The mini is effective but very slow as a gravity filter for me. Add in that for me it has clogged really easy from what seemed clear water and it has been retired for me. Perhaps I got a bad one ?
I weighed my gravity system I took last year on a week long trip on the CDT and it weighed almost as much as the Platy system by the time you factored in bottle / hydration bag / filter. Sorry, I prefer not to squeeze, and I've had two of the squeeze bags go belly up when squeezing on trips, which is frustrating, so the bags are a NO for me.
Recently, I timed several filters, all back flushed well before hand, and the mini took 8 minutes to fill a glass, meanwhile the platy took just over a minute and new Aquamira Green Line Frontier took 1.5 minutes. There are faster solutions than the mini, and while maybe they don't have a million gallon rating, I really view the million gallon rating as something that would require more time than I am willing to commit to (at 16 oz per 8 min, roughly 114 years for 1 million gallons )
Recently, I was on a trip, with folks using the sawyer squeeze / mini combo. Guess what ? They borrowed several tabs from me and ended up throwing them in the 64 oz sawyer bag after squeezing enough to get by for a little while and letting tabs doing the bulk of the work.
For the most part, I have moved back to a bottle (Aquamira Frontier ) and tabs solution. It is less hassle , and generally lighter. For more group situations , I would take the Platy filter system. For a more UL gravity solutions, I'd probably just downsize the Platy and carry tabs or drops to augment it.
There is another filter I am interested in trying called the Rapid Pure. I just have not got around to trying / testing it yet, but probably will in the next few weeks. We (meaning Seek Outside) do carry the Aquamira Green Line bottle (which can be adapted to gravity) and the Aqua Mira tabs.
Bottom line for me, no filter is perfect, and personally, I have used the Sawyer a lot , but found them a bit frustration , and when configured as a gravity system , still heavier than need be. Tabs are not free, but boy they are easy when you have the time to wait. A lot of filters are faster than the sawyers, and work well, and if I need to replace one for $20 every year for the speed , so be it.
Last edited by Kevin_T; 07/28/15.
