LifeStraw Water Bottle Review
AllOutdoor Staff 02.20.19
Drinking water that is unsafe to drink can oftentimes be far more dangerous than drinking no water at all. Because of this, a LifeStraw Water Bottle is something you should seriously consider adding to your go bag if you don’t already have a water filter.
And one of the most popular and effective water filters on the market is the Lifestraw Water Bottle, which is noted for its supposed ability to remove microorganisms down to 0.2 microns.
The LifeStraw Water Bottle is more than just a water filter. It’s basically a water bottle with the Lifestraw Water Filter in it.
The advantage here should be obvious: you can fill up the bottle with water to drink as you travel along, knowing that it is also being filtered out as you drink. But does this literally mean that you can just scoop up water into the bottle and begin safely drinking with no questions asked? That’s what we’re going to dive into today.
The LifeStraw Water Bottle has a volume of twenty two ounces. It features an internal water filter utilizing hollow fiber technology, which as we noted previously, can remove microorganisms down to 0.2 microns. It can also greatly reduce organic chemical matter (pesticides, herbicides, etc.) and chlorine as well.
The design of the bottle is incredibly simple: unscrew the cap, fill up the bottle with water, screw the cap back on, and then proceed to drink the water through the mouthpiece. The water will travel through the filter before traveling through the mouthpiece.
There is only one element of maintenance to the LifeStraw, and that is that you will need to unscrew the lid and blow back through the filter to push the flush out after each time you drink a bottle’s worth.
In many ways, this is the easiest to use bottle filter that is currently available on the marketplace.
That being said, it’s not like that the LifeStraw Water Bottle is going to make literally all water that you put into it safe to drink. For example, the LifeStraw is not able to filter out heavy metals, which means that you can’t use it to drink out of polluted areas.
Furthermore, the LifeStraw Water Bottle cannot remove viruses, as they are much smaller and difficult to filter out in contrast to bacteria.
What the LifeStrawWater Bottle is capable of doing is filtering out 99.9999% of bacteria and 99.9% of protozoa. It also removes sediment particles to make any water you drink less murky and cloudy.
Here is a list of bacteria and protozoa that the LifeStraw Water Bottle will be able to filter out for you:
- Campylobacter
- Escherichia coli
- Pseudomonas aeruginosa
- Salmonella
- Shigella
- Vibrio cholerae
- Giardia lamblia
- Cryptosporidium Parvum
- Entamoeba histolytica
Here is a list of specs for the LifeStraw Water Bottle as well:
- 5 Ounces When Empty
- Holds 22 Ounces of Water
- Removes 99.9% of Protoza
- Removes 99.9999% of Bacteria
- Can Filter Through 264 Gallons Down To 0.2 Microns Before Needing To Be Replaced
- Exceeds Water Filtration Standards Set By The EPA
- Filter Is Chemical Free
In summary, the LifeStraw Water Bottle is by far one of the simplest water bottle filters on the market today, and furthermore it is very effective at removing visible sediment, bacteria, and protozoa.
But what it can’t remove is heavy metals, viruses, and chemical, so it’s not like that you should consider literally any water you pour into the bottle and drink through the filter to be safe.
You still need to exercise strong caution about which natural source you choose to get your water from, but even so, there’s also no denying that the LifeStraw Water Bottle will be a much more practical option for carrying your water with you in contrast to just using the LifeStraw filter on its own.
