MSR Hyperflow

Share your advice and personal experiences, post a gear review or ask any questions you may have pertaining to outdoor gear and equipment.
User avatar
don norton
Topix Acquainted
Posts: 63
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2006 9:39 am
Experience: N/A
Location: Atlanta Georgia

MSR Hyperflow

Post by don norton »

Has anyone did any cold weather hiking with this water filter? If so how did you keep it from freezing.
User avatar
hikerduane
Founding Member
Posts: 1268
Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2005 9:58 am
Experience: Level 4 Explorer
Location: Meadow Valley, CA

Re: MSR Hyperflow

Post by hikerduane »

Freezing doesn't seem to be the pressing issue with this filter now. On TheLightweightBackpacker, a member there posted about how hard the filter is to pump now after just a few days of use, even after backflushing. Mention of it needing to be renamed the Bowflex.
Piece of cake.
User avatar
gary c.
Topix Fanatic
Posts: 1479
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2006 4:56 pm
Experience: N/A
Location: Lancaster, CA

Re: MSR Hyperflow

Post by gary c. »

Four of us used mine on a 4 day trip last month without any problems and that was from a glacier fed lake. I did backflush it every day and lubricated it once just because I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea. The manual recomends lubricating but I don't think it says how often. The manual mentions chapstick as an option and I had some in my pocket when I backflushed so why not. We leave in the morning for another trip so I'll see how it goes.
Gary C.
"On this proud and beautiful mountain we have lived hours of fraternal, warm and exalting nobility. Here for a few days we have ceased to be slaves and have really been men. It is hard to return to servitude."
-- Lionel Terray
User avatar
don norton
Topix Acquainted
Posts: 63
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2006 9:39 am
Experience: N/A
Location: Atlanta Georgia

Re: MSR Hyperflow

Post by don norton »

hikerduane wrote:Freezing doesn't seem to be the pressing issue with this filter now. On TheLightweightBackpacker, a member there posted about how hard the filter is to pump now after just a few days of use, even after backflushing. Mention of it needing to be renamed the Bowflex.
Thanks Hikerduane let me give you my two cents worth about the filter I purchased the filter and used it for the first time in your backyard (Yosemite) the filter worked great the first four liters (out of the Merced River) and then it got hard to pump and I backflushed but that did not help by the time I got to Catheral Lake it was next to impossible to filter water it would draw great but you could not get anything through the filter Had to buy another filter at Tuolumne Meadows thanks MSR. REI will be getting this filter back. Called MSR about the problem and was told I would have to mail it to them for warranty work. I told him no thanks I would carry it back to REI. It should be called Hyoercrappppppp.
User avatar
BSquared
Founding Member
Posts: 958
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2005 3:31 pm
Experience: Level 3 Backpacker
Location: Jericho, VT

Re: MSR Hyperflow

Post by BSquared »

It's on REI's list of "award winners" in their latest e-mail flyer, and it weighs nearly 4 oz less than my current Sweetwater, so I'm seriously thinking about giving it a whirl, but at $99 (less 20%) I'm definitely given pause by the decidedly mixed reviews. Anybody have a clue why some people seem to have it work brilliantly while others get it clogged almost immediately and then can't clear it? Is it simply a matter of diligently backflushing every 8 liters before it gets clogged?

-B²
User avatar
oldranger
Topix Addict
Posts: 2861
Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2007 9:18 pm
Experience: N/A
Location: Bend, Oregon

Re: MSR Hyperflow

Post by oldranger »

Bill,

Mine worked perfectly for 4 days in the Eagle Cap wilderness and first 2 days of a Sawmill Pass/Taboose pass trip. I mistakenly thought that as soon as it started to get hard to pump I would back flush, bad idea. It continued to work but required much more effort. I solved the problem by having my much younger cousin do the water filtering! I'm going to try it again this summer and take an extra filter cartridge ($39) just in case. When it works it fills up my 90oz camelback when I get into camp in no time. That gives me enough water for cocktails (does 2 oz of 151 in 1/2 liter of lemonade kill giardia?) and any other non cooking needs thru breakfast. On the trail I will use a dip and sip filter bottle. (Last year the hyperflow worked so well on the Eagle Cap Trip that I didn't bother to take the dip and sip on the second trip. Oh well I guess that is what cousins are for. There were times in off the beaten path drainages that we didn't filter. Don't know that I would do that on the PCT but I'm sure lots of people don't filter and come out fine. I just remember what my two acquaintances went thru when getting treated. Not fun and I hate pain and discomfort.

Bottom line for me is that if I were going on a three week trip I probably would take a filter without the reliability issues this one has.

Good drinking!

Mike
Mike

Who can't do everything he used to and what he can do takes a hell of a lot longer!
User avatar
fishmonger
Topix Fanatic
Posts: 1250
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2008 10:27 am
Experience: Level 4 Explorer
Location: Madison, WI
Contact:

Re: MSR Hyperflow

Post by fishmonger »

used one of these for our Muir Trail hike last summer - 3 people, filtered about 1/2 of the drinking water. The thing is extremely difficult to backflush, which you are supposed to do rather frequently. Since back flushing never worked for us on the trail (constant air locking), we used it as is and it actually made it through the hike, however, the pump speed went from super fast on day one to a very slow and hard to pump trickle on the last day. Now at home, I've managed to backflush it a few times, but the flow isn't coming back.

Doesn't really matter - I am so done filtering water. A few treatment pills of chlorine for suspect water is all it really takes.

There's a video on youtube that explains the proper back flushing technique. Instructions are rather vague and wihtout the video, I would have never thought i was doing it correctly while I was on the trail. The problem is that you really need to spend an enormous amount of time maintaining this thing. It's probably ok for short hikes, but I'd never take this on a longer hike again. Also extremely expensive to replace filters on it, given how small they are and how quickly you can wreck one.

When it's new, it's one hell of a filter, though.
User avatar
don norton
Topix Acquainted
Posts: 63
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2006 9:39 am
Experience: N/A
Location: Atlanta Georgia

Re: MSR Hyperflow

Post by don norton »

If I was you I would contact MSR or the store where you purchased it. There is a lot of threads on http://www.whiteblaze.net" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; both good and bad. From what I read on highsierra site lots of people that hike up in the sierras never filter. Good luck what ever you do.
User avatar
BSquared
Founding Member
Posts: 958
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2005 3:31 pm
Experience: Level 3 Backpacker
Location: Jericho, VT

Re: MSR Hyperflow

Post by BSquared »

I think I'll hang on to my Sweetwater and try to find the 4 oz. somewhere. else.

-B²
User avatar
don norton
Topix Acquainted
Posts: 63
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2006 9:39 am
Experience: N/A
Location: Atlanta Georgia

Re: MSR Hyperflow

Post by don norton »

Bsquare I think that would be a good idea. Wait for a couple of years until it has a lot of field testing
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 45 guests