How does lifestraw work

Teetering on the brink of the loose scree ridge, clean water was the furthest thing from my mind. We had hiked two days to get to Black Tusk. Along the way we took the opportunity to drink water and fill our bottles from the streams we passed, and while the streams looked clean, we always filtered our water rather than risk getting sick. My water filter this trip was an award-winning device called LifeStraw , which was designed in Switzerland by Vestergaard Frandsen for humanitarian projects in the harsh conditions of Africa.

Simply suck water through it and the filter removes Coli and Cryptosporidium, is 1. My hiking partners were using traditional pump-style water filters, and while they were busily pumping away, I was already drinking the cold stream water with no effort at all.

The LifeStraw is easy to carry as it is only 9 inches long by 1 inch in diameter, and weighs less than 2 ounces. Comparatively, the water filters my friends were using weighed around 1 pound. Lower down the mountain, where natural water sources were more plentiful, there was no need to fill my water bottle.

I could simply get on my knees and put the LifeStraw directly into a stream for a cool drink of clean water. It takes a little more effort, but it works. The LifeStraw can deliver water at a good rate, fast enough to let you drink normally. Safety is a vital consideration with the best water filters , and this one scores highly in that department.

The filter size is 0. Any suspended particles — mud, algae and anything organic — are guaranteed to be caught. Most bacteria are from 0. The filter does have limits. Viruses range in size from 0. We tried holding it upside down and trickling water in the bottom, but without the suction, it drips through very, very slowly. If you want to feel good about the purchase,. LifeStraw uses a share of their profits to donate large community filters to villages in the developing world.

You can check it out here, at this Amazon listing , or at REI. But the device does not filter heavy metals such as iron or fluoride nor does it remove parasites like cryptosporidium or giardia , although the Switzerland-based company's CEO, Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, says there is a version of LifeStraw available to relief groups in Bangladesh and India that can filter arsenic.

At less than 10 inches 25 centimeters long, the device can filter up to gallons liters of water, estimated to be about a year's supply for one person.

The device is no longer usable when its filters become too clogged to pass water through, typically after a year of hard use. The success of the personal filtration system led Vestergaard Frandsen to introduce earlier this month its LifeStraw Family device, an instant microbiological purifier that provides about 2.

LifeStraw Family is designed to sieve dirt, parasites, bacteria and viruses, and will be available starting in May. The next step is promoting LifeStraw technology so that nongovernmental organizations NGOs and aid groups will buy and distribute them. This is no small task, given that the need for clean water is not promoted as heavily as AIDS prevention or literacy training in some developing countries, Frandsen says, adding, "No one is stepping forward to be the rock star of diarrhea [eradication].

Green Technology. Remediation Technologies. Water enters the LifeStraw apparatus bottom of picture , hollow fibers trap pathogens while clean water passes through see inset , and filtered water is sucked up by the user at the top.

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