Platypus GravityWorks Group Camping Water Filter System

Used this system for a four day hiking trip at Zion National park. I chosen the six liter version which is probably not the lightest choice of water filtration for hiking. Initially, I thought it’s a great system for a group. Having said that, this is an amazing product and I think that it’s going to be a permanent part of my kit even if I am hiking or camping by myself. I was lucky to have a water source that was flowing and cascading so the dirty water bag was extremely easy to fill, the strap that comes with it, made it very easy to carry back to camp and hang from a tree. If the water source was more difficult, I think I could have used a cup to fill it, so I have no concerns about that. It took something like 7 minutes to filter 6 liters of water which I think is very reasonable. Absolutely no effort needed on my part. The fittings of the included hoses worked with no problems. Followed the instructions that came with it and filtered water at home a couple of times before using it and the taste when using the first time was ok. I was skeptical about the clamp but it worked fine with no issues. My only gripe at this point is that the clean water bag takes forever to dry out so I can store it without concern about getting mildew. Other than that I love it.

A very simple and efficient way to create a basecamp spigot and hydration bag refilling station (see image for details). Just add a few inexpensive hydration tube quick-connect adapters to the clean filter line and to your backpack's hydration bag line and you're in good shape even for trekking/expeditions. But I would not bring this setup to a place where I did not know moderately clean water existed unless you a) want to clog your hallow-fiber filter and b) have a way of accessing very low or no-flow water sources (ultra-thin creeks or pooled water down below boulders/crags). For those applications, a hose and a pump are more reliable (I use Katadyn). But I always bring the GravityWorks when I know there's a reasonable water source. Tips: at twice the cost you can get quick-connect adapters that auto shut-off when disconnected. I wish I had purchased those but have learned to live with raising the tube above the bag's water height when necessary. I purchased two sets of the cheap one's made by Katadyn: Quickfill Hydration Pack Adaptor . Camelbak has one with a shutoff valve (decent work-around) and also sells the more expensive auto-shutoff variety. Also, I always backflush both before I begin filtering (per the instructional video by letting a little water filter into the clean bag then backflushing into the dirty while simultaneously removing air bubbles), but more importantly, I stop filtering before the last few ounces have left the dirty bag (always the dirtiest water) and backflush briefly onto the ground before disconnecting tubes and transporting everything back to camp. This second backflush takes seconds (just push down on the clean back after you disconnect the line from the dirty bag) and it visibly removes material that will would otherwise clog the filter. It sounds like a lot of work, but it's very easy once you get a routine down. About the complaints: 1) The first few liters are going to taste like plastic. To solve this, fill both bags with clean water at home when you first purchase them and let them hang for a day or two. Rinse them both, then filter at least one full bag through the system. Shake the remaining water out of the filter, dry everything, and store. 2) complaints about drying the "clean" bag are valid -- it takes a while, but I just blow up the bag, pull on it from the center of the flat part thereby forcing the bag into an open shape, and put it in a window for a few days. 3) I too am not a fan of the dirty bag having no zip seal like the regular platypus hydration bags, but it's a trade off (weight savings). You can buy another bag with a seal if you really need that functionality, but who wants to spend unnecessary money. I recommend Platypus add a zip seal to future versions. It's just too often you don't have a tree handy so you're setting the dirty bag on top of a boulder, in which case an imperfect seal can cause water to start leaking (has happened to me many times). If you're religious about zipping the dirty bag very well, it will generally hold, but weakly, and if it's very cold outside (plus wet hands from filling the dirty bag), it can be hard to press that thick seal down along every inch of it (I play guitar and have strong hands, but freezing-cold water at 6:00am with wet fingers and wind-chill will weaken anyone's grip). A year ago I bought and promptly returned their larger reservoir bag (unrelated item to this system) because it had no zip seal mechanism and was worthless when setting a full bag on a counter top or boulder (one touch and that big zip would open up and dump water); another reviewer reported that reservoir dumping on his car seat, so it's clearly a valid concern. But overall these are minor complaints and I wouldn't change my setup over it. Most of the time you are hanging the dirty bag, or hiking with it empty and stored in your backpack. With a full clean bag, and a full backpack hydration bag, I could theoretically hike with 7 liters of water if necessary, and I even have another lightweight bag from MSR that could bring that total up to 13 liters if absolutely needed, so not using the dirty bag while filled when hiking is a non-issue for me.

Used it for a 4 day backpacking trip in the High Sierras and it worked like a charm. Very easy to use and light weight. I wish the little pouch it came with was a little larger. Packing it back into the carrying pouch was a bit of a pain, but other than that it was a breeze to set up and use. We had 11 in our group and it took care of all our filtering needs. So simple to fill the dirty bag with water, hang it from a tree and let it filter water into the clean bag without having to pump and pump and pump. It is surprisingly quick as well. I think the system was the best camp gadget we had on the trip. Everyone loved it. Even the "proud" guys that were set up with techy filter systems of their own admired this setup. I have no need for any other filtration system after experiencing this.

I have had this filter for 7 years now and let me start by saying, it’s absolutely worth it. Backpacking is a lot of work and there is a lot of things to do, especially once you make camp. The only work this requires is to fill the bag and hang it on a tree. Water is filtering while you are completing other tasks, like setting up your sleep system. I bought this when I started taking my young children backpacking with me. I didn’t want to be tied up pumping or squeezing water through a filter. This was the perfect solution. Works great for my guys trips and when I guide trips as well. Perfect for a group. The only con I have is the dirty bag can be especially difficult to get closed in colder temperatures, however, the system still works even if the bag is not closed all the way. Don’t hesitate to purchase and enjoy the time you will get back by not having to pump or squeeze to filter water!

I originally learned of the Platypus system from a friend whom I rode motorcycles with and camped of the bikes. This is the best filter system I've seen as it's so easy to use and doesn't plug up like the cheaper ones do. Just fill the bag with creek water and you'll have clean, drinkable water in minutes. It's VERY fast and efficient. It's well made and all the hardware pieces are durable. This system kept us in clean water for a 3.5 week long trip through the Canadian Yukon/Northwest Territories. Just buy it. The cheap ones are worthless imitations of this great system.

Really easy to use, packs up small so its good for backpacking. Don't be fooled by the photo on the packaging. If you have tannin-stained water, it will not turn the water clear! ;) So you have to get over the mental game of drinking pee-colored water ;) Add some tea or tang to your water bottle to get over that. We used it for 5 days camping, no one is sick or dead, so I would say it worked well! Between 6 of us (4 adults, 2 kids) we used this + a bigger 4L system, and it was plenty of water. The filter works fast, so you can filter then refill quickly.

I just picked up backpacking as a new hobby but have loved camping. I knew at some point we would go somewhere where I did not want to pack in all the extra water it would take to get in/out, and where we would have water at the campsite. So, after reading reviews, I got this guy. IT IS ULTRA FAST! Compared to my old filter, this is lightning fast. Simple to use. Quick to set up. I bought the kit for 2.0 liters, but honestly, it's so fast, I don't see why anyone would buy the larger size just because they had a couple more people. It takes less than 3 minutes to filter 2.0 liters. Then we transfer to our camelbacks and treat with iodine tablets as an extra precaution. And in another 3 minutes, we've got another 2.0 liters. The ONLY thing I don't like is that I haven't been able to find a way to fit the filter itself into the mesh carrying case with all the rest of the kit. I wish that the mesh case was a smidge bigger for this reason. But that's a convenience thing, not a function of the kit thing. We tested this on our first trip only carrying enough water to get us to the site + a smidge extra. We hiked in 90+ degree heat in Arizona, and knew we'd burn through a lot of water. We got to the site which we knew had an 8 foot deep pool of water, and got to work using this kit. The water we filtered was flowing, but had all sorts of animal life in it (fishing spiders, frogs, tadpoles, water beetles) and is visited by various wildlife such as coatimundi. It also had plenty of plant growth within the pool. So we wanted to/needed to filter the water and didn't want to rely on boiling for 5 minutes. It's been 4 days since the trip and we suffered no illness, so if the water was tainted, the filter did it's job and got it all out. We'll be taking this on all our hiking/backpacking trips either knowing we need water, or just in case we need water.

This filter system works pretty darn good. I took it on a 3 night backpack trip on the Escalante River in Southern Utah with 6 people. We filtered between 30 and 40 liters for the trip. The filter started getting real slow by the last night and I was worried it was about done, for its useful life, which seemed pretty abysmal. Southern Utah typically has silty water, but the early spring runoff water we gathered appeared very clear, so I was quite surprised that it was going so slow with such little use. It even seemed to have stopped flowing. Tried back flushing while squeezing the clean water bag to increase the pressure going back through the filter. It helped, but not as much as I’d hoped. I always back flushed a little water as the instructions say to do, which I guess is mostly to get the air out of the filter so it will flow quicker. This is also supposed to clean the filter, but seems pretty pointless when you’re running the same water back through the filter again into the clean bag. When I got home I did a proper back flush, running a few liters of clean water back through the filter and discarding. This is really what is needed out on the trail as well. The first bit of water from the back flush was a little dirty, so even though the river water looked clear, there obviously was some bad stuff in it. After that back flush, the filter performed stellar again, taking 3 minutes to run 4 liters of clean tap water through it. Next time I’ll do a proper back flush on the trail when it starts slowing down, or back flushing a little onto the ground each time when filtering. It's easy to do. The conclusion: I love this filter system. I always hated pumping while trying to keep the intake hose out of the muck and sand, and getting very bored and worn in the process. There’s no waiting for dinner any more, and filtering while hiking is a quick process. I used to carry a ton of water, but we all only carried a one liter bottle, and stopped to refill if needed, which we did once during the day and called it a rest stop. The temperatures were cool, so in hotter weather it might be necessary to stop more than once, or carry a second bottle. In any case, I’ll never carry a gallon of water again, unless there is no water along the way, which does happen sometimes. We always check the maps for sources of water before heading out. Other reviewers have suggested or warned that you should carry a second filter system in case this one plugs up. I took a second filter cartridge, which is a lot lighter than a whole second filter system, but that shouldn't even be needed with proper back flushing. I didn't need to use that second filter. Filtering water is now a non-issue. The hardest part is walking from camp to the water and back again. It’s hard to complain much about that.

Sehr gutes Filtersystem sauberes Trinkwasser immer und überall auf der Welt in wenigen Minuten👍 Sehr zu empfehlen. Ich freue mich schon auf den nächsten Einsatz!

Ottimo filtro, veloce e rende limpida anche l'acqua giallastra

Bei meinem ersten Thru-Hike hatte ich den „Squeeze“-Filter eines bekannten, namhaften Herstellers - und er hat einen guten Job gemacht. Allerdings fand ich es schon hart anstrengend, täglich nach ~15 Meilen (Gebirgswanderung mit Zelt und Rucksack) das Lager zu errichten und dann noch mehrere Liter Wasser für abends und den nächsten Morgen - teils im Dunkeln und bei einstelligen Temperaturen - durch den Filter zu pressen. In der Zeit hätte ich lieber schon geschlafen oder einen Gute-Nacht-Tee getrunken ;) Da ist dieser Filter eine wahre Evolution - und meines Erachtens jeden Euro und jedes Gramm mehr wert! Man füllt ihn, hängt ihn (bspw. an einem Baum) auf - und während man sich anderen Sachen (z. B. dem Zeltaufbau oder der Körperpflege) widmet, erledigt die Schwerkraft alles andere. Funktioniert auch nach Jahren noch einwandfrei. Verpackung und Versand waren auch nicht zu beanstanden. Insgesamt klare Kaufempfehlung - auch für Minimalisten! :)

Works great

Item arrived with parts missing. returned