Updated January 2024 – Sawyer Mini Water Filter Review
Water is absolutely essential for your survival and an average human being can only survive for three days without it. Being able to drink clean safe water is extremely important as it will help to keep us healthy and our bodies functioning properly. The Sawyer Mini water filter will help turn dirty and contaminated water, loaded with debris, bacteria, and parasites into clean drinkable water.
In short, the Sawyer Mini water filter is a lifesaver!
There are a number of ways that you can purify water, boiling, adding chemicals, and exposing to UV light for example.
Survival filters will purify water to a certain extent but will not remove viruses that the aforementioned methods will.
However, if your intention is to use the Sawyer Mini in the US or Canada, filtration through a survival straw will pretty much guarantee your safety regarding waterborne pathogens. Elsewhere, with the possible exception of Western Europe, full purification, as well as filtration, is advisable.
The Sawyer Mini water filter is a product that you can trust, providing you with clean drinking water vital to your survival.
Continue reading to understand why we at AlphaSurvivalist believe the Sawyer Mini is definitely a product you should own.
Sawyer Mini Water Filter Specifications
The Sawyer Mini weighs 1.9oz making it one of the lightest and most portable survival water filter straws currently available.
It has a flow rate of 1 liter every 5.5 minutes. This is a bit slow but it will guarantee clean drinking water.
The Sawyer Mini water filter is highly effective and the manufacturer promises that a single Sawyer Mini will filter an impressive 100,000 gallons of water during its life span.
The Mini can also be attached to a standard bottle opening of 28mm. This allows water to pass through a small nozzle that also comes with a cap.
The Sawyer Mini Water Filter is suitable for a number of uses and it is this adaptability that makes it amazingly versatile. For instance, you can attach it to a straw or a bottle as you drink water. You could also fill the squeeze bag it comes with to get clean water. Or, alternatively, you could add it to your hydration bag.
The filter comes with accompanying components; a squeeze bag, a 7-inch drinking straw, and a cleaning syringe.
Why consider buying the Sawyer Mini Water Filter?
Formed in 1984 Sawyer is one of the World’s leading companies in the manufacture of water filters. Sawyer products provide clean water solutions for a whole range of different communities in both the developed and undeveloped world.
When you buy a filter from Sawyer you are also provided with a lifetime guarantee. So, should you ever realize that your filter isn’t functioning as it should, you can send it back and you will be promptly provided with a replacement no questions asked. This is just one of the things that make Sawyer such a reputable company.
There are hundreds of survival water straw filters currently available, which means that finding a water filter that best meets your needs maybe a little more difficult than you would imagine. To help you with the decision-making process, we have put together some of the factors that we think you should take into account when buying a survival straw and how the Sawyer Mini measures up to each of them.
Survival Straw Selection Factors
Cost – Who wants to buy an expensive water filter when cheaper and more effective brands are readily available? The Sawyer Mini offers a low priced option. You would be able to pick one up for about $20. Not bad when you consider it will last you for every camping or hiking trip you will ever take!
Size and weight – Personal water filters are often used by hikers and the prepping and survivalist communities. If you fit into any of those groups you’ll have plenty of other stuff to carry and a lot of walking to do. No one wants to carry heavy and bulky gear. Thankfully, the Sawyer Mini water filter is small and lightweight making it extremely portable.
Effectiveness – When it comes to choosing a filter, we all want efficiency and reliability that delivers clean water that is free of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and dirt. The Sawyer Mini has proven to be highly effective in providing exactly that.
Life span – Any survival filter you choose should remain efficient and functional for a long time. No one wants to keep replacing a filter just because its operational life is short. Whilst other brands similar to the Sawyer Mini can also be used for a long time without requiring a replacement, it is the length of time that we have to compare.
A regular person should drink about 64 ounces of clean water every day. Since the Sawyer Mini’s life expectancy is 100,000 gallons of water, it will provide clean water to one person for about 200,000 days, which is 547 years!
Pros
- Very affordable
- Compact design, small and lightweight. Ideal for camping, hiking, and emergency preparedness
- Filter life of 100,000 gallons is impressive, to put it mildly.
- Very versatile, it can be used in a number of different ways.
Cons
Squeeze pouch is a bit of a letdown – It is a small 16 ounces which is about one-quarter of the water needed to meet an individual’s daily requirement. However, Sawyer has made an additional 32 and 64 oz pouches. The nozzle of the pouch is also a little too narrow making it difficult to fill it with water.
Prone to freezing – If exposed to sub-zero temperatures, the Sawyer Mini may freeze, rendering it useless. We advise that you stash it somewhere it will be insulated.
Multiple Users – Using the Sawyer Mini is really only effective when one or two people are using it. When a large group relies on one mini filter for clean water, it becomes problematic. This is because it is difficult to squeeze out a lot of clean water from the squeeze bag. It would be more effective if each person in a group had his or her own squeeze bag and filter.
Maintenance of the Sawyer Mini Water Filter
You need to keep the squeeze bag, pouch, and water filter clean if you want them to be 100% effective and reliable 100% of the time. Back flushing is one way of keeping the water filter in optimum condition and maintaining an unhindered flow rate.
When squeezing the water through the filter becomes difficult, you’ll need to clean it. It is advisable to back flush the filter before every refill just to err on the side of caution.
You can use the specially made syringe that comes with the Sawyer Mini to push the water through the filter for cleaning; the supplied instructions will guide you through the process.
Conclusion
The Sawyer Mini water filter is everything you will need and expect from a survival straw, providing you with clean and safe drinking water from sources that may be contaminated or that carry a degree of uncertainty.
It is light and compact yet very sturdy and provides unrivaled levels of filtration. It also offers extremely good value when compared to other survival filters.
Its lifetime guarantee is also a huge bonus.
We at Alpha Survivalist wholeheartedly recommend the Sawyer Mini water filter which is both highly effective and very affordable.
There are several other survival filters that we would be equally happy to take into the wilderness but we would definitely put the Sawyer Mini water filter at the top of the list.
You can check out the Sawyer Mini Water Filter on Amazon by clicking the button below.
