aqua mira tablets vs. liquid

Anyone have an opinion on why to get one vs. the other? Do they both work as well? Anyone have experience with the Lifestraw -- pros and cons?

Thanks in advance for any help with this.

The liquid is not approved by the EPA for giardia or cryptosporidium. The Aquamira goes through a lot of beating around the bush on their website, but that is the real story. Unfortunately, I am away from home and do not have my link to the source, but it is reputable. Aquamira also has a filter (supposed to filter out giardia while you use chemicals for bacteria and viruses), but nowhere on their website could I find the filter size. Turns out (after a day of research) that it's 3 microns, two microns bigger than what is recommended for filtering protozoa and their cysts.

Personally, I far prefer a filter, although I do carry some of the tablets as backup (especially since the time I forgot the tablets and my filter clogged...)

I'm not familiar with the Lifestraw but wonder how a straw could be used to fill a container.

You might want to read what the Centers for Dissease Control has to say on the subject.

Thanks for the CDC link, very helpful.
here is a link to info about the Lifestraw. Very light and handles bacteria and protozoa. Not good for viruses, though and wouldn't be very useful for cleaning pots of water for cooking. Maybe use it to sip water from a bottle that you have treated with alta mira for double protection? Or just decide that you're not worried about virus.

http://www.buylifestraw.com/en/products/lifestraw-personal

Not in disagreement, but just to augment with a couple of other points:

The treatment time listed for the liquid is much lower, or at least last I looked. I think the tablets have a four hour treatment time; liquid is as low as 15 minutes, though typically one increases doseage and if possible treatment time for what are perceived to be sketchier water sources.

The liquid is also a lot cheaper, again, last time I looked anyway.

I've been a happy user of the liquid for many years and miles. I did get something like giardia once, but I wasn't treating at all from springs on that trail so that might well have not been the fault of Aqua Mira.

The treatment time for the liquid is low because it's not approved to kill protozoa (giardia, cryptosporidium). Those beasties take a lot longer to kill than do bacteria and viruses.

The 4 hour treatment time listed for the tablets is based on cold (40*F), very cloudy water. In other words, it's the worst case scenario. There is, unfortunately, no data on in-between scenarios (say 45*F clear water). I would suspect that the latter scenario would take less treatment time, but there is no evidence available how much time would be needed. A major pain, IMHO!

A lot of us who have been in the backcountry frequently for long periods and for many years, often drinking untreated water, are probably immune to the beasties.

I carry a Lifestraw as a backup most times, but after several years of that I've still not used it yet. Everything I've read about them says they work. I have no reason to doubt they do. But, they're made for drinking out of, not for filling a container, so they're limited by that. That company does make a gravity filter version, but it's pretty expensive by comparison so I'd opt a Sawyer Mini Squeeze filter before getting one of those.

Personally, I won't use chorine. I use a lightweight and inexpensive activated charcoal filter made by Britta (the one made for their "Squeeze" bottles), and if I'm not getting my water from a clear running spring I'll boil it after filtering it.

The reason I don't use chorine is I suspect it probably kills good gut bacteria which makes you more susceptible to things giardia, cryptosporidium, E. coli, etc.

I don't always boil my water because drinking from local sources helps build your immunity to things like E. coli, giardia, and cryptosporidium that may be living in that area's water sources. But, I've not taken any antibiotics in years, and that's an important factor in how susceptible you are to getting sick from these bugs.

If you have taken antibiotics recently it's best to make sure your water is throughly sanitized and best not to use chlorine at all. Both of those kill off your good gut bugs and increase your risk of misery by a lot.

All that said, I'm probably the only here who does this, so keep that in mind

Actually, the chlorine dioxide tablets release oxygen which does the purifying. ClO2 is quite a quite different compound from household bleach, sodium hypochlorite.

However, I've occasionally noticed a residual chlorine taste after using ClO2 tablets, which doesn't exactly taste good. That and the long treatment time needed for protozoans is why I use them only for emergency backup.

Chlorine Dioxide is still very toxic and ends up as chlorite when used to treat water, which is toxic too and no doubt kills some of your good gut bugs.

Another overlooked option for sanitizing water is sunlight. That takes about 6 hours on a sunny day, so depending on conditions that can be a very doable option too. It doesn't work on overcast days though, so it's not always a good backup plan. But, here again, if you filter your water with charcoal before you set it out in the sun it will sanitize faster than if you didn't.

No, charcoal filtering doesn't "purify" water, but it makes it easier to purify rather you use chlorine or sunlight, and it removes chlorine after it's been treated with it, and that's a very important step in the process that should not be ignored.

I know we've all overlooked this step since we started using chlorine, but we were ignorant. We really didn't know any better.

Here's some info on that...