It didn’t taste like Dasani bottled water, but it definitely didn’t taste like tea-colored lake water either. The water came out crystal-clear and almost tasteless. Tannin-loaded water is supposedly some of the worst for clogging these ceramic filters, so if you have cleaner water sources at your site than we do, your element-cleaning cycles should be farther apart. We were taking water from a brown lake that is loaded with tannins and we would get about 2 liters through (about 2 full-size nalgene bottles worth) before we noticed the filter could use a cleaning. If you do see a diminished output, simply unscrew the filter housing and give the element a light scrubbing. You never really feel like you are doing more work than you should for the amount of water you are pushing through, especially if you take into account the fact that every pump is worth about one gulp of nasty water that you WON’T have to drink. The filter is very simple to use and has a good output-per-pump ratio. I took this as a sign that this is the filter to have and ordered it from Amazon, and it has been worth every penny. I figured I could just go pick one up at the local Cabela’s or REI, but BOTH retail stores were sold out of these, while there was still a good supply of the other MSR and Katadyn filter systems on the shelf. I researched filtration systems for almost a month before settling on the MSR miniworks.
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MSR schematic complete with part numbers (PDF).Today we’re looking at the WaterWorks grandkid, the MiniWorks® EX Microfilter.
![msr miniworks ex water filter maintenance msr miniworks ex water filter maintenance](http://www.inksystem.com/img/shop/6764/set_of_dye_based_ink_inksystem_epson_l210_100ml_1.jpg)
By 1991 they had released the first MSR® water filter, the WaterWorks®. The founders of Cascade Designs® setup shop in 1972 to produce Therm-A-Rest® sleeping pads. If you’ve used the MiniWorks EX, please share your thoughts in the comments section below. In the mean time, here are some reviews that have convinced me this model is one to try.
Msr miniworks ex water filter maintenance update#
If funds allow, the MSR® MiniWorks® EX is one I intended to pickup and field test - I’ll update this post with my experiences. I’m doing some research on micro filters in preparation for some hiking / camping trips planed for 2013.