We are going to take a look at Katadyn's Vario microfilter.
This is used for water filtra-tion.
It is an excellent option for anybody who is doing backpacking, camping, anybody who
is in some sort of a situation or a worksite where they need to filter water.
Also for anybody that is looking for a water filtration system for some sort of emergency
or sur-vival options.
There are two things about this filter system that make it kind of stand out from some others
that are available on the market.
One of those is that it has a very high flow of out-put.
You will see that it has a dual action pumping mechanism and what that means is that it is
going to pump water through the system on the upstroke as well as the down stroke.
Another stand out feature on this filter is going to be it is kind of a dual filter be-tween
a synthetic and a ceramic.
And Katadyn actually gives you the option with this filter to choose which one you are
going to use based on the sort of water conditions you have.
Let's take a look at those actual filters inside the Vario.
Taking the top housing with the pumping action off of the filter you can see it has exposed
the ceramic filter that is in-cluded here and attached underneath of that is going to
be your synthetic filter cartridge.
There is a carbon core to this as most filters include.
It does reduce taste as well as some chemicals by having that carbon core.
And one of the interesting things about this filter is that it is replicable carbon.
So as time goes by, as you use that, you can replace the carbon in it, which will long
term will increase the taste of your water so it will taste better.
It removes bad flavors from water and it also can reduce some of the chemicals that may
be found in your drinking water.
It is not removing the chemicals, it is just reducing it.
So that unique feature being able to adjust which filtration method you are using here,
the synthetic versus the ceramic, based on your conditions of your water, is a unique
feature {?} exists on most or any other filtration systems.
You can see on the side here it says, "Father flow" and you have got an arrow mark that
is pointing towards it.
When this arrow is lined up over top of that it will be using the carbon core as well as
that synthetic filter we looked at earlier.
So this allows a lot of high output of water to be pumped through the filter at that one
point in time when it is set up to use that synthetic filter system.
That is good for water that looks relatively clean or you know it is coming from a rela-tively
clean source.
It doesn't have a lot of particulate and junky mater and it isn't kind of a murky color.
If you are filtering for more of a dirtier, murkier water system there is the other side
of this which is marked as longer life.
And all you need to do is remove the housing, the pump housing as we have here.
And you are going to turn that arrow so it is going to line up with longer life.
And what this is going to do is it is going to transition the filter to use the ceramic.
So ceramics pump slower, but they are very good at cleaning out particulate matters,
even very tiny stuff that is hard to see.
So it is going to pump a little bit slower, but it is basically going to catch a variety
of stuff that is underneath.
And what that is doing is keeping the life of the synthetic a lot longer than a basic
synthetic filter would be doing.
So some other items that are included with the Vario is a nice hard cap that fits over
the bottom portion here.
This is the point where your output hose would come out to the at-taching your hose, running
it into another bottle, or, in a case where you have a bottle that will screw on to the
bottom you can just attach it directly.
When you purchase the Vario it includes this output hose.
So here is going to be your pretty filter that you would put into your water source,
a little...
this is kind of a buoyancy piece that keeps it from hanging in the bottom of the creek.
This end would attach to the filter as an input hose.
And, as you can see, we have included a nice bag.
It says, "Outlet hose."
Don't really want to match up your clean hose, which would be the one in the bag, the outlet
hose going into your fresh water source or your filtered water source versus your input
hose.
So they have given you a nice bag to store the clean hose in and labeled it for you.
That is in here.
This is included with the filter when you purchase it.
You have got this nice little design.
It is like it fits all bottle clasp.
So this piece is kind of... you can hook this up.
It fits over the end of that.
And this... it kind of functions like a large paperclip.
But then you can take that hose and, you know, pretty much attach it on to any sort of a
bottle system.
Your hose would be attached to that and anchored into there if, for some reason, you have a
bottle that doesn't actually screw on to the bottom of the filtration unit itself.
For cleaning the ceramic filter they include a Brillo pad.
All that is needed to do is kind of scrub that down and you can remove the dirt from
it and continue to use it.
There is quite a few O rings included here for maintenance purposes as well as some lubricant
to lubricate that pump and keep that mechanism working smoothly.
You also see there is a nice black bag you can kind of pack the whole thing into it and
it easily fits into a back pack or any sort of an emergency kit.
So the output capacity on the Vario microfilter is going to be about 530 gallons or 2000 liters.
This is really depending on the quality of water that you are filtering.
So you need to take that information with a grain of salt.
Filters do need to be replaced.
Once they are completed and clogged you need to place them for further use.
A little bit of information about the output flow is going to be that it does about two
quarters per minute, which is pretty quick.
This filter is going to be really suitable for folks by themselves, but definitely anybody
who is backpacking or camping with a group of people and needs to filter a lot of water.