Travel Tap: Portable instant water filtration system

Krusty_Clown

Travel Tap: Just spotted this on another Boards forum (outdoor pursuits), and figured it would be ideal for long runs along trails/the Wicklow Way, as an alternative to carrying water. It's a portable water-filtration system built into a bottle. Given that there are a wealth of running streams along the WW, anyone use or have experience of using one of these while running?

Cabaal

Something similar and around the same price
http://www.reusablebottle.co.uk/index.php?crn=241&rn=431&action=show_detail

Krusty_Clown

Interesting. Massive difference in the amount of water it can treat 1600L v 320L but that may be down to the effectiveness of the filter. Well I ordered a travel trap from amazon a couple of days ago, so I'll let you know how out goes. Looking forward to trying it out on the trails, and avoiding ecoli and anthrax along the way (no offence ecoli!).

geld

...or you could just do the Bear Grylls method of filtration by filtering your water through a sock filled with grass and other things...as seen on the Graham Norton show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Vf0I5HYfSc

mloc123

geld wrote: »

...or you could just do the Bear Grylls method of filtration by filtering your water through a sock filled with grass and other things...as seen on the Graham Norton show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Vf0I5HYfSc

Or his other method...

Krusty_Clown

Well, just in case anyone is thinking of following a similar line of thought (unlikely, admittedly it's a little out there), I received my travel tap last week.

Does it work?
Absolutely.

Could you use it during a long distance race off-road race?
Hmm... Not so sure. See the thing is, it does a really good job of filtering nasty things from the water, like chemicals, sediments, bacteria (including cryptosporidium). The cost of all that filtering is that it is really difficult to squeeze water from the bottle as you essentially have to push it through that filtering mechanism. It takes two hands and a lot of effort. Not the kind of thing you could do while running. So while it would be perfect for a 20+ mile run on the Wicklow Way, where you don't have easily accessible water supplies and you don't mind stopping for a few minutes at a stream for rehydrating, it would be less than ideal in race conditions, where you don't plan on stopping un-necessarily.

So what is it good for?

• Long solo cross-country/trail runs where streams are available and you do not want the weight of carrying large amounts of water. You can keep the bottle empty (weighs very little) and just drink when/what you need. It is a good alternative to a camel-back, where there is a water-source and you don't mind stopping.
• Travelling to a foreign marathon, where you don't/can't trust the hotel tap water, and want to stay healthy before the big race.
• Travelling to locations where the quality of the bottled water might be dubious.
• It doesn't work with sea-water as the salt levels will clog the filters and shorten the lifespan of the product.
• You don't like the taste of your domestic tap-water.
• You are Bear Grylls, and want to drink your own pi$$.

mloc123

After getting caught out on the bike yesterday with no water and passing a load of possible sources I might try one. I presume it is a standard bike cage size bottle?

Krusty_Clown

mloc123 wrote: »

After getting caught out on the bike yesterday with no water and passing a load of possible sources I might try one. I presume it is a standard bike cage size bottle?

Hi mloc123, yes, I think it's standard bottle cage size. But be forewarned, I don't think you'd be able to drink from it while cycling. You'd probably need to pull-up on the bike and use two hands to squeeze the water through the filter, so it may not suit.

mloc123

Cheers, I might check it out as a last resort. Yesterday I ended up trying to find an outside tap in every GAA pitch and school I passed... maybe I should have just stuck a fiver in my pocket on the way out