My Katadyn filter gave out on day 4 of the JMT, and I'm done trusting the hype

I know everyone swears by these things, but mine clogged so bad near Red's Meadow last August that I was scooping water with my cookpot and praying. The说明书 said clean it every liter, I did that, still took 45 minutes to get 2 liters through. I had to hike 6 miles back to the store and drop $60 on a backup. Has anyone else had a filter just die mid-trip, or did I get a lemon?

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lunashah25d ago

Same thing happened to me on the PCT near Sierra City. Filtered fine for three days, then just... stopped. I cleaned it, backflushed it, did everything right, still took me an hour to fill a single bottle. Ended up just boiling water for the rest of that stretch and carrying a backup the whole way home. You're not crazy, some of them just die without warning.