Summary: A Vecto/Sawyer gravity filter setup is half the weight and cost of an MSR Autoflow. The Sawyer Micro Squeeze is 33% slower than the regular Squeeze

The Six Moon Designs December newsletter featured an article about how to turn a CNOC Vecto water container and a Sawyer Squeeze water filter into a gravity filter. I usually carry an MSR Autoflow gravity filter when I’m in a group and a Sawyer Squeeze otherwise so I was curious about whether this would be an option to either cut weight or increase convenience (or both).

To mix things up a bit I threw in a brand-new Sawyer Micro Squeeze. It’s just over half the weight of the regular Squeeze and much shorter (it looks like the Squeeze without the cylindrical tube in the middle).

Here are the setups:

  1. MSR Autoflow 4L (308g, $119.95). Note that this weight is with a trimmed hose as I find the stock hose length excessive. Total: 308g, $119.95
  2. CNOC Vecto 2L (78g, $19.99) paired with a Sawyer Squeeze (102g wet*, $28.99) and a Sawyer Cleaning Coupling (6g, $2.75). Total: 186g, $51.73
  3. CNOC Vecto 2L paired with a Sawyer Micro Squeeze (65g wet*, $28.99) and a Sawyer Cleaning Coupling. Total: 149g, $48.98**

*I’m measuring wet weights since this is more reflective of actual carrying weight, assuming you’re cleaning your filter before trips to maximize flow

**Note that unlike the regular Squeeze the Micro Squeeze comes with the cleaning coupling and thus incurs no additional cost for that part

We can already see that either Sawyer setup is about half the weight and price of the Autoflow so upgrading seems like a no-brainer. The only remaining question is how much flow we’re giving up by choosing the Micro Squeeze over the regular Squeeze. To answer this I resuscitated my regular Squeeze from last year, soaking it in vinegar to dissolve mineral deposits, then soaking it in hot water for a half hour, and finally cleaning it with the cleaning syringe about 15 times. I then timed how long it took each filter to fill up a 700mL Smartwater bottle from a full Vecto 2L, repeating until fill times stabilized. Here are the results:

Regular Squeeze:

  1. 2:12
  2. 2:14
  3. 2:30

Average time: Two minutes nineteen seconds

The regular Squeeze didn’t show much variation so I left it at that.

Micro Squeeze:

  1. 8:00
  2. 7:30
  3. 6:25
  4. 3:43
  5. 4:08
  6. 6:47
  7. 3:03
  8. 2:59
  9. 3:08
  10. 3:07

Average time (#7-10): Three minutes four seconds

The Micro Squeeze started out painfully slow right out of the box but improved drastically after each filling. The bump for time #6 represents the start of a second day of tests, eventually stabilizing at just over 3 minutes.

The Micro Squeeze is about 33% slower than the regular Squeeze. To put it another way, the regular Squeeze will take 3/4 of the time of the Micro Squeeze to filter the same amount of water. You’re losing 37g by turning your 3 minute water stop into 4 minutes, which is fine by me.

For a finishing touch I added 24 inches of cord (LiteOutdoors 1.8mm guyline) to the Vecto handle, forming a loop by tying the loose ends into a figure 8 knot. By introducing a slip knot into this loop you can hang the gravity filter off of a trekking pole, saving you from having to hold the handle yourself if you’re in an area without any suitable low branches (just put the slip knot loop over the top of or around the handle and the weight of the system will cinch it tight). Note that originally I had attached the cord to the handle by using a cow hitch – my thinking was that preventing the cord from sliding through the handle would be “good” – but this interferes with the slipping part of the slip knot so I eliminated the hitch. In hindsight I think more cord – probably 36 inches – would have been better.

Time passes…

Exciting update! I finally had a chance to use this in the wild on a trip to the coast, here’s a picture:

I also successfully used the hanging-from-your-trekking-pole technique at a water source without any good trees nearby.