In just a few seconds, the SteriPen gets rid of bacteria and viruses that can make us sick and ruin a trip. You may need to filter the water first, depending on where you are. SteriPen makes a pre-filter that fits right on a standard Nalgene bottle, or you can use a different method of pre-filtering. If you are just in a hotel room in Mexico for instance, you can get water right out of the tap and treat it.
All you do is take off the lid, immerse in water, stir, and when the green light comes on, you're done.
You get up to 40 treatments per charge. There's an LED light option on the end of the SteriPen, which you can activate by rotating it three times--will I remember this on travels, I don't know. It will stay on for three minutes, or you can turn it off the same way.
While I think this is ideal for traveling, it might also work for backpacking trips, it only weighs 2.6 oz, with the included case, cord, and adapter, it's 6.4 oz. Some solar chargers have USB ports, I'm thinking of the ones that you can just clip to your backpack. One of those and this SteriPen would make a nice pair for the back country. I hesitate a little here because I have personally never been able to find an effective solar charger, but I have hope in that direction. I also question the practicality of carrying a solar charger when two AAA batteries are lighter and more universal. But in the end, I think the SteriPen Freedom takes the best of the previous models and condenses that technology into a very practical and necessary device. It's appropriate for a wide audience from the business traveler, world trekker and the back country folks. Find it HERE.
