Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Katadyb Base Camp Gravity Filter: Defective Design

I just used my new Katadyn Base Camp Gravity Filter for the first time and it failed. It leaks between the filter cartridge and the plastic collar into which the filter cartridge is inserted. You have to loosen the fastening ring almost to the point where the cartridge is about to fall out to stop it from leaking. In the field I thought that I had the wrong cartridge, but today I took it to my local sporting goods store and a new one, on the shelf, has the same cartridge. The filter cartridge is identical to the cartridge for the Katadyn Hiker Pro water filter. It has threads but the gravity filter has no threads. There's an "O" ring on the filter cartridge but if you tighten the fastening ring it pushes the "O" ring out of the collar so there's no seal. The collar is too short. It's a defective design. The collar should be the same as the base of the Hiker Pro filter that the filter cartridge was designed for.

There's another problem with the basic design of the gravity filter. Since there's no pump, gravity is the only thing that draws water through the filter and when the prefilter catches some debris, as it's supposed to, the filter stops working.

I e-mailed Katadyn customer service and they offered to replace it with a new one. I said no thanks. I don't need another filter that is defective in its' design.

Don't buy one.

KC

I've used one for four years on several trips with no issues. Love it though a bit heavy. Never had an issue with leaking either...

It's been a while since I've had mine apart but suspect you don't have the filter in far enough. Took a lot of grunting and the included lube to get mine all the way in.

My buddy has one, and we've used it on the last couple of hunts. I don't care for it either. It hasn't leaked or plugged up, but the taste quality is horrible IMO. After a few gallons have went through it is when I start to notice this chalky, dry taste. After a few days, I can't hardly drink it anymore. First time out, I thought it might be something in the stream that we were using. I came home and ran tap water through it and had to spit it out. It was not the water source. Now, 1 buddy says he doesn't taste it at all and he thinks its "just fine". Myself and a couple of others who drank from it had the same descriptions of taste. Dry, chalky, funny tasting. Ill definitely be purchasing something else. I just can't drink it. The thought of a gravity filter is awesome though. Fetch water, hang bag, and walk away.

Get the Sawyer.

Well crap...I asked Santa for one of these.

Mine works great. No leakage, no clogging (easy to clean) and no taste issues. Any silt you scoop up in filling the bag will end up on the filter so it makes sense to take care in filling or even pre-filter ... this issue exists with all filters though.

I would buy another in a second.

KC, sorry you've had trouble with yours. I've had one for some five or six years now, have have used it alot, including on several multi-week trips. It's been great.

Mine had a leak like yours the first time I changed the filter, I recall thinking like you there was a design flaw, but it turned out it was my fault. Make sure the filter o-ring is straight I recall being a key.

As for clogging, mine slowed down once after filtering stream water that was very muddy after rain. Thereafter, on that trip, we prefiltered by pouring through a bandana into the filter and though the flow was slow, it never quit.

The whole unit weighs almost nothing more than the filter itself and has no moving parts to break and takes no effort to do a tedious chore. I dunno. Maybe you got a lemon. Mine is one of my favorite pieces of gear.

Ella

Exactly!
Buy the Sawyer below and make your own:
http://www.rei.com/product/801824/sawyer-3-way-inline-water-filter

I built two of these for a recent trip.
We used this filter to provide water for a group of 21 over 4 days and a little over 30 miles.
On Friday night alone we filtered water for a group of 40+ folks.
We had 2 of these running with a 2.5 gal collapsible jug under each one. Never had less than 5 gals of clean water at any time while we were in camp.
After 4 days of use it slowed just a bit but after I got home and backflushed/cleaned the filters I was able to get a gallon of water in less than 4 minutes.
Total weight is under 1 lb.

4 years here using the Base Camp
No problems
Love it

No problem here either. I have run 100's of gallons through my Base Camp. Only tip I have is give the bag a slight squeeze to start the water through. I love being able to pitch camp, cut wood, start cooking etc, instead of hunkering over a pump in the creek.

Don't own one but have used one and it was great. Wish I had one.

We like our Base Camp, too. We haven't used it a lot, but it's been flawless so far.

I've got one of those and it works but seems a bit slow.My hunting partner has one of these http://cascadedesigns.com/platypus/filtration-and-storage/gravityworks-filter/product and it works allot better
Tim

To me, this sounds more like an operator error as I have the same filter without any issues. You complain about the oring, but it doesn't take a genius to know that you don't torque it as tight as possible. When you over-tighten, friction will grab the oring and it will lose effectiveness.

Also, if they were willing to back their product, why would you bad mouth them. They work hard to build a reputation and some mechanical devices do fail, however, I think yours is complete user error.

When installing the filter it definitely helps to use the lubricant that comes with it on the threads and o ring

Here's the plans I used for my homemade drip filter:

http://www.tothewoods.net/HomemadeGearGravityFilter.html

It weighs about half of what the Base Camp weighs, 6.5 oz IIRC, though that is dry and once you use it the filter gains an ounce or so once it gets wet. I used a tube from a Camelback as it weighs about half as much as vinyl tubing. I use/carry Katadyn tabs as a backup.

Some specs on the two filters.

Katadyn pro filter (the base camp uses this filter)

Filter life - 200 gallons
Replacement cost - $49.95
Filtration size - .3 microns

Sawyer filter

Filter life - 1 million gallons
Replacement cost - $49.95
Filtration size - .1 microns

Yes, and the Sawyer filter uses the "hollow rod" technology, just like MSR's infamous "hyperclog" filter, and has to be regularly backflushed. I hate gear that has to be constantly maintained, in the field, keeping me from doing what I went to the field to do.

You have to keep both from freezing, but the paper matrix filter is a lot less apt to go down. Also, look at water filters like toothbrushes, I really don't want to use the same one for the next five years.

Why do you think the filter has to be replaced at about 200 gallons, because it gets too plugged up to function anymore.

Hmmmmmmm ................ back flush for free or spend $50.00 on a new filter.

P.S. Sawyer provides instructions for sanitizing their filters.

Maybe I should try another filter in ours. It came with two. We tried them both, and they both produced funny tastes. I love it otherwise. It's easy. I don't know what I'm tasting out of it?