Gear Review: Grayl Legend
--Product Information--
Product Name: Grayl
Product Brand: Water Filter
Best Use: Drinking safe water.
Before a recent trip to Central America, I went to my trusted local outdoor store, Next Adventure, looking for a simple water filter hoping to avoid spending my relatively short trip dealing with an intestinal tract adjusting to the local bugs. I wanted to see beaches, not toilets.
The helpful salesperson recommended a Grayl, which was the perfect solution, as it combines a water filter with a water bottle and couldn’t be easier to use. Plus, if you have your bottle with you, you have your filter with you, so you use it every time. I got the Legend model with the Travel Filter (they have 3 types) and it filters everything from bacteria to viruses. It supposedly makes it taste better too, but doing a before and after comparison would have defeated the purpose, although everything I drank tasted fine.
It turned any water source into a fresh bottle of filtered water. I didn’t try it on any puddles or stagnant water as water wasn’t hard to come by, but aside from the sediment clogging the filter over time, it would filter out the bad stuff there too. I could see that being an important feature in more water challenged countries.
To use it you just pull the inner sleeve with the filter on the bottom and it slides out of the bottle, fill it with water to the line, replace the filter sleeve and push down like a French press. 30 seconds per refill. Tip: make sure the lid covering the drinking hole is open so the air can escape, otherwise it’s hard to press down. Also, read the directions; you should soak the filter for 5 minutes before the first use and run a few cycles through it when new to flush out the filter.
Bottom Line: No stomach problems the whole trip, so the investment was more than worth it. Since the filters should last quite a while and are replaceable, I’m sure it will be traveling with me everywhere from now on.
Product Name: Grayl
Product Brand: Water Filter
Best Use: Drinking safe water.
Before a recent trip to Central America, I went to my trusted local outdoor store, Next Adventure, looking for a simple water filter hoping to avoid spending my relatively short trip dealing with an intestinal tract adjusting to the local bugs. I wanted to see beaches, not toilets.
The helpful salesperson recommended a Grayl, which was the perfect solution, as it combines a water filter with a water bottle and couldn’t be easier to use. Plus, if you have your bottle with you, you have your filter with you, so you use it every time. I got the Legend model with the Travel Filter (they have 3 types) and it filters everything from bacteria to viruses. It supposedly makes it taste better too, but doing a before and after comparison would have defeated the purpose, although everything I drank tasted fine.
It turned any water source into a fresh bottle of filtered water. I didn’t try it on any puddles or stagnant water as water wasn’t hard to come by, but aside from the sediment clogging the filter over time, it would filter out the bad stuff there too. I could see that being an important feature in more water challenged countries.
To use it you just pull the inner sleeve with the filter on the bottom and it slides out of the bottle, fill it with water to the line, replace the filter sleeve and push down like a French press. 30 seconds per refill. Tip: make sure the lid covering the drinking hole is open so the air can escape, otherwise it’s hard to press down. Also, read the directions; you should soak the filter for 5 minutes before the first use and run a few cycles through it when new to flush out the filter.
Bottom Line: No stomach problems the whole trip, so the investment was more than worth it. Since the filters should last quite a while and are replaceable, I’m sure it will be traveling with me everywhere from now on.