REVIEW: Katadyn Gravity Camp 6L Water Filter

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 UKC/UKH Gear 29 Apr 2016
Katadyn filter montage, 4 kbWater filters tend to be heavy and clunky, or too slow for regular use, says Richard Prideaux. But is Katadyn's Gravity Camp filter different? He thinks so.

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 Lucy Wallace 01 May 2016
In reply to UKC/UKH Gear:

I'm curious about whether this removes viruses?
 richprideaux 02 May 2016
In reply to Snoweider:

As far as I can tell it will remove protozoan cysts and bacteria but not viruses - currently only purifiers will tackle viruses.
In reply to Snoweider:

This might help, especially the chart showing the various types of filtration/purification.

https://www.katadyn.com/en/de/water-know-how/types-of-filters
https://www.katadyn.com/en/de/water-know-how/types-of-contamination

Viruses can be difficult to filter due to their very small size. They are sensitive to chemicals, UV treatment and heat.
 Lucy Wallace 03 May 2016
In reply to richprideaux:

As Lyon say above- viruses are tough to remove with a filter, but there are some Ultra Filters on the market that will filter down to <0.015microns so remove some if not all viruses, so chemical purification is not the only solution. Sawyer and Lifesver do one. Edit: The Katadyn MyBottle does too.

I find manufacturers don't make it easy to compare their products, as they only tell you what they do remove, not what they don't. Independent studies are few and far between, and to be honest it's hard to know how much of a potential problem viruses even are. I imagine that this depends on human population density around the water supply but who knows? If in doubt filter and treat is my approach, but many consumers are just led by what little it says on the box (not suggesting that Katadyn are guilty of this) but I have seen people turn up for expeds with all sorts of unsuitable systems that really don't do much other than remove a bit of colour.
 richprideaux 03 May 2016
In reply to Snoweider:

It's a massive subject, and as you say, with few independent studies. For manufacturers it is understandable that they will focus on what their products definitely can do though.

If I'm travelling to somewhere that I know that viruses will be likely then I will carry chemical purification. Even the very fine filters you mention do not remove all viruses, and it doesn't take much to make you ill. They are also only as good as your own personal hygiene and how good you are at keeping the 'clean' end clean... The viral outbreaks you see on the AT amongst dozens of experienced hikers using good filters show that there are no guarantees.

Steripens seem to be another reliable option, so long as you can get the sediment out of the water, but that goes for chemical purification too.

Water quality in remote areas is a weird one - I quite happily drank from streams all over the uplands of the UK until we ran a course for staff from Dwr Cymru who told me the results of some random tests they did in Snowdonia. From then on I filtered/sterilised/boiled everything if I had the choice.

Agreed on the motley selection of water filtration/purification systems we see. The guy that turned up with a kilo of cayenne powder is still the winner...

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