LifeStraw Family 1.0 Portable Gravity Powered Water Purifier for Emergency Preparedness and Camping

We took this water filter with us to Zimbabwe, six months ago. Although we were able to buy bottled water, we had this as a back-up. We filtered water every day, from a nearby well, to use for washing dishes (I still boiled the water first, but that was probably over-zealousness on my part!), for washing clothes by hand and other non-drinking uses. We were truly pleased with this product and have recommended it to many people. We appreciated that it is very lightweight and portable, and it was so easy to use. I did learn that it's important to have the unit hung high enough (per the clear directions), so the hose is straight and taking full advantage of gravity. The production is slow, but if everyone in your party adds water to the chamber whenever they think of it, you'll be fine for everyday uses. I did drink the filtered water a few times and did not have any ill effects. The water we were filtering was coming from a residential (city) well, and you could see dirt in it, sometimes. If you are thinking of taking a gift to a local resident living in a situation where water is scarce and not treated, this could be a life-changer. Highly recommended product!

Produces microbe-free water that is also free of micro-plastic particles found in all brands of bottled water. Time will tell how harmful those particles are. I filter my algae-laden well water thru a 1 micron sediment filter and two 10" 1 micron charcoal filters before it's poured into Lifestraw bucket. Collect in glass and stainless steel containers. Live alone, so slowness is not a problem & 0.02micron pore size provides the safest water you can produce. Amazon price much lower than factory-direct.

I haven't opened or used this yet but I've purchased other Lifestraw products in the past. The only negative I know of and read from other reviewers is that once you open the bag there is no storage case for the unit and it's pieces so, before I open it I'm going to find a plastic tool case or something to use to store it in. The reason I'm writing this review now is to get the word out about Lifestraw. This is the second best unit I know of. It filters 4,755 gallons of water down to 0.02 microns which is enough to filter out viruses and bacteria etc. The absolute best filter I found (the Survivor Filter PRO) was twice as good bc it went down to 0.01 microns and did like 25,000 gallons or something and they both cost about the same. The reason I chose Lifestraw is because it's gravity fed and you can hook up a large water bladder or tank etc to it to feed it... The 0.02 micron level is way good, much better in fact than most water filters sold (which are generally rated at 0.20 microns) and so safe to use and have sold like 5 million units worldwide. The Survivor Filter PRO's .01 micron filter has to be hand pumped 50 times to get a 500ml (about a pint) little water bottle full of water and it uses multiple filters that need replacing etc. There is no way I could see the tiny looking hand pump lasting long enough to pump 100,000 liters. That comes out to 379 pumps for one gallon of water. 100,000L's = 10,000,000 pumps. Wow! The pump in the picture looks plastic but I seriously doubt that if it was metal and with ball or roller bearings, that it will last that many pumps, lol. But seriously, I don't see myself pumping this thing 50 times every hour to get some safe water. I'd rather just dump some water in the feed hopper (my words for it) and come back in an hour and get 2.4 to 3.2 gallons of purified water. That's an average of 2.8 gallons of water in an hour with no work, no pumping.

Cheap Insurance. You have insurance on your car and you hope you don't have to use it, right? Now think about all of the things you pay insurance on hoping you never have to use it. You are reading this review because you are curious, preparing, going camping or you just need fresh water. Whatever the reason, get it. It comes in a sealed plastic bag and for me, it will stay there until I need it. I own several LifeStraw 'straws' and have used them with no problems. I watched what is going on in Flint and wonder why these folks have not stepped in. I see the problem with rivers flooding and polluting water and where are these folks. They have a good product. By the way I am "no tree hugger" I am an avid target shooter and camper, hunter, fisher and just enjoy the outdoors. If you combine this with the Berkey sport bottle (if you are concerned with heavy metals) you have got a great chance of having good water until the filter needs replacing. That is part of my kit. But anyway get you some.

We took the LifeStraw family water purifier with us on a camping trip recently. It worked great, but it is very slow. It took a little bit to get it to actually start processing the water, but once it did start flowing it came out at a pretty steady trickle. The water was very good and very clean. we intentionally got muddy river water to run through it and it came out crystal clear with no particles that could be seen or tasted. if you were looking for something to be able to hang up and process water slowly then this is a good option for you but not a good option if you needed water in a pinch. All in all I would purchase again but would also have the additional Life Straws an emergency backup.

I grew up in a state with really good water quality. Did not realize how spoiled I was until I moved away. Started feeling kind of worse for wear and noticed the water always tasted a little funny. Then my boss recommended that I don't drink tap water. He does bottled, I went to a filter. I was used my sawyer mini for awhile but that got too tiring to do every day and i wore the plastic film on the pouches out too quickly. This family version is awesome. Gravity fed water on demand. Plus is the lowest priced filter I could find on amazon that also deals with viruses. Works great for home/car use. Or non through hiking style. They have a $100 version that has a massive dry bag instead of the plastic tub, that would work as an on the go type large group filter. Have been using this for almost a year and love it. I do wish they sold replacement pieces (water bulb, clamp rings) just in case they break or get lost. Main tube is not the standard 1/4 hydration tube size though. It is a little bit bigger. I did add a carbon cartridge to the fresh spout as a proof of concept. Works great and coconut activated charcoal makes the water taste almost as good as my home state.

We purchased a Lifestraw Family and 2 Lifestraw Personals. Got them home then decided to test them before writing a review. First off, the directions are very clear, concise and simple to follow. We went down to the river here in town and got a large bottle full of river water and a large bottle of water from a small adjacent pond. We got home, followed the directions precisely and ran the river water through the lifestraw family. A note about the river and pond water. The Poudre River, where we got the water, was involved in the recent disastrous floods here in Weld County, Colorado, so it and the pond water saw a huge increase in the contamination that results from these floods. We poured a small glass. The water was perfectly clear, no odor, so I took in a mouthful. It tasted like it had just come out of a kitchen commercial water filter. I waited about an hour, no effects at all, then finished the glass. Couldn't let good water go to waste! The real test was coming up, doing the same thing with the nasty pond water. I performed the same test with it, following the directions to the letter. Absolutely no ill effects at all. The water tasted great!! My girlfriend and I highly recommend the Lifestraw Family! Just please run your own test because everyone's system responds differently to germs. We plan on getting 2 more Lifestraw Family filters and several more Lifestraw Personals.

The LifeStraw is good filter for camping, but we're using this to filter collected rainwater for use on houseplants and an Aerogarden hydroponics unit. We have well water here, very hard, which is generally not so good for houseplants and definitely not recommended for the Aerogarden. But we collect a LOT of rooftop rainwater for the gardens (like nearly 3000 gallons). The water itself is pretty clean, but I didn't trust it. Plus we did want to be able to filter rainwater for drinking in an emergency. The LifeStraw Family 1.0 Water Purifier came well-packaged and with fairly easy to understand instructions. Mostly it's a matter of knowing what valves to turn when. The other thing was we really needed to do flushing several times before the bits left in the filter by the manufacturing process were all cleaned out. Flow rate was/is good, but seems to work best if the tank is mounted on a wall so that the tube hangs vertically down. I recommend putting a tray or something under whatever bottle you're filling if you're going to leave the area, to avoid spills. We already had a couple of the portable LifeStraws from these folks in our backpacks, and so are familiar with the instant-availability concept of these kinds of filters. Only in this case, you can filter a whole lot more water than just for personal drinking. We'd definitely buy again, and might actually do so for our 'emergency kit.' I tested the water with various meters and strips, and it seems to be perfectly safe to drink. So I'm guessing my plants will like it better, too.