MSR Miox Water Purifier with Batteries

After using this product twice weekly for the past year, I feel pretty qualified to add my two cents worth, especially concerning ease-of-use issues. You see, I live on a small island and most homes have municipally treated water or get theirs from a well. Not me. Unfortuanately, I get raw lake water out of my taps. After hauling water from town every week, I bought a MIOX pen, and while the batteries are expensive, the system I use works great.

I disinfect 2 gallons at a time. That means I fill the MIOX pen up with salt and use the 4-liter setting twice. It's for the water that goes into the teapot. For drinking water, I take MIOX treated water and fill a carbon-drip filter pitcher. My water is clearer and cleaner and better tasting than the town water I used to haul.

Here's some tricks for getting the MIOX pen to work consistently every time:

1. While the instructions that come with the thing tell you to fill the electrolosis chamber to the top, then capping it and shaking it through the screen, I found this to method to work only about 30 percent of the time. Instead, I use the old "finger-over-the-end-of-the-straw" principle:

First, I leave the cap MAIN cap ON, unscrew the smaller TOP cap (where one adds salt) and add water to the salt there. I then place my thumb over the top of the now watery salt chamber and shake for a few seconds until the water and salt have had a chance to co-mingle thoroughly. I remove my thumb and unscrew the main cap, letting the salt water flow back down into the red electrolosis chamber. I shake out a few extra drops and hit the button. Works every time. Hope this alternative method helps those of you who struggle with the thing.

After a year, I have no regrets save for the cost of the batteries. Still, this thing goes with me when I travel and backpack. It works great. Take two smaller bottles and drink one/disinfect the other. When I backpack, I'm without a carbon filter, which would remove most nasty tastes, and it's true, when properly dosed, one CAN taste a faint chlorine taste. (It's mostly a faint chlorine smell, but one need not beleager that point here.) Nonetheless, the water in my nalgene bottle isn't as neutral as store-bought mineral water. Oh well, I got over it. I never expected it anyway. I did expect to drink purified water and keep myself from getting sick, which I'm pleased to say has been my experience.

I took this out during the summer of 07 and had a great experience. It took some getting used to but once I figured it out everything went smoothly. Very slight pool water taste/aroma at first sip but diminished after a an hour of so. It does take some planning. Once I set up my camp I treated lots of water at once to have during the day. I would recommend it to my friends. The one that was shipped to me had test strips that were set to expire and the battery was old too. That was a bummer. All in all I am pleased though.

If you're looking to save weight, this little guy can't be beat. It imparts a bit of a chlorine taste to the water (depending on how strong you make the solution), but it's a lot better than iodine. MSR includes some chlorine testing strips, which seem like a bit of a hassle, but you can forego them (and shorten battery life) by overtreating the water. Interestingly, this device was developed for the US Military, and has been shown to neutralize a lot of biological agents, including VX nerve gas. I'd give it five stars, but the chlorine test and the recommended test strips affected my rating.