MSR Miniworks water filter.
- WarrenH
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MSR Miniworks water filter.
Postby WarrenH » Sat Mar 23, 2013 8:44 pm
My own question that sums up the filter's performance. Would I buy this filter again? ... yes most definitely. This filter has given me good service and I don't ever question if it is up to the job no matter how bad the water quality. The filter is not suitable for filtering salt water.
Is the filter labour intensive to use? ... yes it most definitely is, if I don't maintain it adequately. Without timely maintenance it's performance is as slow as a wet week. If I keep it clean and sterilize it once a week, when travelling, it is first class, quick and efficient. I've had the filter for a few years now and I'm still using the same ceramic cartridge, that the manufacturer expected to have a life of 5,000 filtered litres.
What isn't efficient, is then processing the water after it has been filtered. I boil every drop for 8 minutes. Why for 8 minutes? ... ask a prion.
Now for some shots.
As you can see the filter isn't very big, like a Trangia pot gripper big.
What makes it look big is screwing a 1lt Nalgene bottle onto it.
Filtering farm dam water yesterday on the BNT below mount Tennant. All the creeks, like the Naas (had unlinked stagnant pools or no water at all) and the Gudgenby had two dead sheep in it and it stank. I filtered water at the farm dam at the corner of Boboyan and Sunshine Roads. The long length of the hose works well when I can't get up-close to the water.
After reading here on BNA about covering the inlet with a paper coffee filter, to double the time between maintenance ... this has been spot-on advice. Chapeaux.
Maintenance is easy. Easy to screw apart and to clean each bit adequately. Over the past three years I've only ever rinsed the parts and the hose and scrubbed-down the ceramic cartridge, when needed. It is only the ceramic cartridge that is sterilized by a rolling boil, for 8 minutes. I've been getting between 7-11 litres of filtered water at 1lt per minute, depending on the water's turbidity. Then the filter cartridge needs lightly rubbing down with a Scotchbrite scourer to clean the cartridge, if the flow falters. To keep the piston's O ring well sealed, I give it a light coating of Vaseline.
All the bits exploded (less the hose and hose intake) ... although I haven't removed the needle valve from the red piston housing for the photo. The red crescent that comes off the base if it slides over the filter cartridge then the filter has been worn down by cleaning and then need replacing.
I purchased the MSR Miniworks about 3 years ago, for $135 AU after ordering it from a camping store here in Canberra.
I'll post some shots of where I've used the filter over the last few years.
Warren.
- il padrone
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Re: MSR Miniworks water filter.
Postby il padrone » Sat Mar 23, 2013 9:20 pm
Now you've got my inquisitiveness piqued.WarrenH wrote:Why for 8 minutes? ... ask a prion.
From http://whyfiles.org/193prion/5.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;How do people contract prion diseases?
Acquired infection occurs through diet (eating infectious parts of mad cow) or medical procedures (including brain surgery with contaminated equipment), growth hormone injections (which were once extracted from human pituitary glands, which is located near the brain) or corneal transplants. As doctors have identified these routes, medical procedures have changed to eliminate them....
....According to the Centers for Disease Control, 213 Americans died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in 2000, including inherited and spontaneous disease. None of the cases was blamed on eating meat.
If you really think this is a likely risk in water, I don't see a filter or boiling at a campsite as having any effect.
How to stamp out prions? The list is short, the methods vicious:
Incineration at 1000 degrees C
Autoclaving (steam heating) at 134 degrees C for 15 minutes or longer
Exposure to highly concentrated sodium hydroxide (lye) for 15 minutes in a boiling solution.
Exposure to concentrated bleach for one hour.
BTW
From http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howthings ... 22703a.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;Prions naturally occur in your body, so they are not recognized as foreign and don't stimulate the immune system. They have the potential to cause disease, but won't automatically harm you.
I don't see this as any sort of risk in the Australian bush from drinking water that is clean, or has been treated by normal methods. If you have other information it would be valuable to all, but please avoid scaremongering.
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Re: MSR Miniworks water filter.
Postby polishbiker » Sun Mar 24, 2013 3:51 am
- rifraf
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Re: MSR Miniworks water filter.
Postby rifraf » Tue Mar 26, 2013 12:21 am
I'm sold
I'm hoping theres now a mad rush of posts each out doing the previous with links to the hottest online prices
Oh and was the Nalgene bottle part of the kit or an optional extra
Cheers
Aidan
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Re: MSR Miniworks water filter.
Postby alexf » Sat Mar 30, 2013 7:55 pm
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Re: MSR Miniworks water filter.
Postby }SkOrPn--7 » Sun Mar 31, 2013 10:04 am
Ricky
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Re: MSR Miniworks water filter.
Postby Wingnut » Tue Apr 16, 2013 3:29 pm
- WarrenH
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Re: MSR Miniworks water filter.
Postby WarrenH » Sat Apr 20, 2013 6:24 pm
"Paved roads ... another fine example of wasteful government spending." - a bumper sticker.
- WarrenH
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Re: MSR Miniworks water filter.
Postby WarrenH » Sat Apr 20, 2013 6:25 pm
I've no idea. Boiling to 8 minutes will be the next best thing, to reaching a 1,000ºC takeout? But, I do know that MSR recommends boiling the filter cartridge for 8 minutes once a week when on tour and a Microbiologist who was also a Parasitologist at the School of Biological Sciences at ANU, recommended (many years ago) that I boil water for 8 minutes in this region ... and also a NSWPWS Ranger at Royal National Park when I quizzed him about Botulism in Royal, attributed to the feral Samba Deer, recommended boiling park water for 8 minutes. Who am I to question those who know more about it than me? If you have been reading the NSW Livestock Health and Pest Associations Senior Vet's papers recently, you will know that Botulism has raised its ugly head on the NSW South Coast again, after several hundred native duck were found dead around Nowra in February.il padrone wrote:How do people contract prion diseases?
Peter, I presume your comment was concerning prions? Over the last few years I've been exploring the Travelling Stock Routes of NSW. Many of the trails and the trails around home share sections with horse trail and the TSRs with cattle and sheep of course. Simply, stock plus rain & flying dirt equals ecoli. Perhaps some of these shots might help to describe what it is like. Also, here in the SE of NSW and the ACT feral animals especially pigs are a curse to the water courses ... not to mention inconsiderate people dumping and the possible contamination from floods debris.il padrone wrote:If you really think this is a likely risk in water, I don't see a filter or boiling at a campsite as having any effect.
On a tributary of the Murrumbidgee ... and we joke here about Adelaide, drinking Canberra's waste water.
In a nature reserve, feral cattle have fouled this once pristine little frog pond.
On the Great South Coast Walking Track, that I spent time exploring a possible bike route, riding on the beaches alternating with fire trails, earlier this year. At Poole's Beach, the once reliable water soak, 20m north of the campsite, was not very welcoming ... to me.
Neddies, cattle and sheep are upstream, every where that I've camped over the last few years.
I agree, about being in the bush. Scaremongering was not my intention ... but I know what I need to do.il padrone wrote:I don't see this as any sort of risk in the Australian bush from drinking water that is clean, or has been treated by normal methods. If you have other information it would be valuable to all, but please avoid scaremongering.
Cheers Mate.
Warren.
PS, Another question. Even after boiling water for 8 minutes, if I don't refrigerate the water, what is that boiled water like in 24 hours time? It's nothing like it was immediately after boiling ... but I'll still drink it.
"Paved roads ... another fine example of wasteful government spending." - a bumper sticker.
- rifraf
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Re: MSR Miniworks water filter.
Postby rifraf » Fri Jul 12, 2013 12:44 am
Wazza if your reading this, how often might the seals need replacing? I ask having seen a maintenance kit (seal replacement kit) on ebay.
Great to know Vaseline is a suitable lubricant for the unit.
Thanks for the blow up of the individual parts.
- rifraf
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Re: MSR Miniworks water filter.
Postby rifraf » Tue Jul 23, 2013 10:05 pm
For anyone looking Bike24 has them here:
https://www.bike24.net/1.php?content=8; ... 2||240,245||||||||" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
88.19Euro or approx $125.87Au plus postage
as well as the popular light weight stove - the pocketrocket:
https://www.bike24.net/1.php?content=8; ... 81;mid=567" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
25.17Euro or approx $35.91Au
Which for the Miniworks is a bit cheaper than the best Aussie price I can find of $143.95
http://www.hiking.com.au/p/1143243/msr- ... ilter.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and
http://www.summitgear.com.au/shop/index ... cts_id=546" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Another option appears to be bikewagon.com who also has an ebay site.
Their home site lists the Miniworks at $89.99US plus postage.
I've had issues with their communication so havnt used them
For any Taswegians amongst us, there is someone "down there" offering one on gumtree for $120 in Hobart:
http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/west-hob ... 1021234183" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
- WarrenH
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Re: MSR Miniworks water filter.
Postby WarrenH » Wed Jul 24, 2013 1:45 pm
I've had the filter for about 28 months. It has been well used and I still have the original parts in service. I've only re-greased the O rings once, that was with a light smearing of Vaseline and that was just prior to my last trip along the BNT during June. The O rings are showing no signs of deterioration, what-so-ever. Nor is any other part if the filter. I try to be as uniform as possible when cleaning the soft ceramic element, so that I get uniform wear, when I'm scouring it.
One thing to be careful of, if you do remove the split-bolts, make sure that they are put back in from the side that they were removed from. If they're put back in from the opposite side, they feel clipped-in, but they will fall out. They don't clip-in well if replaced from the wrong side, and when least expected they will fall out ... like one of my bolts did into the Wollondilly River. Fortunately I recovered the split-bolt because the water was shallow, crystal clear and thankfully slow flowing.
Some places where I got water in cattle country, on the Great Dividing Range, during June.
The upper headwaters of the Wollondilly River, North of Broken Bridge.
Corroboree Creek on the Melrose Plateau.
... and Waiborough Creek in the Southern Blue Mountains.
Warren.
"Paved roads ... another fine example of wasteful government spending." - a bumper sticker.
- clackers
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Re: MSR Miniworks water filter.
Postby clackers » Wed Jul 24, 2013 2:37 pm
- FXST01
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Re: MSR Miniworks water filter.
Postby FXST01 » Thu Aug 01, 2013 8:09 am
Katadyn VarioWingnut wrote:I wonder how MSR water filters compare to Katadyn...?
Filter: Pleated glassfibre with carbon core and a ceramic prefilter
Filter life: 400 - 2000L
Fast flow setting: 2L/min or long-life setting: 1.1L/min
Size: 190 x 100mm
Weight: 425g
MSR Miniworks
Filter: Ceramic plus carbon
Filter life: ~2000L
Flow settings: 1L/min
Size 190 x 70mm
Weight:456g
Both protect against Protozoa and bacteria.
Both are effective against particulates.
Both look like they are designed by a committee that cheated off each other.
Photos not to scale with each other.
I personally have a Katadyn filter, which I bought of Amazon for much cheaper than available in Australia.
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Re: MSR Miniworks water filter.
Postby apsilon » Wed Sep 04, 2013 2:52 pm
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