Sawyer MINI Water Filter Review
As you will quickly learn on trial and in the wilderness, whether through your conversations with other hikers or through divine intervention, water (and its purity level) is a very serious issue. After your backpack, tent, and sleeping bag, your water purification system ranks highly on the “gear you will heavily research” list and vies for the top spot on the “gear people ask you about” list.
Weight, versatility, and practicality dictate the selling points of a water purifier (assuming it actually purifies your water, of course), and Sawyer considered all three when designing the Sawyer MINI.
Yet the question remains: how does it hold up in the field?
Will you be able to filter water easily and safely should you encounter a wasp nest encroaching on your only water source for miles? Will you end up riving in pain, holding your stomach as you endure the uncontrollable effects of giardia? Will the thing end up broken at the bottom of your pack only to live the rest of its days in a hiker box somewhere along the trail?
Let’s find out.
The Basics
As far as backpackers are concerned the Sawyer MINI is everything you could ask for in a filtering of water device. Here is a quick rundown:
- Weight: 2 oz
- Filter Type: Hollow-fiber membrane (0.1-micron)
- Destroys: Bacteria and protozoa (aka giardia and cryptosporidium)
- Housing material: Plastic
- Included: Sawyer MINI Filter, syringe for backflushing, filter tip cap, 16 oz Sawyer bag
- Colors: Blue, green, orange, pink
- MSRP: $25
Smaller and 33% lighter than the original Sawyer Squeeze Filter, the MINI also offers you the ability to filter your water four different ways: attached to a water bottle, with a Sawyer bag, like a straw, or inline with a bladder.
So what’s the catch?
The Good
The Weight
At only two ounces (.125 lbs / 56.7g), the Sawyer MINI is a no-brainer for anyone looking to go light. Before you discuss potential drawbacks, the size and weight alone are grounds for justifying its inclusion in your pack.
The Filter
Sawyer’s proven hollow-fiber membrane (0.1-micron) filter will remove 99.9999% of bacteria (including salmonella, cholera, and E.coli) and all protozoa (including giardia and cryptosporidium). These are the only two things most hikers in the North American region need to worry about, so fear not the wrath of giardia.
The Versatility
In addition to being used in the same manner as the Sawyer Squeeze (filtering from the Sawyer bag into your water containment devices), the Sawyer MINI lends itself to all manners of filtering. Want to drink straight from a (store-bought) water bottle? The MINI will screw right onto most makes and save you the time of having first to filter, then drink. Don’t want to have to think about filtering? Use it inline with your bladder. Want to stick it straight into that magnificent-looking river and take a sip? You have the power!
The Lifespan
It boasts a life of 100,000 gallons (that’s 378,541 liters), so you can be sure that your relationship with the Sawyer MINI will be a lasting one (if it doesn’t clog up).
The Okay
No filter is perfect for the challenges presented by the Pacific Crest Trail (I retired four filters on-trail) or thru-hiking, and as I have yet to experiment with the Sawyer MINI as a filter on such a hike, I can only speculate as to what long-term issues may arise.
The Maintenance
The design is similar to the original Sawyer Squeeze Filter in that it periodically requires back-flushing to keep it operating at full capacity (since it physically removes all those invisible bacteria and visible floaties). I saw many hikers grow frustrated backflushing their Sawyer Squeeze filters, and since the MINI is just that (mini), it will require more frequent maintenance than its larger counterpart.
The Bad
The Freezing
Unfortunately, since there is a ceramic filter inside of the Sawyer MINI, you cannot leave it out during the night because trapped inside can freeze and break the filter. Many people sleep with their Sawyers inside of their sleeping bags, but the trick is remembering to put it in there in the first place.
The Viruses
The hollow fiber membrane filter used by the Sawyer MINI does not protect against viruses. However, viruses are a rarity in backcountry water sources in the United States. Although the water can potentially carry viruses, said viruses can only result from fecal contamination by an infected human. Therefore, so long as we all practice proper pooping skills in the wild, the virus issue should not be of any worry.
The Bags
If you opt to use the Sawyer bags in conjunction with your MINI to filter your water, you will destroy numerous bags over the course of a thru-hike. Fortunately, you can get replacement bags from Sawyer, and your MINI will still be capable of purifying water should your bags fail while on trail.
Most-popular Alternatives
| Water Treatment | Price | Weight | Type | Dimensions | Medium | Removes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sawyer Squeeze | $37 | 3 oz / 85 g | Squeeze/Straw | 2 x 5 in / 5 x 13 cm | Hollow fiber | Protozoa and bacteria |
| Sawyer Micro | $29 | 2.5 oz / 71 g | Squeeze/Straw | 2 x 5 in / 5 x 13 cm | Hollow fiber | Protozoa and bacteria |
| Katadyn BeFree | $25 | 2.3 oz / 65 g | Bottle | 11.3 x 3.5 x 2.8 in / 29 x 9 x 7 cm | Hollow fiber | Protozoa and bacteria |
| Aquamira | $15 | 3 oz / 85 g | Drops | N/A | Chlorine dioxide | Protozoa, bacteria, and viruses |
| Platypus GravityWorks | $100 | 10.9 oz / 309 g | Gravity | 3 x 7.4 in / 7.6 x 18.8 cm | Hollow fiber | Protozoa and bacteria |
Conclusion
One of the smallest and lightest filters on the market, one would expect that opting for a Sawyer MINI means sacrificing some convenience or feature offered by heavier filtration systems.
Yet the MINI certainly does have the potential to impress. As long as you have the patience to maintain (backflush) your MINI and sit patiently when using the Sawyer bags to filter larger quantities of water, the newest addition to the Sawyer lineup may be just what you are looking for in a filtration system.
Check out the Sawyer MINI here.
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I’ve used my Mini on 3 trips and it works great. The first trip I used the tiny included “dirty water” pouch and spent way too much time squeezing and spilling.
The second trip I used a second 2L Platypus water bladder as the “dirty water” pouch. I filled that with dirty water, pulled the mouthpiece off my platypus hydration bladder’s hose, and hooked that hose directly to the Mini’s fresh water tip.
Instead of squeezing I just let it gravity feed by putting the dirty water bag on a rock. No more squeezing! Best of all, I can keep my hydration bladder in my backpack’s internal sleeve for the entire trip. It’s pretty much impossible to slip a full bladder into that sleeve if the backpack is packed, so that’s a real hassle-reducer.
The only downside is Platypus bladders don’t use standard threading (WHY!?!), so unless you’re super careful (lucky/patient) there will be a small leak where the dirty water bladder screws into the Mini. Not a huge deal, but on my 3rd trip I bought an Evernew bladder because it uses standard threading and doesn’t leak.
The thing I don’t love is carrying that syringe around. It’s light but bulky and feels wrong somehow. I bet I could just squeeze the fresh-water bladder hard to accomplish the same thing, but I’m not confident enough to leave the syringe behind. Are there any other uses for that thing?
Smartwater sport nozzle will backflush Sawyer filters, no syringe needed
Smartwater and LIFEWTR nozzles both.
I used the Sawyer on my 2013 thru, not the mini though. I loved it. Granted the Sawyer bags are worthless after the first couple weeks, but a Platypus replacement lasts forever it seems. The important part is the filter which works great. I back flushed every 3 to 4 weeks and had no troubles with it. While I did carry a small bottle of iodine just in case I destroyed the filter (or froze it which Sawyer is explicit in telling you NOT to do), I never ended up needing it.
I’ll definitely keep using the Sawyer for other North American hikes and save my chemical intensive filtration for viral laden international waters.
You just gave me an idea: backflush the filter with iodine-water! Not sure if it will have any effect, it probably won’t, but I’ll try it.
Be sure to report back to us on your results!