I like my MSR Hyper Flow. Very light, very fast pumping. However, I have only used it for one season and for short times at that.

I used to just strain the water through a bandanna and use Pristine purification drops. I went to a filter because some of the water was so cloudy the bandanna didn't help.

Back in my Boy Scout days in England we used to simply boil the water and let it cool. I guess it all depends on the amount of water required (i.e. a large group or small), the amount of time, money and effort you are willing to spend, and the amount of extra weight you are willing to pack I guess mostly it depends on the quality of the water you are willing to drink.

In the city where I live we did not used to have a good filtration plant. We knew we had bad water because it was brown before we added the tea bags When I ran the bath I was unsure as to the benefit of getting in Still, it was safe for human consumption. You just would not want to consume any. Hence the bottle water craze.

Howie