The GravityWorks Water Purification System

Debugging in the backcountry

Written by George Hume

From Issue June 2015

The GravityWorks filter is designed to remove protozoa, bacteria, and particulates—the common contaminants encountered in American and Canadian backcountry. It is not intended to remove chemicals, toxins and viruses that are more commonly found in urban and agricultural areas and developing countries.

My wife and I spend summers at our Georgian Bay island cabin. Like many lakes in North America, the bay, a part of Lake Huron, is safe for swimming but its water is not drinkable. For years we brought tap water from home or the marina. When we went cruising, drinkable water was a large part of our provisioning.We looked into purifying our water. Boiling it is a possibility but takes time, consumes fuel, and doesn't filter out particulates. We tried chemical treatments, but the taste and the long-term health implications put us off. Hand-pumping water through filters seemed like a lot of work. Then we discovered gravity systems. There are a wide variety of these available, and we decided to get a compact system that we could use at the cabin and for boating or canoeing trips.

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One thought on “The GravityWorks Water Purification System”

Michael Colfer says:

June 13, 2015 at 10:41 pm

I am a long-time sailor and backpacker. Backpacking gear is excellent for small-boat sailing and cruising. The best (most dependable, most robust) water-filter system I know of is the MSR Waterworks. It is a hand-pumped device with a large ceramic filter. It comes with a scraper for cleaning the filter, which I have used two or three times in the 18 years I have been using the device. I took students backpacking into wilderness areas, they used my filter and it was not broken, though they did break a couple of other manufacturer’s products. The device fits on Nalgene water bottles. It is compact, efficient and almost indestructible. Check it out on the REI website. I keep one in my 17′ faering.