The Best Backpacking Water Filters

The Sawyer Squeeze Filter is a favorite among ultra-light hikers, backpackers, cyclists and travelers, and is the gold standard for water filters for anyone who cares about weight and universal compatibility. The extrusion weight is only 3 ounces, the filtering level is 0.1 micron (can remove E. coli, Salmonella, Giardia, Cryptosporidium and other common problems), and claims to filter 100,000 gallons of water before it needs to be replaced. The extrusion is also attached to a 28mm diameter soda bottle (for example, your basic 20-ounce cola bottle), which means you don’t have to worry about damaging the bottle as replacements can be found anywhere in the world.

You can buy saw bean extrusion separately, or as a kit with several water bladder and connecting hose. The kits containing wide bags work fine, but I usually skip them and filter them into a smart water bottle. As the name suggests, extrusion means extrusion, although it does work well as a gravity filter, just slower.

After years of testing and tuning, my setup for the saw plug extrusion is a 2L CNOC VECTOX Water Bladder ($25) For dirty water directly connected to the squeezed, then two smart water bottles for direct connection to the filter outlet. For traveling with infrequent water sources, I brought extra 2L Hydrapak Bladder ($25). This setup allows me to get two liters of clean drinking water in about 4 minutes, which is more like 6 to 8 liters if I hang and let the gravity do the job. The speed does fluctuate depending on how clean the filter is, and these numbers are based on freshly cleaned filters.

Cleaning is a disadvantage of Sawyer. To give it a good cleaning you need to include a rear-filled syringe, which is regrettably bulky. My experience is that if you can find a good source of clean water without a lot of silt or debris, then squeezing is easy to use for 7 days without cleaning. For longer trips, I packed the syringe. It is also worth noting that Sawyer Mini ($17) Lighter, but less robust. In my tests, the weight saved by the mini would outperform due to the faster squeezing, but if you are in the cutting handle toothbrush stage, the Mini is a better option.