AquaSafeStraw Offers Portable Water Filtration

aquasafestraw image
Image via AquaSafeStraw

When you're traveling, especially to countries known to have dirty drinking water or when backpacking, it'd be nice to have a water filter that is ultra portable, so you can just pull out of you back pocket and use it when you need. AquaSafeStraw hopes to fill that need as a handy dandy gigantic straw that filters water while you suck - basically a LifeStraw, rehashed.

Vouched for by the National Association of Testing Authorities, AquaSafeStraw reports that it removes "99.9999% [of] coliforms/faecal coliforms, e-coli, staphylococcus, Cryptosporidium, Giardia, standard plate count bacteria, pseudomonas aeruginosa (bacteria causing respiratory tract infections), pseudomonas diminuta, and serratia marcescents (another form of bacteria)."

It doesn't use carbon or chemicals, but rather a microfiltration capillary membrane that lets water through, but not much of anything else. And it can filter up to 132 gallons of water (not quite as much as a LifeStraw)

Of course, you can't really beat how portable it is. Yes, it's an enormous straw, but still, it's a straw and smaller than carrying around a plastic or steel water container with a filtering system inside. Not as small as iodine tablets, but more convenient.

It's priced at $35 which is very expensive, but the price is understandable considering it's marketed for travelers on the more affluent side, and not people in developing or poverty-stricken countries.

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