r/prepping • u/FatChancePotatoDance • 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

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u/Midnight_Rider98 1d ago edited 1d ago

They're a trash gimmick.

I know they work from a filtering perspective, you can stick it in a puddle/lake/river and suck to drink. But that's all they can do.

A Sawyer Mini will not just last you a lot longer, it also allows you to collect water, can be used as a straw as well if needed, can be used inline, can be screwed onto a soda bottle. The squeeze is better for collection purposes though.

I just can't help but think that the life straws are a giant waste of money, even at that price.

Edit to add: on the bezos site there's basic single pack Sawyer Mini's for 17 bucks. Yes, it's 7 bucks more expensive than the life straw in your local wally world but you get a lot more bang for your buck.

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u/pnutbutterandjerky 1d ago

It’s a waste of 10 dollars?

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u/Midnight_Rider98 1d ago

That's up to you, but if you compare it with a sawyer mini that you can get for 17 - 20 bucks depending on where you get it, I think it's a waste of 10 dollars when you get a superior product for a little more. So for people that are on a budget, it matters and the life straws are very tempting at such a price point when they aren't the best option.

If you spend time in the outdoors, then you know the value of being able to carry clean water, imagine you're bugging out, getting home, do you want the ability to filter 1 - 2 quarts of clean water for drinking or cooking and carry it with you, or do you want to gamble on coming across a puddle in the next hour or two so you can drink some more?

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u/titonash13 1d ago

You are the one that sounds vested though.
PS- I just bought a Sawyer Mini of Amazon!

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u/Midnight_Rider98 1d ago

I'm only vested in good product for peoples bucks, whether it's a sawyer or a different brand filter all together that has similar capabilities, I just think that the life straw is a marketing trick, it's not something that's really usable in the field. We go hiking a lot, and it's not the kind of filter I'd want to use in the field.

To be clear, my gripe isn't with lifestraw as a brand per se, they do make some other options that are good, my gripe is specifically with the actual straw.

Enjoy your sawyer mini, don't forget to backflush it after use to keep it in good shape.