Spent $60 on a water filter that died on day two of a week-long trip

I was hiking the Eagle Creek Trail in Oregon last summer and bought a Katadyn BeFree filter for $60 at the last minute. Worked fine the first day, but on day two it clogged up so bad I couldn't get a drop through. Had to boil water over a fire for the rest of the trip, which added an hour to every meal stop. Anyone else had a filter crap out on them mid-route?

2 comments

2 Comments

iris3941d ago

Oh man, that is the exact kind of gear failure that makes you want to throw the thing into a river. Nothing like paying good money for something that turns into a useless plastic bottle halfway through a trip, right? Bet that boiled water tasted like victory and ash though! I swear some of these filters are just expensive toys that look great in the store but can't handle real world use. Hope the rest of the hike was still worth it despite the extra campfire cooking time.

laurabennett1d ago

You're not wrong about the expensive toy part. I've watched people drop three hundred bucks on a filter system that weighs less than a candy bar, only to have it clog up on day two. There's something to be said for gear that's been tested on actual trips, not just in a lab.