Extending the Sawyer Squeeze

As spring struggles to make an appearance, I have begun taking short excursions in the foothills that surround my home. I generally tuck a Sawyer Squeeze into my hydration pack, just in case those ice cold mountain stream calls to me.

After my most recent trip, while drying the squeeze pouch I began to wonder about using the Squeeze as a gravity filter.  With the Squeeze connected directly to the two liter pouch the water flow using gravity is minimal. I retrieved from my gear, my Sawyer Inline Hydration Pack Adapter, and a replacement MSR AutoFlow hose. I removed the connector from the 12 inch AutoFlow hose piece. Placed the hydration adapters on each end of the 12 inch piece. Removed the bite valve from the squeeze and fit the long hose onto the nipple under the bite valve. Used the included pinch clamp to shut the hose down, and attached the completed squeeze/hose to a two liter Sawyer pouch. I essential built the same configuration that every gravity fed system uses. I released the pinch clamp, and started a timer. It took 1 minute and 26 seconds to empty the pouch.

My fastest gravity filter takes 1 minute and 15 seconds to empty a two liter pouch using a .2 micron nominal hollow fiber filter. The Sawyer Squeeze is a .1 micron absolute hollow fiber filter.  My gravity filter is rated at 1,500 liter cartridge life. The Squeeze at 1,000,000 gallons cartridge life.