Katadyn Hiker Pro Review

"I am relatively new to hiking/backpacking but using this filter was great. It is lightweight and pumped water from a winter wash stream very quickly. A friend that was with me was impressed since he only uses iodine tablets. The water was clear, clean and tasted great. No rpbolems the enxt day either. Thumbs up Katadyn."

"Went Trout fishing for three days in West Virginia with five other guys. I had my Hiker Pro and my buddy had his MSR filter water. We went to pump water the first evening and my Hiker pro was smokin'!!! It is the fastest pump I have ever used. My Hiker Pro pumped twice as fast as the MSR pump. I was so impressed with the quick disconnects and the water flow. The only thing I dont like about the unit is the bottle adapter does not fit onto the bottles snug. I carried a rubber band with me to use as a gasket for a tight fit. Easy to disinfect when I returned home. I openned the eyes to a couple of hard core MSR pump users. Flawless operation. Thanks Katadyn."

"I've had these filters for 15 years, and gone through $240 worth of cartridges. Work find for the first 10 gallons. Then, in my experience they ALWAYS clog in the field if there is ANY sediment in the water. Just when one gets lulled into a false sense of security, the filter plugs and is NOT effectively serviceable in the field. Finally sucked up and threw it away."

"We used this water filtration system on a 8 day float hunt on a very remote river in Alaska. We filtered roughly 15 gallons of water without a hitch. The pump is so simple to use and the filter was easy to clean. I bought the deluxe model which has the extra filtering element in it and could be happier. I like all the adapters that came with it and we used the Nalgene bottle adapter a lot while traveling down the river. I will be using it again this year on another remote float hunt."

"Positive:
*The throughput on this filter is very nice.
*The clean/dirty system of keeping the hoses separate is nice.

Negative:
*The design of the handle (L-shape) is very poor. If you push hard on the edge it will snap right off. On the last day of my second trip using it (A week long one) one of my buddies was pumping and the handle broke. Fortunately REI gave me store credit to apply to a different filter.
*There are a lot of hoses to keep straight and it is easy to get the clean one dirty. My Boy Scout troop has several of these and by the end of a trip I will only use my pump because I have witnessed every other pump's clean end get dirty.

Overall, this is a fine filter, but I'd recommend the kind that screw directly onto your hydration pack or nalgene."