I'm considering purchasing one for this years camping/hiking/hunting season coming up and I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts about it ??

Not really worried about its weight or size, and I've heard many good things about them, but thought I'd ask here for opinions to give myself more to think about.

Dimitri

Well since your'e not worried about the weight I'll chime in. I really like mine, it's easy to use, easy to clean and field clean, and seems to get a lot of good reviews. That being said, mine pumps no where near 1 liter / minute. Prolly takes me a good 3-4 or least pumping as fast as I can to fill up a liter bottle. Not too bad cause the lever is easy to use and all, just wish it was as fast as they say.

Thanks for the reply.

Dimitri

I am on my second one. The first one lasted for years of steady use. I usually prefilter with a bandana or something to keep the silt out as much as possible. I actually took my filter the last two weekends and left the chemicals at home. It is so easy to clean in the field. Pumps at a fair rate. Weight is not too bad -considering. I have had other filters. PUR really ripped me off in the mid 1980's with their crappy filters - the cartridge would clog after a little use and was not cleanable - and I had to pay 40+ for antoher of those pleated pieces of %^&!
The ceramic filter is the way to go for me - when I carry a filter.

Oh yeah - I just saw them on sale at REI (or somewhere on line).

I feel your pain. I also tried using those crappy Pur filters, with the same results - except that the lame handles kept breaking off, too.

When they came out, I bought a Miniworks and never looked back. I've never had any problems of any kind with them - nor have any of the half dozen or so I've given to friends and scout troops ever given them any problems. I particularly like how easily the ceramic element can be cleaned in the field. As far as weight, it does weigh a pound - my Pur filters were slightly lighter, but the need to carry at least one extra filter element made up the difference.

This was one of several pieces of gear that convinced me that MSR may not always be first with something, but when they do something, they do it right.

Go figure I had someone claim I should buy a PUR instead of the MSR on another board.

Will be sticking to the MSR though. Other then his review, I never heard anything bad about MSR Mini-Works EX.

Dimitri

The MSR works well but after hiking to water then you pump your ars off. We would have had the auto flo but it was on backorder. I'm converting the ceramic filter to a drip model with some mods. Ceramic filters are the best and this one filters to .02 microns

The Autoflow as feild maintainable as the Mini-works?

Dimitri

Bought the MSR MiniWorks tonight.

Dimitri