My Boy Scout Troop has a couple of these that are used occasionally on backpacking or back country canoe trips. For those of you unfamiliar with this particular filter, it has three stages - a ceramic element, and a combined fiberglass/carbon element.

We are doing a backpacking trip next month, so I hauled them out to make sure everything was OK. Guess what - they were wet inside! Last time they were used, I think, was on a canoe trip a couple of years ago, so they were apparently left wet after the last trip and have been for a LONG time. I ran clean water through them and set everything out to dry, but not sure that we should use them as-is. A couple of things we may be able to do:

1) The instructions say that for long-term storage, a disinfectant solution should be run through them.
2) The activated carbon (inside the fibergalss element) can supposedly be replaced.

Anybody have specific experience with these filters?