Katadyn Water Filter

A review of the Katadyn Hiker Pro model microfilter

A Katadyn water filter like the hiker pro microfilter, or other similar water filter is an essential piece of equipment to have with your survival gear. Clean water is is a basic human need, you can have a shelter, a survival weapon, and all the ammo in the world, but without water, you will quickly become dehydrated, and eventually you will die.

Whether in a survival situation, or just out hiking or camping, once you locate a viable water source, you should always have some method to filter or purify the water before you drink it... unless of course you just like diarrhea and severe abdominal cramps. I, on the other hand prefer to collect the water, use my Katadyn water filter to filter it, drop in a couple of iodine tablets, and then boil the hell out of it if conditions permit... thus reducing my chances of an unwanted encounter with Giardia or cryptosporidium (a couple of delightful water born parasites that will make you lose most of your body fluid through your rectum until you wish you were dead.) The sypmtoms of Giardia can take a week or more to appear, so you may be out of the environment where you came into contact with it originally before you realize you have it. Water borne parasites are very common, and are everywhere on the surface of the planet. Even if you live in pristine wilderness by a fresh flowing stream.. A deer or racoon, or beaver can still drop feces in the water upstream from you, along with millions of giardia parasites.... mmmm.

ok, enough lecturing, I think most of us know we are rolling the dice if we decide to drink water from an unknown source without treating it first. Here's the scoop on the Katadyn hiker pro.

Katadyn water filters are available in 3 different categories, the high end Endurance series, the backcountry series (which the hiker pro is part of), and the ultralight series. The advantage to the endurance series is the tougher materials, and the 0.2 micron cleanable silver ceramic filter that lasts almost forever. The Hiker and hiker pro models will require you to change the filter after about 400 gallons, at a pricetag of $39. For all but the most hard core outdoors professionals, the backcountry series is a great choice. Its the best selling microfilter in the U.S. At $80, the price is not prohibitively expensive, unlike some of the endurance series models, such as the katadyn pocket which is $300. The hiker pro is essentially the base model Katadyn hiker, but comes with quck connect adapters for the inlet and outlet hoses, and a nalgene / bottle adapter for pumping water straight into a container.

katadyn hiker pro microfilter. Box Contents

Katadyn Water Filters Hiker Pro Model: Whats in the box

Essentially this unit, like most microfilters, consists of 3 basic parts. The inlet house,which has a weighted screen (Prefilter)at the end to filter out larger debris. The body, which consists of the pump, filter, and hose connections, and the outlet hose, which comes in a separate plastic ziploc bag to prevent cross contamination. It should always be stored in this bag. Other items in the box include a sponge, for cleaning the pump and filter covering, which you can see wrapped around the filter cartrige, and held in place with a plastic mesh material. There is a tube of silicone lube for the threads where the filter connects to the housing. A bottle adapter is also included, to pump water straight into a nalgene bottle or other container. A quick connect hydration pack adapter is also included All parts can be stored neatly in the black nylon pouch provided.

To make the unit ready for use, simply connect the inlet hose quick connect adapter to the bottom of the hand pump housing, then remove the outlet hose from its plastic ziploc bag, and attach it to the top of the filter housing.

Before the initial use, you must flush the system out thoroughly by pumping 1 liter of water through it. This will flush all of the carbon dust out of the middle of the filter cartridge, the water will run gray and bubbly for a short period and will quickly clear up.

Katadyn water filter connectors

Katadyn

prefilter
and float

Normally this water would just get pumped straight into canteens or a hydration bladder / pack. For the purposes of this demonstration we'll use a drinking glass so we can show the clarity of the water as it is pumped.

Normal Operation:

Place the input hose into the untreated water source, whether its a container full of collected water or a a stream or lake, or even puddle of rainwater runoff. If the water is deep enough set the float so that it holds the prefilter strainer off the bottom, keep it as far from the bottom as possible so a minimum amount of debris is contacted. The container shown here is a half gallon of lake water, it was pretty muddy and then I threw in a little dirt just for good measure.

Katadyn hiker pro microfilter test
Katadyn Hiker Pro

As you can see the water is pretty clear considering the condition it started out in. The pump action is smooth and easy and it took less than a minute to fill our drinking glass.

Filtered water
After filtering thru the Katadyn water filter this water is ready to drink

The carbon filtration inside katadyn water filters does a pretty good job of taking the "Branch Water" taste out, and this glass of water was quite drinkable. When you pump water directly from a stream where the water is flowing quickly over a good rocky bottom, the water tastes as good as any bottle of water you can buy in the store... until you drop in an iodine tablet, which introduces a little "flavor" that is not really all that wonderful.

I keep one bottle of these in a small kit in my car, and another in a go bag in my basement. Iodine tablets active ingredient is tetraglycine hydroperiodide @ 16.7%, the coghlans brand and the potable aqua brand both contain the same ingredient, and both can be purchased for around five bucks for 50. Katadyn recommends their silver ion / chlorine micropur tablets rather than an iodine type tablet. Micropur does a more thorough job, but it also takes up to 4 hours to be effective vs 30 minutes for iodine, and I just prefer the crappy taste of iodine over the crappy taste of chlorine. Chlorine is also more toxic.

iodine water purification tablets. Potable aqua.

Hope you enjoyed this review of the Katadyn Water Filter Hiker Pro

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