“It's not a filter.”

Yep. I admit. It’s MORE than a filter. If I’m in decent water country, I wouldn’t take it. Overkill.
My friends easily get 100 gallons out of their cartridges. But they’re more patient.

And the First Need is only for those people that can’t psychologically handle tannins (like me); other filters ALSO get out the cuties but not the tannins.
I do like the simple design of one hose (just leave it on the filter) and one bottle; thus minimum connects and disconnects. And it pumps 2L/sec! That’s a big help for that quick afternoon stop at a water source and you have to pump 2 people’s water. Less fiddle factor for filters from the folks at generalecology.

And First Need never had iodine so I’m not sure how that rumor got started. Other ‘purifiers’ do use iodine though.
If I didn’t mind tannins and slow flow, I love the weight of the Sawyer mini! Even scouts would have a hard time cross contaminating hoses (It has none ).

As with ALL filters, you have to put your faith in them because you really don’t know if they’re working 100%. You have pretty good reasoning’s; but never to 100%.

-May you always have an unclogged filter
-Barry