Are you a hiker? A prepper? Traveling ? Or do you have limited access to drinking water for another reason? Then you’ll possibly be interested in the LifeStraw.
What does LifeStraw do?
LifeStraw is a product design involving a drinking bottle which comes with a filter to purify “dirty” water into drinking water. The brand is managed by parent company Vestergaard and the idea goes back to 1994 when they began working on guinea cloth fibers which would later be part of the original Lifestraw in 1999.
From 2005 to 2015 they kept working on new designs to address different kinds of problems and releasing several different products as part of the LifeStraw family.
LifeStraw Go
The latest of these products is the LifeStraw Go with a two-step filter inside of a refillable water bottle. Using this bottle you can tap into unpurified water sources while hiking or traveling in environments without access to clean drinking water. One bottle of the two-stage filter is priced at around $50 but you can also find them a little cheaper on Amazon. Don’t forget to also buy a couple of filter packs to top up your gear and not run out of filters if you really need them.
Details and facts
Using the LifeStraw filtering systems you can drink water from a pond, stream, lake or river without worrying about the bacteria in there making you sick. The technology in these filters improve the water quality for drinking purposes significantly down to 0.2 microns and remove many waterborne contaminants such as E. Coli, Giardia or Cryptosporidium oocysts.
The filter itself can work about 1,000 liters (264 gallons) and the carbon capsule has a capacity of 100 liters (26 gallons) of water before they need to be replaced. This is the average equivalent of using the bottle for three months. The activated carbon filter removes some chemicals like chlorine and the hollow fiber microfilter removes 99.9999% of bacteria and 99.9% of protozoa.
A replacement filter costs about $30 and a set of two carbon capsules cost about $12. You can get it all a little bit cheaper if you go for a bundle on Amazon, which consists of the bottle and the replacement items too for about $88 as of today.
Good cause
It’s also worth taking note of the fact that LifeStraw not only uses their technology to support people in areas with bad water quality, but they also take care that with every purchase you make, they will supply one child in a developing community with safe drinking water for a whole school year.
Summary
I believe this is an interesting technology to make use of when going camping or travel to areas with low water quality. It’s not quite clear how long the filters and cartridges can be stored without losing effectiveness, so I can’t rate it for emergency preparedness (prepper culture / survivalism). Check them out yourself and see if they work for you. Have any thoughts or feedback? Make sure to share your opinion below in the comment section.
Story pitched by news scout Pupu Liang.
Thanks for that!
YouTube: The LifeStraw Go Water Filter Bottle
Photo credit: LifeStraw
