Steripen Adventurer

After trying the Steripen Adventurer out on a 4-day trip last week, I'm returning it to REI.

I kept having the red light come on at the end of the treatment, requiring me to do each quart of water 2 or 3 times.

The amount of pressure required to turn the switch on really hurts whichever fingers I use, and half the time I can't get it to turn on at all. It's good that the switch is stiff enough that it can't be activated by accident in my pack, but not when I can't turn it on when it's time to use it.

I'd much rather sit in camp and watch the scenery while a gallon of water runs through my ULA Amigo Pro filter than to have to sit by a mosquito-ridden creeklet stirring the Steripen for what seems forever for each quart of water.

I tried using a cut-down 2 liter soda bottle, but it wouldn't fit the side pockets of my pack. So I had to take a Nalgene to have a wide-mouth bottle to use with the Steripen. The Steripen plus Nalgene plus extra batteries weigh at least as much as the ULA Amigo Pro. One thing that really bothered me was that after I dipped the Nalgene in the streamlet to fill it before using the Steripen, there was all this unpurified water left on the outside and in the threads. I ended up using Katadyn Micropur in addition to the Steripen for my grandkids' water because of this concern. By the second day I put the Steripen away for good and was using just the Micropur.

This is a very subjective report! Your Mileage May and probably will Vary! But this gadget is definitely not for me!

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. I've had that red light thing happen but when I checked what I found was that the batteries weren't fully charged. The red light was telling me that there wasn't enough charge to finish the 60 or 90 second cyele. If you have the recharger then try that and see if it helps. If not then buy some new batteries and that should do it I would think.

Now you still may prefer the filter and if so then that's fine. Batteries are a pain to worry about on something that you need like a water treatment system. For myself I prefer that worry to the problems of filter clogs,etc but to each his own.

Did you use lithium batteries? I know that many people forget to use lithium. Alkaline will perform very poorly in any Steripen.

"Mouse",

I've had nothing but good experiences from my SteriPen Adventurer. This may be because I've used lithium batteries at all times.

I DO have the rechargable betteries B/C I also have the solar recharging case. I plan to use these batteries on day hikes and weekend backpacking trips to see how long they work.

Eric

The batteries were brand-new lithium batteries, not the rechargeable kind. I read the directions very, very carefully (I had them with me on the trip). I was not getting the "low battery" signal (blinking red light) but the "not fully treated" signal (steady red light coming on during the cycle). My son tried the Steripen also and was less than pleased.

Just the fact that it's extremely difficult to turn on and off is one of the big reasons I have troubles with the Steripen Adventurer. You guys undoubtedly all have stronger hands than I do!

As I said, Your Mileage May Vary. For me, it's back to the gravity filter!

Yeah, I went for the rechargeable case as well - with the 123 batteries. I bought a second set online as well.

But.....I am not 100% sold yet on it. We will see in a couple weeks - I will be putting it to a hard test. Who knows, REI may be getting it back. Or not. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I found that the batteries drained even while not in use. I now just take them out when I am not using it and then place them back in each time when I need to treat the water. To some it's a pain, but it just becomes routine for me. It only takes a few minutes of my time.

I have found the same thing and I forgot to mention it. The batteries take a charge well but if you leave them in the steripen they slowly discharge even if you don't use it. Seems like a design flaw but I'm not an engineer.

Yes, this is a very important point about removing the batteries between usage.

I've tried all three steripens, the original, adventurer, and the new Journey.

The original and journey have a major design flaw. If you store them or use them with the prefilter and turn them upside down (wand up), some water seeps into them and short circuits them until they can thoroughly dry, which can take days in a humid environment. Therefore, I just don't use them any more.

As long as I remove the batteries, the adventurer has proven to be reliable.

Well, I guess I'll have to buy another pack of Lithium batteries for my SteriPen...AND my Garmin Colorado 300, which I discovered also eats lithium batteries when just lying around turned "off".

Isn't there SOME way these electronic wizards could design that proplem out??? i.e. a switch that is right AT the battery power output circuit. (??)

Eric

That will be the 'next generation' model, and will cost more. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

I have similar problems with any gaget that has stiff on-off buttons. My grandchildren are here now and the pinch buttons on their car seats are very difficult for me. I quit using the BearVault because I just could not do the squeeze part when opening. I wish designers of equipment would consider those of us with small hands and older sligthly arthritic fingers!

My adventurer went dead on me during my last hike. Even though the batteries were unused, they had been in the unit for several months. When I got home, I did some checking with my meter. The thing draws .02 mA continually. There is only 129k ohms(if I am remembering correctly) resistance between the positive and negative terminals. I am not sure how long it would take to drain the battery enough so that the steripen won't work, but the batteries certainly don't have to be all the way dead.
Major design flaw.

This is not a design flaw. At a current draw of 0.02 mA, the Steripen will take about 8.5 years to exhaust a pair of series-wired 1500 mA/h capacity CR123 cells.

1500 mA*h / .02 mA = 75000 hours or 8.56 years.

What brand of batteries are you using in the Steripen? I read a discussion about the variance in inexpensive Chinese CR-123 cells that were brand new. Using a lithium battery charge meter the author determined that in a batch of 64 cells, 1 out of 6 measured less than 20% of capacity. Maybe you got a lemon.

I don't store mine with the batteries in the unit, so I don't know how long they would last otherwise.

What about sediment in your water before you use the steripen? I carry batteries but don't like to depend on them. I will stick with a filter and pump till my arm falls off.

That sounds nice on paper, but it takes no more than 48 hours to completely drain a set of batteries in practice. I've experienced this with both CR123 variants, the Adventurer and the Journey. My wife even called Steripen and asked about it. They recommended removing the batteries after every usage to prevent this.

The original Steripen, using AA's, does not have this problem, but it does completely shut down if you get water into the sensors (by storing it wand up).

The batteries do not have to be dead for the steripen not to work. When I got home I measured the batteries and think they were down to about 2.8v or something like that. I measured them again after they had been sitting around for 3 days ant they were back up to 3.1v. As far as I am concerned, I will not be taking the steripen on another trip unless I can rig a switch to shut the batteries off completely. I have an idea, just need to see if I can execute it.

I'm returning my second Steriped Adventurer today after repeated struggles. I had hoped that my first was defective -- but seeing exactly the same problem with two devices leads me to believe there is a more systemic design flaw.

I had the "solid red light" error often when I tried to filter 1L of water, especially at high altitudes and with cold water. I never saw the "insufficient power" blinking red light.

Keeping the pen itself warm is necessary to prevent discharging the batteries, but not sufficient to prevent this problem which seems independent. One thing that helped was warming the *bulb and water detectors* between doses in my hands (it seems to get cold when used multiple times with <50 degree water). Using multiple 0.5L treatments with short doses was also more successful than attempting the longer 1L dose which usually fails.

I have a crazy idea based on trying two devices, ensuring fresh lithium batteries, and performing some (successful) home testing:

I suspect that testing a batch of units on 1L doses, with cold water, and potentially above 8K feet will reveal a problem with the water detection or lamp condition circuit. The resistance of metals changes with temperature: colder = lower resistance. The resistance of water is the opposite: colder water = less conductive.

I bet that the electronics in the head of the unit to ensure it's still in the water think that, when chilled by water, the unit has been removed from the water because the resistance is outside the expected parameters. Or, there is a safety circuit which is attempting to verify that the bulb is not blown and the resistance from a colder bulb is also out of parameters.

Of course, more data is really necessary since two data points and a hunch != trustworthy data. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I spoke briefly with the SteriPen people when having issues with my first unit. They were very friendly and offered to exchange the unit and clearly somewhat surprised about the issue. I hope that, given some additional data points, they will be able to modify the testing process to produce an updated unit which works consistently (given sufficient power in the batteries).

Question for you: Do any of you live in warm places AND have the issue above? How about those of you filtering cold water?

Best,

NB

Bought one and used it on a trip to Tenaya Canyon in Yosemite. I was able to get my first batch of water done which was 32 ounces. After that it was futile!!!! My buddy finally brought over his filter after 15 minutes of me trying to get a successful sign from my Steripen. Loads of cursing and such went on that is for sure. Luckily I used my buddies filter. I did carry Aqua Mira just in case. I went back to REI and returned it with no box or reciept. No questions asked!!!!

Today I bought the MSR Hyperflow. Hopes this does the trick. Looks quite nice!!

I have had a similar problem with the Steripen when trying to do a second batch of water right after doing the first. The solution for me was to dry the sensor contacts before doing the second batch. This is quite important!

I have found my Steripen to be quite reliable but to get it to be so, I have had to refer to the directions repeatedly and to read them carefully. Some people with arthritis (like me) can have problems pushing the start button. Others have had problems with the batteries loosing charge if left in the pen. I now use one of the few arthritis-free fingers I still have to push the button and I remove the batteries from the pen between uses.

Pika, I sure wish I knew that!!! Oh well. I have been playing with my new MSR Hyerflow and love it. Filled up 48 ounces in a minute or so. Nice.