour the concrete founds otherwise as the water in it freezing wrecks it). It's 4/5 years in the making so I can't wait to finally not live like a caveman!

@@HoundsofHowgate you doing the work yourself ? A video of your progress would be entertaining I think, anyway keep the videos coming 👍

@@bigcorky4687 nah, I work full time and with the best wish in the world I just don't have the time or expertise to do it. I'll be doing what I can but it will be minimal. Don't get me wrong: I'd love to and it would save a lot of money but my situation just doesn't allow for it. I did actually think about vlogging it as when I started this journey I had a look on KZfaq for some pointers and I couldn't see anything that was comprehensive. It would have been so helpful, like, if you value your physical and mental health plus relationships then do not build your own home. But hey-ho, we are doing it. Mabies might make a different channel and vlog it. It's all super stressful though (the full building your own place thing) so I'll see. 😱👍

@@HoundsofHowgate Is your caravan in a nice spot? I will take it off you when you move out😉

Hi Martin, nah, the HydroBlu has definitely kept it's flow rate up way better than the Sawyer Mini. That thing done my head in eventually! 😬🐾👍

@@HoundsofHowgate thanks 👍 I think I'll take the plunge. Really enjoyed the videos btw.

@@mfinn4463 thanks! 🙂🐾👍

Not anymore. I used to, but I found on extended trips it was drying my throat out. I think it might be down to going with the minimum purification time rather than leaving it overnight say. So now, if it's like a highland stream I'll just filter it and drink it. If it's at a lower elevation with more risk of dodgy stuff etc then I'll also puritab it. The filters take out the stuff we need to have a concern about in the hills but they don't take out viruses etc, so it's a judgement call. Twice I have been hiking and came across dead sheep up the water course so if I would have not filtered my water at all I would have been drinking water that had basically been filtered through a rotting animal carcass: not cool. So it is important to filter in my opinion at all times. To be fair, puritabs don't take out contaminates like fertilisers or diesel etc. Viruses in water courses are not too much of a concern in European water courses but it always pays to be mindful of the water source, what may be an issue and then process the water accordingly.

@@HoundsofHowgate thank you very much for your reply. Really appreciate the time you take to give advice and help us learn 👍

Defo! Aye, I think the versatile of this system is onto something for sure! 🐾👍