Has anyone used the MSR miox water purifier? If so how do you like it over other purifier? Any info on this would be appreciated.

Mtn Safety Research check with REI as they sell MSR products.

I have used it and like it.

Purified my water in Zim just to be on the safe side. Probably wasn't necessary though.

Uses the same batteries as your surefire which is handy.

Easy to use, just fill a nalgene bottle, do the MSR trick, and in a couple of hours you can drink safely.

Looks pretty cool!

Scroll down to "learn how MIOX works"Miox Demo Video

What's the water taste like when treated?

What kind of salt does it use? Regular table salt?

Also what's the advantage of using the MIOX over treating water with something like Aqua Mira?

A bottle of Aqua Mira is smaller and the time involved to treat water looks about the same to me for both the MIOX and the Aqua Mira.

Miox uses any form of salt dissolved in water and and introduced electrical current to create as many as 7 unique species of oxidants, including ozone and hydrogen chloride. This same system is used on a much larger scale in municipal water treatment (I have lots of pics if your interested) and is rapidly becoming the preferred disinfection technique for both drinking water and wastewater.

Please understand- MIOX is NOT a magic bullet. It has a 3-log (99%) removal rate for Cryptosproridium and Giardia, but it takes 4 HOURS to reach that removal!!!!

I really think the best thing to do is pay attention to where you are and what your goals are. In a mountain stream away from most diseased humans, your biggest threat is Giardia and Crypto. Both of these are cyst organisms that are extremely large in comparison to most constituents in water. Average size is about 10-25 microns where average pore size of filters is about 4 microns. It's easy to filter this stuff, really easy. Because they are a cyst, they are very hard to kill with chemicals, iodine won't touch them- bleach won't touch them- you'd have to boil for a DAMN LONG TIME to kill them. Just filter them out and be done with it.

If you are going to Africa or South America and are concerned about viruses and bacteria in the water (not really a concern in US mountains) then you should filter out the large particulates including cysts, and then treat with MIOX to makes sure you have the stuff that won't be filtered.

I can more into detail about virus size, bacteria removal and the advantages/disadvantages of filters, but this thread was about MIOX.



In short-
I don't own a MIOX pen. I don't see the need for what I do, which is hunting/hiking in US mountains. If I was out of the country I would use a combination of MIOX and a filter, but NOT MIOX by itself, it takes too long for cyst treatment and there is real concern about the cysts in water.

I'm not familiar with Aqua Mira, but I doubt it will effectively treat Giardia and Crypto in a timely manner. I wouldn't trust it-

I'm a former backpacker and we used First Need to filter our drinking water on trips into the Klamath NF never got sick.Do a google search for the water filters.

I want to make mention of another product on the market, I don't know the brand name (I doubt there is just one anyway) but they are selling a small hand-held UV disinfection system. UV disinfection was a rage for a while several years ago, but is quickly being phased out for several reasons in municipal and smaller treatment facilities.

#1- The water must be very clear (ie: WELL filtered) to prevent particulates from creating UV "shadows" or allowing things to hide in microscopic algae, clay, etc.

#2- UV is effectiveness is very dependent on the wavelength produced. If it's not perfect, it's not working. As batteries die your power will diminish and you're not producing the same wavelength. Changes is temperature also affect the wavelength, in large systems the bulb is kept separate from the water to ensure the water won't cool the bulb. I can't imagine a hand-held does this very well.

#3- Growth. You are creating a mini greenhouse every time you turn it on. The bulb, housing and whatever you use it in will grow a bunch of algae, although it will be clean algae! The more algae the less effective it will be. This is probably the most common reason for treatment facilities to abandon the UV disinfection.

Buy a good filter, don't skimp on it either. If your still worried use MIOX, this is the best combination you can use.

Katadyne Pocket ! Good for 13,000 gallons on one filter !