My Sawyer Filter Stop Flowing

On my day-hike last Saturday, I went to get more water only to find out I can't get water to flow through my Sawyer Squeeze filter....Luckily I had my stove, so i ended up boiling my water. I vaguely remember using my filter last November, and I vaguely remember back flushing it after the trip. I haven't used it since... If I even used it last November? I might have used my friend's filter during that trip, maybe?

When I got home I tried back flushing and it wouldn't flow water backward... I'm guessing something grew inside of it and stop all flow? Anyone else ever had this issue? I soaked the filter in warm water for little while, and it doesn't seem to have any impact..

Edit: Never mind, I found a trick to try on their website. FAQ

Yes, but not with the Squeeze. Do the chlorine thing (but how, when there's no flow?) because you have bio-clogging and will need to kill the critters, rid it of biofilm and backflush it. I have the faucet backflush rig which has enough pressure to clear out any clogging I've encountered, but the syringe isn't as powerful. I guess, just work on it until you break through, or yell at Sawyer that they owe you 999,980 more gallons.

Good luck!

I've never got to use mine and now it's headed for the garbage can. It flew as checked baggage on a plane, which was OK in the cargo hold, but cold outside on the tarmac.
Since there's no way to tell if it's good or not, it just goes to the garbage can unused on the trail. I didn't think to put it in my carry on luggage, though I might have gotten some hassle over if it was filled with liquid or not. One failure because I didn't pre-filter glacial flour with my Katadyn in over 20 years with the same unit, I think I'll just bear the weight.
I know, it's my own stupidity and carelessness. I need EASY and bombproof.

So, did you use the vinegar trick? Which one did you use? That happened to me, went on a spring trip, and the filter didn't work. But, I went home and backflushed it. Now I backflush BEFORE every trip, and after. I guess that is the price to pay for a .1 micron filter.

Let there be filtered water!! I soaked it for half hour in distilled white vinegar, then back flushed with warm tap water 10 times with syringe.(I pushed it hard as I could!) After doing this, I took my bottled water and squeezed it through filter and water flowed!! I then back flush 2 more times for good measure. I'll check the flow and back flush again before leaving on another trip from here on out. I guess my stove can be backup in case it happens again in the field.

Good to hear!

I had the same thing happen on a trip last fall. I had tested it a couple of weeks before and it was fine, but out in the field two weeks later, nothing came through. I tried back filtering (squeezing contents of clean water bag, with watertight connections) using leftover water brought from home, but no luck. Like ETSU, I ended up boiling water for drinking during the trip (I fortunately had plenty of extra fuel along for frying fish, only a few of which allowed themselves to be caught). I also discovered that I'd forgotten my Katadyn tablets, which I normally bring along for backup.

Once home, i soaked the filter in white vinegar solution and finally was able to backflush and then put bleach solution through in both diretions. It looks as though even if I just tested with tap water, I have to go through the motions of preparing for winter storage after each use. Plus I will have take the syringe along for backflushing--blackflushing by squeezing contents of the clean water bag didn't work.

I may go back to my old gravity filter setup using the Katadyn Hiker Pro filter. I never had a blockage problem with it!

First off, I'm glad I'm not the only one with this problem. second off, I guess there no such thing as perfect product. There is ALWAYS a trade off!!!!! We're learning the long-run attributes to new cutting edge product(s) as they're released. Then it's a matter of which attribute(s) we can live with.

The Katadyn hiker pro was my first introduction into backpacking filters. Yes, it worked, but I won't ever use it again. One of my scouts got one, and we used it as a troop on a 3 day trip. The filter was brand new when we started. By the end of the trip, it was toast. Yes, there was a lot of silt in the water from glacial run-off. But, the fact that you can't do anything about unclogging it was the biggest turn off. I bought a new element for the scout, at $50. Then I went and bought an MSR miniworks with a ceramic filter. I like it better because I can take out the element and give it a scrub to help flow. Of course, we used up it's filter after a about 4 trips, one being a weeklong. I like the Sawyer because I can backflush it. I don't have to buy a $50 filter element to keep it going either. Every filter has it's drawbacks and benefits. I still see the Sawyer as the best option for me. But, everyone is different....HYOH!

Glacial silt presents its own unique set of challenges. Without prefiltering &/or flocculating (never enough opportunities to use that word) and settling, it's going to defeat any filter. But what options? UV is ineffective in turbid water, chemicals will expend themselves on the debris...boiling? Yuck.

Back when I'd run into it, usually in Rainier NP, we didn't treat the water because we didn't treat water back then. We would let it settle out in our bottles before drinking--you could get through about 2/3 before refilling. Now, I don't know how I'd handle it--probably floc and settle in a big collapsable container--but since California's last glaciers are just about gone (except for some on Shasta I'd reckon)...problem solved here!

Cheers,

I was working on a research project in Kluane Park in Yukon and we took our water from a glacial river. We used alum to flocculate the silt and clay from the water. We would fill a twenty-some gallon container with water, add the alum (I forget how much), let it settle and then decanted. We then added bleach to the relatively clear supernatant (don't get to use that word much either ) and then used it for cooking and drinking.

Excuse my ignorance here, but why is glacial water difficult to get clean?

I have never tried to filter glacier water--instant clogging for any filter! (It can scour your insides, too!) If you have to use glacial water, fill a container and let it sit for a couple of hours for the silt to settle and carefully pour off the clearer water on top. One reason I take chlorine dioxide tablets, aside from filter backup, is to have a means of treating silty water. (If the streams are high from lots of rain or during snow melt, you can have the same problem.)

As for the Katadyn Hiker Pro, I used only the replacement filter as part of a homemade gravity flow system (closely based on the late lamented ULA Amigo Pro system) and it worked just fine for several years. I finally tossed the filter after I left the bag hanging outside in 18* F temperatures, which I assumed meant the end of the filter. As mentioned above, I may go back to it if I have any more problems with the Sawyer. One advantage of the Katadyn is that it contains charcoal, so if you have to double-treat your water (i.e. you camp downstream of inhabited areas and want to get rid of viruses), the filter removes any chlorine taste.

If I were going to go where most of the streams are from glaciers, I'd research flocculation first. (I agree, it's a lovely word!) While Mt. Hood has lots of glaciated streams, it has lots of other, smaller streams in between which are crystal clear, so there is generally no need to use the silty stuff.

A glacier is basically an extremely powerful and very thorough grinder. Glacial silt is extremely fine--think of very fine soil put through a blender several times. The water looks milky (most "White" Rivers here in the PNW come out of glaciers). You basically can't filter it out even with a prefilter (it will instantly clog the prefilter, too). As I mentioned, you can get rid of part of the silt with time and gravity, or you can use flocculation (I'll let you google how to do it, since I've never tried it).

Volcanic ash can be similarly fine. When you have volcanic ash that has also gone through glacial grinding--use your imagination.

I see. I've never seen glacier in person. It be a huge shock to me when I visit the wilderness of the west since it's another world compared to the east.