10 Best Portable Water Filters for Enjoying Clean Water out In the Wild

Very often we, the spoiled users of modern gadgets passionate for travelling, find ourselves in rather harsh and uncompromising natural conditions. You might not literally walk to reach the Great Lakes of Africa but even the most harmless and well-planned journey is fraught with many dangers. One of them is a problem with clean drinking water in the wilderness.

That’s why we have selected the best 10 representatives in the portable water filter category for different occasions. Among them you will find personal filters for individual or group hikes, a filtration station for marching camps and a filter that will cope with even the dirtiest water infested with bacteria.

Learn What Are The Best Water Filters:

Picking the Best Portable Water Filter

The Most Productive Portable Water Purifier

1. Katadyn Hiker Microfilter Water Filter

This is a Read over 400 customer reviews to find out more.

The water filter’s total capacity is 2000 liters, which is enough for several expeditions into the unknown wilderness. The speed of cleaning and the materials in the filter contributed to making this water filter quite premium-priced. Still, it is not overpriced as this is a product of a pioneering company on the market, Katadyn group, established in 1926 in Switzerland. Unlike LifeStraw the Katadyn brand doesn’t have military roots, but is has broken new ground in the production of portable water purification filters.

The most notable detail about this filter is that the device is able to clean up to 2 liters of water per minute, which will pass through the three stages of cleaning, setting a record for the compact models.

Katadyn Hiker: Check the current price

The Best Filtration Station for Marching Camps

2. LifeStraw Mission Water Purification System

If you’re going hiking with a few friends for a couple of weeks, Mission will solve all the problems with finding the life-giving water for your camp and will allow to cook a fragrant fish or mushroom soup without carrying around a water tank. The model is a 5 or 12 liter in capacity rubber bag with a hand pump which purifies the water from the organic debris and bacteria. Price varies depending on the capacity, so it is more profitable to obtain a 12 liter item as there is almost no difference in price.

The filter acts using a similar technology to LifeStraw portable water filters and is able to purify 2 liters per minute. The device is hung on a special handle; the design is robust enough to be mounted on one of the most enduring members of your squad. In this way you’ll always have a mobile clean water tank at your disposal. It is its large capacity and deployable design that makes the Mission a perfect option for a hiking camp out in the wild.

I still don’t recommend producing life-giving water with it from swamps, as it is mostly adapted to the rivers and lakes where there is no accumulation of heavy particles. The installed filter is too sensitive for them. The lifetime filtration capacity of the filter is 18 000 liters (4 755 gallons).

LifeStraw: Check the current price

The “Portable Filters” category is not the vastest one out there, so it will be hard to get confused there. Despite the abundance of manufacturers on the market "home" stationary filters, the situation is much simpler when it comes to their portable analogues.

There are 4 leaders among the manufacturers: 2 Swiss (LifeStraw and Katadyn) and 2 U.S. (Surviror and Sawyer) companies. To help you avoid encountering a counterfeit product, we picked the best brand-name filters in the following categories:

1. The best filtration station for marching camps, which will allow cooking soup for a group of 5-10 people.

2. A filter for the dirtiest water with 0.01 micron pores, which is useful in places with water which is particularly unsuitable for drinking, such as marshes, swamps, jungle.

3. Best personal water filters. These are a compact solution for those who go on short-term sortie into the woods or fishing. The filters are represented in the top 3 categories:

• A traveller’s personal filter straws;
• A hiking bottle with a built-in filter;
• The most productive portable water purifier.

Best survival water filter (0.01 Micron Nanofiltratin) for the most polluted water

3. Survivor Filter PRO - Virus and Heavy Metal Tested 0.01 Micron Water Filter | Best for the most polluted water

If are going to surf the remotest corners of Africa or India you might want to forget about the problems with finding pure water. The best water filter in our review will cope with this task and will clean the filthiest water. Given the reasonable price this becomes the most feasible investment for such an extreme adventure.

What we can safely say about this model with a unique three-stage water purification system, similar to that used in stationary household filters, is that this filter is not afraid of mud. It works as follows: the first external pre-filter stops the largest particles, preventing them from reaching the next stages. In this way it provides for durability and becomes a natural load permitting to sink the tube deep into the water. At the second stage the liquid passes through the classic activated carbon filter. During the third stage, the water passes through a special "eternal" UF membrane filter that keeps the remaining particles out even if their size is 0.01 microns, which is one of the best performances on the market. As a conclusion, we get the perfect system for the purification of any, even the filthiest water source occupied by the entire bacteria colonies.

The water filter’s capacity is 200 ml per minute. This might not be too fast, and this is the slowest water filter covered today, but the reason for such speed is many purification stages, which is a forced measure due to high water pollution level. Mind that the filter is neither pocket nor portable so you’ll have to find some room for it in your camping backpack. Unlike the same old LifeStraw Mission this model might seem too voluminous. Its advantages, though, are obvious: as no filter from this review has shown better performance. To learn more about Survivor Pro’ efficiency you might want to read nearly 600 customer reviews on com.

Survivor Filter: Check the current price

4. Sawyer Products MINI Water Filtration System

This is the most capacitive representative of personal water filters with the filtration capacity reaching up to 100 000 gallons or 378541 liters which will be enough for traveling your entire life. If your passion for conquering the wildlife will cool off, you won’t regret a cent spent on the filter as its starting price is not high.

The filtration system is supplied not only with the mechanical tip, but also with a drinking pouch similar to the rivals’ bulbs and a special tube permitting to drink literally from anywhere. The tip itself is portable; it will fit into your palm and comes with a supplementary tube for filling the tank. The product though is not suitable for ultimate cooking outdoors; the previous LifeStraw Mission is more adapted to the purpose. Still, it is its filtering capacity (the largest in the personal water filters category) that will make it irreplaceable when hiking. It is not in vain that the consumers rate it 4.7 stars out of 5. You can read nearly 4400 customer reviews to learn more about this station.

Sawyer Products: Check the current price

Best Personal Water Filter

In this category 2 models made by different manufacturers compete for the title of a leader. There is a straw filter, which enable you to drink water straight from the water source, and a product with a small capacity (0.5 liters) to collect some water with you. Their functioning principle is almost identical, but, as they say, the devil is in the detail, and every manufacturer strives to stand out and come up with something extraordinary. One of them produces filters for humanitarian missions; the other is a pioneer in the field of portable water filters production. Choose which one is right for you.

5. LifeStraw Personal Water Filter

The most popular item in the «personal water filter» category on is rated 4.7 stars out of 5 with nearly 7000 customer reviews. Why so popular? Its compact size and ergonomics are the first two aspects to grab your attention. The filter looks like a small straw. The device works similarly to a cocktail straw as well, with the built-in purification system and is able to turn any muddy water body in an invigorating source. It can only be used as a personal hiking or survival water filter. According to the University of Florida scientists, you won’t be able to process many gallons of water for cooking and cleaning like that. That’s why we’ve found other filters for purifying large amounts of water. You can learn more about them in the Best Filtration Stations for Marching Camps section below.

The purification goes as follows: you pour some water from a natural source into a jar or any other container, place your Personal Water Filter in it and relaxingly sip the poured water through a straw. Simple, isn’t it?

LifeStraw device is aimed at protecting you from any type of bacteria, so you can forget about E. coli and other nasty microorganisms typical for hot and humid climate. But it does not filter chemicals, salt, viruses, heavy metals or taste. Some thrilled enthusiasts even used this device to purify waste water in one of the cities, so the gadget certainly will cope with rainwater or spring water. The filter’s purifying capacity of 1 000 liters is sufficient, but as the scientists from Florida continue to claim, the service life of such straw filters is only 1 year. It is better not to use it any longer out of sanitary-hygienic reasons.

The model has been acclaimed as the best in its category also because of its simple design: unlike many other models which are to never be disassembled, the filter can be cleaned at any moment, and the job is piece of cake. Not only the immense customer feedback proves that this filter is a best seller, but the heritage and experience do. LifeStraw is a brand owned by the Swiss manufacturer Vestergaard Frandsen which specializes in the production of goodsfor humanitarian missions in developing countries since 1990, and before that it was engaged in the military equipment manufacturing.

LifeStraw: Check the current price

6. Survivor Filter Squeeze Water Filter Kit 2 Canteen

This personal filter is rated 4.7 stars out of 5 and there are two different ways to use it.

The first one is to use it as a classic drinking tube; a traveler’s straw, similar to the above mentioned item. By the way, it is equipped with a very important detail neglected by many manufacturers, namely a special cover protecting the hole of the tube from infections. The second one is to use it as a filter-nozzle dispenser, which will easily fill any container. The filtration capacity of this product is really huge as it reaches 100 000 liters while cleaning 2 liters per minute (but do not forget that the shelf life of such tubes is only 1 year!).

This is the most compact and convenient pocket filter of all presented, and the military design contributed to this, as the model is ideal for the fans of sticking in the mud while hunting or fishing due to its robust construction and complete seal of all caps. Read over 500 customer reviews to make sure that it is worth buying.

Survivor Filter: Check the current price

10 Best-Selling Portable Water Filters Comparative Table

We have covered filters for various purposes and picked the best ones available on the market at the moment. Remember to keep them clean and functioning so that you never end up not having drinking water. Good luck in conquering the wilderness!

Expert: Praxis Prepper

The Best Backpacking Water Bottle with a Filter | LifeStraw Go Water Filter Bottle

If you don’t feel comfortable drinking through a straw, here is a bottle that will suit active lifestyle fans. Unlike a personal water filter, you won’t need to look for a water tank as the filter is already built into a bottle. The cleaning ability of a 0.2 microns dense mechanical filter is similar to its LifeStraw predecessor and starts from 1000 liters. The manufacturer describes the product as a backpacking water filter.

LifeStraw Go won’t make you regularly stop and search for a creek, as you’ll simply have to pour the liquid into a flask in advance. This becomes a competitive edge for those who conquer snowy peaks as such a device will easily melt the snow. Perhaps the shock-proof bulb and is a major advantage of LifeStraw Go over other personal filters, in case you don’t want to carry around a separate water tank. It also affects the price as the product is more expensive than the same manufacturer’s filter straw.

Although LifeStraw Go turned out to be less popular, its rating is still quite high, as over 900 rated the flask 4.3 stars out of 5.

LifeStraw Bottle: Check the current price

The manufacturer KATADYN also produces Chlorine Dioxide-based water purification tablets which are effective against all waterborne pathogens, as proven by the University of Virginia scientists. Of course, it’s not a filter, but it can be used as additional insurance in very extreme conditions in order not to waste your filter’s resources on the water for brushing your teeth or washing. We still don’t recommend drinking water treated with such tablets.

These disinfecting tablets work in an obvious way: 1 tablet is capable of effectively purifying a liter of water from all microorganisms and disinfecting it within 30 minutes. This is a great solution if you need to clean the water for washing and thus pumping water out of the filter is not wanted. It is not recommended to use the water purified like that for over a week as the chemical elements will adversely affect the micro flora of your body.

Katadyn: (30 pack) Check the current price