Sawyer Water Filter Squeeze Pouch

Great concept of a system. Water filter itself is amazing. The bags lack strength and durability. They are the weak link in the system.

The bags work fine and as advertised, until...At least for the 32 ounce size, both my daughter's and my bags failed when dropped when full. She dropped hers onto a snow bank from about 2 feet, full, and mine -- essentially brand new -- slipped from my hands at about 4 feet. They both failed at the top seam next to the bottle neck.

Filter, I love, but Sawyer is hands off with the failed bags, reporting the consumer can purchase replacements. The smaller bags seem to be a little better.

After the failure of my daughter's bag, I took a plastic water bottle that fit the filter and used it mainly to filter the water. I used the bags mostly to carry water to camp, and squeeze the water only while sitting to reduce the risk of dropping the wet bags and splitting them (which I wound up doing on another trip).

I recommend the filter, but I have my reservations about the bags.

Light, easy to use, we came up with a few solutions to some of the downfalls Weak bags and dripping bags in rivers.

We found the  Filter Squeeze Pouch system easy to use, But dripping the bag in to the cold stream first thing in the morning was not fun. We found storing the system into a 1 gallon heavy duty ziplock bag allowed us to fill the bag and pour the water into the filter bag.

The other downfall is we have had the squeeze bags break. Sawyer does not support this failure of their product and will not listen to your complaints... We found the Platypus bags screw right on to the filter (we also experimented with others and found some 1 ltr. bags at the "dollar store" which were stronger and worked fine with the system... )

Bottom line: Highly recommend the filter.. fast easy and light and small.. but trash their bags and you'll be thankful you did.