5 Reasons the AquaBrick Water Purification System is What You Need at Base Camp

A reliable water system is crucial to any camping trip. Here’s why the AquaBrickTM Water Purification System is the best option.

By Owen Clarke

When camping, the fulcrum of your entire trip is your home base, or your base camp. Whether you’re prepping for an ascent of Mt. Everest or out for a 4th of July weekend with friends in your local state park, setting up a well-equipped base camp is crucial to the camping experience. A couple of camp chairs, a good stereo system, and a few beers are always nice to have on hand, but the critical component of any base camp is access to clean water. Water, food, and shelter are the three things we all need when camping, but water is by far the most critical.

Water filter straws like the Sagan Life XStreamTM Straw are great for when you’re on the move, but back at base camp, you need something to store that water, whether it’s for sharing among members of your party, doing the dishes, washing clothes, cleaning gear, or something else. Some folks take to buying plastic gallon jugs from the grocery store to lug with them when they’re camping, but that method isn’t just costly and wasteful over time, it also doesn’t offer a method of continuous purification. When the jugs run dry, you’re out of clean water.

<bold>What if you could have a water storage system that is THREE TIMES the size of a gallon water jug, and it could continuously purify new water from ANY non-saltwater source?<bold><br>

<p>Enter the AquaBrickTM?/p><br>

<p>This packable, three-gallon HDPE container, when paired with the accompanying purification system, allows you to gather, quickly purify, and then distribute up to three gallons of water at a time. </p><br><p>So let’s break down the five reasons you need it on your next camping trip.</p><br><p><i>Before we get into this article, it’s also worth mentioning that I’m not a member of the Sagan Life team. I’m a professional freelance outdoor journalist (you can find my work here) and was provided the AquaBrickTM Water Purification System to test it out. I was impressed and agreed to write this article.</i></p><br><p><strong>It’s Fast<.strong></p><br><p>In the outdoor industry, the main type of purification system that is commonly used to purify large quantities of water for base camp operations is a drip filter system, also known as a gravity filter. <br>Drip filters are relatively self-explanatory. They’re large bags or containers that use gravity to slowly filter unpurified water (i.e. the water “drips” down through the filter). This method, as you can probably imagine, is extremely slow. <br>With the AquaBrickTM Water Purification System, air pressure, not gravity, is used to push the water through the filter. You fill your AquaBrickTM with unpurified water, whether from a stream, lake, or another source, and then pump air into the container via a squeeze pump to pressurize it. It just takes a few squeezes, and once pressurized you simply open the outflow spigot, and clean, purified water flows out of the hose automatically. You have a source of purified water in seconds! The filter purifies 1/2 gallon of water per minute (30 gallons an hour), beating out the best gravity filters on the market by a longshot. There’s simply no faster way to effectively purify large quantities of water, and I would know, I’ve been in this industry for a long time. </p><br><p><h3>It’s Bombproof</h3> <br><p>The BPA-free HDPE material used to construct the AquaBrickTM is as tough as they come. This container can take a beating and keep on kicking. The 100% opaque walls help keep the water inside cool and reduce degradation from UV rays, and integrated grooves on the sides make it easy to strap down and secure to boats, cars, kayaks, aircraft, or anything else (I attached the AquaBrickTM to the back of my motorcycle with ease while testing it out, since I do a lot of motorcycle camping). When pressurizing the container, the sides may bulge out slightly, but the seal is bulletproof. If you do over pressurize the container, the worst that will happen is squeeze pump hose may pop off. This is a rugged, durable container that can stand up in the harshest of climes.

It's Versatile

Like I mentioned above, drip filters are another method of purifying large quantities of water in the woods. These aren’t just slow, however, they also don’t offer much in the way of storage solutions once the water is actually purified. The AquaBrickTM isn’t just a purification system, it’s an excellent all- around storage container and can serve a variety of functions. The integrated handles make it easy to carry, and a Ventless Spigot and Cap accessory allows you to convert the AquaBrickTM into a water or beverage dispenser with ease. With two AquaBrickTM containers, you can use one as a filtration system and the other to store your filtered water, dispensing it with the spigot.

The AquaBrickTM also features interlocking grooves on the top and bottom, so you can stack multiple AquaBrickTM containers (sort of like LEGO bricks). This stackable feature means the AquaBrickTM also works well in the home setting. You can use it to store beans, rice, and other dry goods in your pantry, or to store purified water in the garage in case of an emergency.

It's Packable

While the AquaBrickTM is made for car camping or other settings where you won’t be moving around on foot much, it remains an extremely packable product. At 2.5 pounds, it’s fairly lightweight, but the real boon is that the container mouth is wide enough to stick a hand in, so you can fill it up with dry food, clothes, or other gear when you aren’t using it to hold water, saving a ton of space in your pack if you’re on the move. Simply pack in with all your gear stored in the AquaBrickTM, and when you get to your camp you can unpack that gear or clothes and fill it up with water to use the filtration system.

It's Reliable

All of the above functions are major reasons I’m a fan of this product, but at the end of the day, none of that matters if the filter isn’t reliable.

Long story short... The AquaBrickTM filtration system is bulletproof.

The DuraFloTM filter removes 99.99999% of all bacteria, parasites, protozoa, and viruses from your water supply, so you can drink from any non-salt water source. Yes, I said ANY. This filter is so powerful, it purifies swimming pool water, removing the chlorine and other pool chemicals to make your pool water safe to drink in an emergency (500 gallons per filter).

As a result, the AquaBrickTM Water Purification System is an excellent home water filtration option, too. It doesn’t just take out viruses and bacteria, it purifies your water of toxins, chemicals, and heavy metals. If your city or town goes under a “Boil Water Advisory,” an AquaBrickTM Water Purification System can take care of purifying your tap water for you. My hometown of Huntsville is notorious for poor water quality, and as I write this, I have the AquaBrickTM sitting on my desk to purify my tap water.

Each filter purifies up to 700 gallons of the most contaminated water, meaning you can fill up this three- gallon container over 200 times without having to change the filter. And that’s when you’re filtering some really disgusting water. If you’re just filtering your average stream or lake water, the filter will last much longer. There's no need to keep track of the gallons you purify either. When the filter slows down to about 50% of its original flow rate, it’s time to change it out (but don’t worry, it’s still filtering sufficiently even at this point).

Whether you’re heading out for a relaxing summer camping trip, setting up base camp for a serious backcountry objective, or simply looking for a reliable water storage and purification system in case of an emergency at home, the AquaBrickTM Water Purification System is for you.

CHECK IT OUT TODAY!</p>