SteriPEN Adventurer Handheld Water Purifier

i purchased the Steripen Adventurer from Amazon thinking I was getting a better price than from other online merchants. However, the supplied batteries were no good and had to be replaced at an additional cost of $13.00+. There went the price savings plus some. I don't know if the thing works or not, however I do know that the river water on the trip that I took it on is safe to drink. My guess is that Amazon doesn't rotate their stock well enough.

I've giving it a single star for being unreliable.

I got this thing and tried it out a couple times and it seemed to work. Then I took it on a weeklong backpack trip and it failed from day one because it ran the rechargeable batteries down after less than 5 uses. I should have brought Iodine tabs as a backup.

Also, the LED lights used to indicate readiness are very difficult to see in sunlight, and the message system needlessly confusing. A sound-based system would be much better. Finally, the info about lights out to be printed on the case so that losing the instructions doesn't render the unit totally useless.

I bought the SteriPEN before traveling to India and Nepal. Three weeks on trains and in modest lodging, using the pen to sterilize one liter of water at a time.I learned that I had to insert it deep into the water, just a little beyond the rod, otherwise it didn't work. I used it 20 - 30 times and it took away the uncertainty about the water. I'm taking it with me to Mexico this month. It's lightweight and small, so easy to include.

The pen seems to work properly, but I have not tested it on raw water as yet.

Having read elsewhere that the Adventurer was hard on batteries but most people were using rechargeables, I decided to do my own testing using Panasonic Lithium Photo batteries. Thus far I have gotten about 20 liters of purification over a period of 6 days. The only time I have encountered any problems is in cold. For the first test I put the pen in the refrigerator for about 3 hours and tried to use it but it only flashed the red light saying the battery was too weak. After warming it up for 5 minutes with body heat, it performed fine. Another time I left it outside 40F for a few hours and tried it but had the same problem. Again, after warming with body heat the unit worked fine.

I was looking forward to using the Adventurer in the winter when filters freeze and chemicals take way too long. After these tests it is obvious that I will have to keep it warm or warm it up before I use it. I think it must really require a big "shot" of power and it is necessary that the batteries are warm to be able to do this.

Recommended with qualifiers.