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Obtaining safe drinking water is an important consideration for outdoor enthusiasts and anyone interested in emergency preparedness. The LifeStraw Go water bottle is not only a water filter, but also a water container. But can you just scoop up surface water and drink it immediately? Let’s find out.
The lightweight yet rugged blue bottle has numerous clever design touches. The 0.2-micron filter element is based on “hollow fiber technology.” These perforated straw-like segments screen out pathogens from rivers, streams, lakes and puddles, removing them from the water. All you have to do is suck on the straw. A lack of moving parts and a lack of noxious chemicals provide real advantages to this design. Just fill up the bottle, screw on the lid (which contains the filter), and drink through the flip-top drinking tube. The only maintenance is a simple “blow-back” procedure. After drinking each bottleful, unscrew the lid and blow through the filter to back flush it. This is the easiest water filter I’ve ever used. It’s perfect for both a day hike or a full-on bug out bag.
There are a few holes in the armor of this great device, though. Like many filters, the LifeStraw does not filter out heavy metals; a carbon filter is a better choice for polluted areas. The Lifestraw Go doesn’t screen out viruses either; these organisms are much smaller than bacteria, and capable of passing through many filters. This product won’t desalinate water, but only reverse osmosis filters can pull off that trick. All things considered, the Lifestraw Go will suit the needs of most people, and I’d recommend it to anyone.
Here are the specs:
– It weighs 6.5 ounces when empty
– The bottle holds 22 ounces of water
– The filter strips out 99.9999 percent of waterborne bacteria like Salmonella, V. cholerae, and E. coli
– 99.9 percent of larger organisms like giardia and cryptosporidium are removed
– The bottle is rated to filter up to 1,000 liters (264 gallons) of water down to 0.2 microns
– Exceeds EPA standards for water filtration
– The filter is chemical-free
– The MSRP is $35
On top of all that, for each LifeStraw product sold, one school child in a developing country is provided with safe drinking water for an entire school year. Your purchase gets you a quality product, and it performs a good deed. Sounds like a win-win decision to me.