First Use – May 24 – 26, 2009
The SteriPen got a good workout over the weekend. We filled our water bottles, first pouring the water through the SteriPen pre-filter. The green pre-filter is a two piece, easy to assemble device, with a small filter in the center of the cup part (larger, top piece). The actual filter has a small blue air valve, that when lifted to the open position, allows water to flow through. If closed, the water is held in the cup portion. The bottom piece is the ‘funnel’, which allows the pre-filter to fit into the tops of many different sized bottles. Being able to keep the water in the cup portion is convenient when you need to move the water, and the bottle isn’t handy. Once the water bottle was filled, all we had to do was take the Journey purifier out of the holster, and twist off the orange protective cover. One click of the button turned it on, and set if for one liter of water. I was
then able to put the end of the purifier in the neck of the bottle, and turn it upside down, so that the water was in contact with the purifier. The grey rubbery piece fit securely inside the bottle opening, with no leakage. In less than a minute, the counter on the display went down to zero, and a smiling face appeared, signaling that the water was purified. The water was from a spring located in a nearby mountain, and was running fairly fast. The water tasted very good, and was extremely cold. It tasted very good although, I can’t tell you what the water tasted like before, since I wasn’t comfortable drinking it before purifying.
The SteriPen Journey, and pre-filter were very easy to use, and takes up minimal space. The prefilter funnel nests inside of the cup portion. The Journey fits inside it’s holster, which can either be attached to a pack strap or hip belt, or it can easily fit inside a pocket inside a pack. If I were to travel outside the country, I would definitely take it with me. We’ll continue to report on how it works for us as the summer progresses. I found it quick and simple to use. I purified the water before cooking, just to be on the safe side.
