LifeStraw – Flex – water filter with gravity bag

The LifeStraw Flex is a water filter with a gravity bag: fill the bag, hang it up and the water runs through by itself. You can also drink straight from it or fit it to a bottle.

Key features

• Removes bacterien, parasieten, microplastics, slib, zand and troebelheid.
• Reduces lood en zware metalen, chloor and geur, which improves the taste.
• What it does NOT do: stop viruses. The membrane is not fine enough for that, and LifeStraw does not claim it for this model either. In European surface water that is rarely the issue; if you travel where the water may be virally contaminated, you need a purifier and not this filter.
• The membrane lasts about 1900 litres (500 gallons according to LifeStraw).
• The carbon capsule lasts about 2 months and can be replaced separately.
• Gravity bag included: hang it and let it run, no squeezing or pumping.

What you use it for

For bikepacking and trekking where you take water from a stream, a lake or a tap you do not trust. The gravity setup is what sets it apart from a squeeze filter: you hang it in a tree and carry on cooking, instead of standing there squeezing for ten minutes to get two litres.

Use and care

Never let it freeze with water inside — ice tears the fibres and then it filters nothing, without you being able to see it. Backflush after use and let it dry. Collect the clearest water you can: the more silt, the faster the membrane clogs.