My husband and I bought one of these 5 years ago when we first started backpacking in the Rockies on our summer vacations. We have not needed to buy another water filter yet, or even a replacement ceramic filter for this one. We have never even experienced a clog, more than the easily cleanable sediment that builds up on the outside of the ceramic cylinder that you are supposed to scrub off with the scratch pad after every or every other use. This thing is amazing. The only drawback is that it is comparatively bulky and heavy, but in my experience, is completely worth the weight in reliability.
I used this filter on a 50 mile canoe trip down the Pere Marquette River in the Manistee National Forest in Michigan. The filter worked GREAT! We had 5 Boy Scouts and three adults. We used my filter and one of the adults' filter to provide water for the group. Easy to use and easy to clean.
Took this hiking up and down Mt. LeConte, Tn. (14 mile day) and Mt. Mitchell, N.C. (6 mile day) It worked great! We could not believe how quickly the clean water pumped through this filter. And the taste was fantastic. We had ordered the biggest L.L.Bean water bottle just in case the size was not made for a standard water bottle. While it worked great. For others wondering this, the filter will screw on to the typical larger mouthed water bottle.
