First Need XL Elite Water Purifier First Impressions

Magic water filter.

The General Ecology First Need XL Elite water filter might have been my favorite piece of kit that we brought along on our 50-mile backpack through Grand Gulch.

When I'm out day hiking, I don't need very much water; I can hike upwards of 15 miles with two, 20oz. water bottles and return with a bit of water left. The same is not true for @mrs.turbodb - she likes to carry 2-3 liters of water for the same length trip - though she can conserve when she knows it's necessary. @mini.turbodb has no concept of water conservation. Growing up in this day and age, she seems to perpetually have a water bottle on her person, and probably goes through double the water that @mrs.turbodb does on a given day.

Not knowing what the water situation would be like in Grand Gulch, this had me a little worried. At least to start, it would be hard to get @mini.turbodb to conserve, so I hoped that the First Need XLE fitler would work wonders on any stagnant potholes we found.

It did! And it was amazing.

Pros

• Filtering ability - we tested the filter using some blue dye prior to leaving on the hike and couldn't believe our eyes when the food coloring was filtered out. The same was true on the trail - no matter how mucky the water, what ended up in our water bottle was crystal clear.Note: On my return, I asked Randy if he would use the filter on very silty water (such as that found in the Paria River). His response was:
  

  I would not have used it in the Paria without getting rid of some of the sediment first. I killed a First Need filter in Coyote Gulch a while back when the water was muddy.

  While filtering the water from the Paria would have been an emergency/last resort option, I did carry a collapsible bucket and alum so that I could settle the water and remove much of the sediment before filtering if needed. Thankfully we never needed to do that.

  So, while we were able to filter water that looked pretty gross, the filter clearly does have its limits.

• Taste - closely related to the filtering ability, the water that came out of the First Need XLE tasted great! One of the problems with iodine and other systems is that they might kill anything in the water, or filter out some of the larger particles, but they generally leave the water tasking like garbage. Not this filter!
• Speed - the big pump makes quick work of filtering. We could easily filter 9 liters of water in 20 minutes. While this is slower than dropping in some iodine, it's well worth the time for the quality of the result.
• Screws on to standard water bottle threads - this makes it easy to place the filter and not worry that it will be unstable while filtering.
• Easy to clean - cleaning is a simple matter of using a bit of clean (filtered) water, and opening a cleaning valve on the top of the filter. Pump the clean water through and you're good to go!

Cons

• It's large and heavy compared to other filters, or filtering solutions such as iodine.
• After use, water remains in the filter, so it has to be cleaned (filter clean water) and disinfected (a few drops of bleach added) to keep it fresh.
• We carried most of our water in plastic 2L soda bottles; the filter doesn't fit on the top of those, so we also had to carry a camelback that we screwed onto the filter when we filtered water.

 

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