Posts Tagged SteriPen
Camelbak All Clear Water Purifying Bottle
There are tipping points in technology where a seemingly simple innovation can have a huge impact on human behavior. I’m hoping this All Clear water bottle from Camelbak is one of these moments.
First their were iodine tablets, then less nasty purification tablets, then pump filter and cup filters. None were all that practical: they either made your water taste bad, they took too long to work, or they were bulky to carry around. Then came the SteriPen and suddenly we could purify water with a little battery-powered wand. It looked like magic, but it worked. The newest version is not much longer than a finger and recharges by USB.
This Camelbak bottle is the next stage in that evolution, using ultraviolet light to kill anything living in the water, but combined with the convenience of a water bottle that can be zapped pure with its own cap. Here’s a video demo on how it works:
What you don’t see in that video is that this UV cap is rechargeable by USB cord. After it runs out of juice (which is going to take a while—it’s supposed to go 80 cycles on one charge), you plug it into a laptop or just use an adapter and plug it into a 110 electrical socket. A few hours later you’re good to go again.
If you don’t want to watch the video, here’s a quick rundown on why this All Clear bottle is something special. You fill it up with tap water in a place where you normally can’t drink the water. You turn it on, shake it around a bit, and 60 seconds later you’ve got pure water you can drink straight from the bottle. A second cap comes with it (but without a drinking spout, unfortunately) that you can screw on, leaving the purifying one behind in your room for the day.
The bottle is a standard Camelbak size, so you can buy whatever kind of cap you want for the top or switch one from another bottle you have. It’s BPA free of course and fits into most standard water bottle holders or pockets, holding 3/4 of a liter.
And I’ll answer the inevitable questions: yes, I’ve been using this myself and yes, my digestive system is doing just fine. (But thanks for asking.) I’ve been traveling through Mexico for more than a week without purchasing a single bottle of water, in four cities. I just fill this up, hit the zap button, and I’m hydrating carefree.
It’s only available in the U.S. for now and just getting into the marketplace. It retails for around $100, which may sound a little pricey, but if you add up how much it would cost to buy 80 bottles of water in a convenience store or restaurant when you’re traveling, you’ll see you could have this thing paid for before the first charge runs out. After that it’s paying you back every week. On top of that, Mother Nature will thank you and your karma meter will rise significantly…
Get the CamelBak All Clear Water Purifier Bottle at REI.com.
Related review: A Camelbak bottle that makes your water taste better
Posted by Tim L. in Adventure Gear, General Gear, Kids and Family on March 28th, 2012
Our Favorite Travel Gear of the Past Year
We review a new item each weekday here on Practical Travel Gear, which means 200+ items a year we collectively try out in foreign lands, in airports, in the car, or in the great outdoors. Most of the stuff we think we’ll hate we don’t bother to even accept. Some items make us scratch our head or make us think the concept could be better executed. What’s really great is when our jaded selves put something through its paces and then go, “Wow—that’s really cool!” or “How did I ever get by without this?”
Kara Williams, who sadly is saying goodbye after more than 2.5 years, already provided a rundown on her favorite gear from the past two years. The items that stood out for her in 2011 were the REI Sunblock that was silky-smooth and only $6.50, the simple $12 Energizer Dual USB charger for the car, and at the other end of the budget scale the GoPro HD Hero waterproof helmet camera.
Pam Mandel stopped by for eight months before getting too bogged down with other gigs. Here’s what she loved from the items she traveled with in 2011.
She says this Digital Photography Rucksack from Kata “goes everywhere” with her. It holds a laptop, SLR, extra lenses, and more.
Pam also likes the super-bright flashlights and headlamps from Icon.
Speaking of light, Kelty’s Lumapivot Lantern wins the prize for the most interesting looking item we reviewed in 2011. See a photo of it at the top of this post. Pam says, “This cute, versatile little light could have been designed in an almost answer to my camp light wish list.” The “almost” part of that quote is for the inexplicable design decision to make the thing run on six AA batteries. Really, you couldn’t make that rechargeable like 2/3 of the other gadgets we reviewed?
We all try out a lot of footwear for this blog. The shoes that Pam kept coming back to were the Keen Voyageur hiking boots. She’d waterproof them if she were you, but otherwise great for hitting the trail.
Ramsey Qubein reviews most of the business travel gear and gadgets we feature on Practical Travel Gear. Here’s what impressed him this past year.
Ramsey likes this Solid Line iPad case because it solves the biggest problem with trying to replace your laptop with an iPad when traveling: with this case you can actually type at a semi-normal speed. It also protects the pad and serves as a stand for movie watching, so he says it “has lightened my carry-on bag by several pounds.”
Since he’s carrying that iPad on long flights across oceans, one of his other favorites has been the PressReader app, which allows you to download actual newspapers (not web versions) from all over the world, to be read without an internet connection.
When it is time to take the laptop, he says he keeps going back to the Jack Spade computer case from Bonobos. “It is neither the largest nor the most practical for lots of exterior pockets. However, it has a beautiful cotton fabric exterior and has yielded more compliments in the two months I have had it than any other bag.”
I’m Tim Leffel and I edit this thing, as well as reviewing two items a week for much of the year. That’s a whole heap of travel gear, so there are more than a few items that keep making my packing list.
I’ve worn (and in some cases given away after) a crazy number of different travel shoes this year. Three pairs are still in heavy rotation in both my home life and my travels: the Cushe Surf-slipper Loafers, the Ecco Tahoe shoes, and the casual comfy Sanuk Donny Primo loafers. Hey, I lived in (and traveled around a lot in) Mexico and Florida this year, so I guess I was in a kick-back beach mood.
I got a sneak peek at a prototype of the SteriPEN Freedom USB-rechargeable purifier almost a year ago and knew then and there it would make my list. If you’re traveling to countries where the water is questionable to drink, you need to buy one of these. End of discussion.
Probably one of the most expensive things I’ve reviewed since this site launched was also one that got used a lot—and will keep getting used a lot. The inflatable (but very high quality) kayak from Advanced Elements. It’s the size of a suitcase when packed, so you can take it anywhere you can drive—even if you have a BMW Mini.
It’s pretty hard to get excited about a water bottle, but I tried out two exciting ones this year. The Dominate water bottle resulting from a partnership between Under Armour and Thermos really does dominate, keeping liquids cold for an unbelievably long time, even in 100-degree weather. I also used the Camelbak filter one a lot for traveling around the U.S.
Since this is Practical Travel Gear, I have to give a shout-out to the best values I encountered: the unbelievably good for the price Roaring River jacket I reviewed from Hi-Tec and the whole range of Ryder Eyewear sunglasses that routinely come in at a fraction of the list price of their rivals.
We’ll continue to bring you reviews of great gear at fair prices in the coming year. Get our RSS feed so you’ll have them all on tap. Happy new year!
Posted by Tim L. in Adventure Gear, Business Gear, General Gear, Travel Light on January 5th, 2012
New SteriPEN Freedom: Smaller and USB Rechargeable!
The beloved SteriPEN water purifier keeps getting better. I loved my original Traveler and and the Steripen Opti was even better. I’ve lost count of how many international trips those two items have kept me healthy—dozens. But ever since I laid eyes on a prototype last January, I’ve been looking forward to checking out this new Steripen Freedom.
In case you haven’t heard of this product, it’s like a magic wand for tap water you don’t trust. You wave this around in clear water (not muddy creek water) and it’ll kill the nasties with ultraviolet light. I have yet to get the runs even once while using this and it has enabled me to drink tap water from all kinds of dicey places.
This one takes the best aspects of previous models (like the little LED lights from the Opti version that help you see that it’s on) and adds some very key new features.
1) This one recharges by USB.
The reason this Freedom version is smaller is because it doesn’t require two bulky batteries. Instead there’s one small one that recharges. It has a standard micro-USB female plug and the cord has a regular USB on the other end. So you can use the included cord and plug it into a charger or laptop, or you can use something like a Chargepod or iGo and leave the cord at home. Before you could buy a bulky solar adapter case for the batteries, which works, but under this new system you can carry something more compact and powerful along to harness the sun’s energy instead like a Solio or Brunton Restore charger.
Per the official specs you can purify up to 40 times on one charge, so figure you’ll get at least 15 liters out of it before you need to plug it in again.
2) It’s even lighter
This Steripen Freedom is not just smaller. It weighs in at 2.6 ounces (74 grams). This has gone from “I should have room” to “Help me find this little thing in my bag!”
3) It’s also a flashlight
The Opti model sort of has a flashlight…in a pinch if you didn’t need much light. But this one will really light up the path to the latrine. It’s kind of tricky to get it to come on as that involves some shaking and moving around your hand to make it kick in, but the light is a dedicated one on the opposite end from the purifier lamp. It works pretty well once you get it going and stays on for three minutes.
When you buy this travel gadget (list price $120), you get everything pictured in the right side photo here: purifier, USB cord, wall adapter, and the handy Neoprene case it all fits into. This is a worthy investment for yourself and a nice thing to do for Mother Nature: it can potentially keep 1,000+ single-use plastic water bottles out of the world’s landfills, streams, and oceans. Or if someone near and dear to you is about to depart on an international journey, this would be a very thoughtful and useful gift.
See more at the Steripen.com site and buy this online at REI or Summit Hut.
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Posted by Tim L. in Adventure Gear, General Gear, Kids and Family, Travel Light on December 1st, 2011
Cool New Travel Gear on the Way
I spent most of last week checking out new travel gear, travel clothing, and gadgets that are going to hit store shelves later this year. I was at the Outdoor Retailer show, where the companies roll out the fall and winter lines for later this year that they’re hoping will wow buyers.
Some of the things I’ll review in detail soon and am therefore not including them here, like the SOL Emergency Kit from Adventure Medical (take a guess what that stands for), and some nifty Gecko sandals from GoLite Footwear. Here are others though that I couldn’t get my greedy mitts on yet because they’re still in prototype mode.
We love double-duty gear here and Merrell is expanding a line that seems meant for us in the Adventure Rest collection. You can see the current Charade version here and see some before and after pics at the top, but it’s just the tip of what’s to come. Yes, this may look eerily similar to the Storm Logic jacket I reviewed earlier from another company, but Merrell says they’ve patented this particular jacket version: it stuffs into a neck pillow that is shaped like a real neck pillow instead of being a mere tube. Watch for a whole slew of these travel-ready jackets, vests, and shirts before next winter.
Eton is a company really walking the walk when it comes to renewable energy and they make all kinds of great products that will keep you powered up and safe no matter where you are and no matter what disaster has hit. I checked out their new Raptor kit. It has a load of cool functions packed into a lightweight, $130 list price package: solar charger, altimeter, barometer, compass, radio, weather alert system, alarm clock…shall I stop now? Well, that solar charger goes into a 1800mAh rechargeable Lithium Ion Battery that can fire up your cell phone as well.
Anyone who’s been following what I write here or elsewhere knows I’m a huge fan of the SteriPen. I would conservatively estimate I’ve personally kept at least 500 plastic water bottles out of landfills by using various models in around a dozen developing countries while traveling. Now there are even fewer excuses not to carry one because they’re introducing an even lighter (2.6 ounces), smaller Steripen Freedom model that comes with the one big feature everyone has been screaming for: it’s rechargeable! Not just in a wall socket either, but also in a USB port. So when this comes out in July or August, buy one of these nifty gadgets. Stop buying bottled water once and for all when you travel in places where you can’t drink the water straight from the tap. No more excuses.
I’m not happy about this trend, but there were all kinds of gloves on display that will allow you to send out tweets and facebook updates about how much you’re freezing your a#% off or how you just conquered that gnarly mogul run on the slopes. Because how will life go on otherwise?
Since I saw people punching messages on their iPhone while snow was coming down hard and snowboarders were crashing right next to them on the slopes, I guess there’s a demand for this and 180s has been at the forefront. They have some TecTouch gloves out now and more are on the way. I tried them, they work, and they scare me. But maybe I’m old. Or maybe I just like to enjoy the outdoors in peace—without collisions. Props to them though for creating a new market.
It’s hard to get too excited about mosquito nets, I know, but ask anybody who has come down with malaria or dengue fever and they’ll tell you it’s one of life’s worst badass experiences. I’ve raved about Cocoon sleep sacks before, but they are putting out a parade of impressive mosquito nets that pack down to nothing but are loaded with handy features. The model I especially liked has spreader bars at the top that fold up like numchuck tent poles, colored tabs to tell you what goes where, and rock pockets to keep the net flush to the floor. Spring for the InsectShield version so you can be doubly protected. The absolute most expensive model you can get is around $130: a small price to pay for health insurance.
Posted by Tim L. in Adventure Gear, General Gear, Travel Light on January 26th, 2011
Most Popular Travel Gear Posts of 2010
Now that the dust has settled on the past year, what did you all like the most on this travel gear blog?
Here’s a look at the 10 most popular posts of the past year, in reverse order:
10) Eagle Creek HC2 Hovercraft Rolling Carry-on Suitcase
9) Teva Omnium Sandals for Men
8) The New Steripen Adventurer Opti Purifier
7) Bruton Restore Portable Solar Power Supply
6) The Pros and Cons of Packing Cubes
5) iPad a Must for Travelers? I’m Not Convinced
4) Stanley Ultra-bright LED Spotlight Gets a Thumbs Up From the Guys
3) One Serious Outdoor Watch: Casio Pathfinder PAW2000
2) Lucy Activewear: Stylish, Comfortable Travel Clothes
1) Best and Worst Travel Gear of 2009
So there you have it: you readers are adventurous, well-traveled, and downright…well…practical. Glad to hear it! Stick with us in 2011 and we’ll keep on bringing you first-person reviews of the best things to pack, all for active travelers who are not on a hedge fund manager’s budget.
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Posted by Tim L. in Adventure Gear, Business Gear, General Gear, Kids and Family, Travel Light on January 10th, 2011
