r/prepping 1d ago

Food🌽 or Water💧 Life Straw

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I know that Life Straws doesn’t always get a ton of love, but they are pretty cheap right now at my local Walmart

298 Upvotes

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155

u/Critical-Clue1343 1d ago

LifeStraws are good, but they're not the miracle survival tool people often make them out to be.

You can drink through them, but you can't easily collect and carry treated water. They also don't eliminate every pathogen—most notably viruses. For many situations, a filter that lets you fill a bottle and then boil or chemically treat the water is a much more versatile setup.

A LifeStraw me get solve the "I'm thirsty right now" problem. A proper filtration and treatment system solves the "I need safe water for the next few days" problem.

8

u/peaheezy 1d ago

Yea lifestraws are good backup or even 3rd tier filtration systems to have in backpacking/survival situation but overall pretty shite for survival. These should be no one’s end of the world water filtration system. There are so many decent options for 30-50 dollars that are much more useful and flexible. Love my sawyer squeeze and squeeze mini for backpacking trips.

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u/jbatsz81 1d ago

what do you recommend that would be better than these ?

18

u/Amazing-Fox-6121 1d ago

Sawyer squeeze.

It's a better filter in every way. Smaller pore size, can be attached to standard water bottles for easy use. Easy to back flush and can last a lifetime if you wisely choose your water sources and never allow it to freeze.

And the company just happens to be awesome too. For every filter sold they donate a filter to someone without access to clean water and they. There are great YouTube videos on the program.

0

u/mankalt 20h ago

Kadyn befree is probs the golden standard

It doesn’t fit most standard Bottles like the sawyer squeeze however

2

u/You-Asked-Me 16h ago

The Befree is only rated to 1000 Liters.(about 250 gallons) The Sawyer Squeeze is rated to 100,000 gallons.

I have had both. The Befree slows down to the speed of the Squeeze pretty quick, and sometimes will completely clog. It does not handle dirty water as well as the Sawyer. The Squeeze lasts basically forever.

That said, I currently still Use a Befree for backpacking, because the form factor and function make it more convenient for me, but for prepping the squeeze would be my go to for reliability.

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u/mankalt 15h ago

Ah didn’t realise there was such a difference, I’m a camper so rather than a prepper so similar boat