I bought this 2-3 years ago for use on scout backpacking trips and emergency use during hurricane season. The thought was to have zero worries with water supply no matter where I was. The troop had another MSR filter with lower filtration pumping 1L per minute. Scouts became impatient and those were quickly abandoned to use mine. Win #1! We recently took a long distance backpacking trip and most groups used micropur tablets for sterilization, but not wanting to wait used this filter instead for immediate water consumption without an altered taste. Water supplies were typically streams or in some cases cisterns from rain collection or pumps which still needed sterilization. Win #2! One camp ran out of water in their cistern with zero streams for decent water nearby. I said not a problem and we filtered out of a cattle pond full of all kinds of bugs, algae and things no one wanted to deal with. This pump had zero issues and no one got sick. Win #3! Lessons learned: most of the time, filtration just occurred over one or two days, this last trip was longer. If the nalgene was too tight, it would cause leaks between the filter and the water bottle. The same occurred if the gray ring at the bottom was too tight to the red cylinder on the filter. Loosening those connections brought everything into alignment with no leaks. A gentle tightening was all that was needed. After each trip, I do pump some clean water through the filter thinking one or 2 extra liters won't impact the life of the filter. I hang the filter to dry out the entire length of hose, and invert the filter section with fibers so it drains as well. I've had zero issues with the performance of this filter and have full confidence whenever it is used. I still carry the maintenance kit with me, but it has yet to be used.
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