4-Pack Membrane Solutions Personal Water Filter Straws Expired

Not going to trust my life or families on some unknown Chinese imposter brand that purposely attempts to make people think they are legit life straws. They are intentionally trying to be deceptive. Just my opinion based on field use in 8 countries and having my life depending on a water filter.

The Sawyer claims 75% thicker straw walls. That's how they claim a lifetime longevity; the stronger straws withstand infinitely more backflushes.

The lifespan rating on these indicate they are using the thinner walled straws similar to non-sawyer filters. The weight and low flow rating indicate they are using less straws than non-sawyer filters.

If you need 4 emergency filters as cheap as possible, better to have these than nothing. If it's just yourself and you will likely use a filter while backpacking, then get a sawyer squeeze. Families in developing nations have used a single filter to meet their drinking water needs for multiple households for DECADEs. Also keep in mind, there is no way to test if these have failed.

A great fear based logic. Let's all make fear based decisions and ignore experts and science.

Can you provide a link to the product you are talking about?

The funny part is that neither filter (not company) can be found on the NSF's webpages...

https://www.nsf.org/certified-products-systems

Search Membrane Solutions (this product) and/or Vestergaard (Lifestraw).

This is the Sawyer Squeeze https://www.amazon.com/Sawyer-Pro...B00B1OSU4W. It's at an above average price right now. Usually, they're available for around $30. While the Lifestraw probably has the most brand recognition amongst the general population (because of first mover effects), the Sawyer Squeeze has pretty much been the gold standard amonst backpackers for the last decade.

Some critical flaws of the original Lifestraw are that it literally has no bottle threading, so its only use case is to use it like a straw, meaning lowering your head down to a water source and only drinking when you are at a water source or carrying your water in a wide mouth bottle like a nalgene because it's the fattest "straw" you've ever drank from. And because of the lack of bottle threading, you can only force water through by sucking, meaning sharing a filter between multiple people would mean everyone drinking from the same straw. Sucking from it also means you can't cook with it.

The Membrane Solutions imitation lifestraw at least has bottle threading, so it has none of the cons of the lifestraw. It's flow rate is really low though. The Sawyer Squeeze is rated for 1.7L/min (you probably can't get this theoretical 1.7L/min though; the most I've gotten is 1.5L/min). At 0.5L/min, this straw is less than a third of the Sawyer, and all filters will slow down even more as they get used. I'll use my Sawyer down to around 1L/min before I backflush it to clean it up, which I'm not even sure if this straw is designed to do or has assessories to facilitate.

In filter designs, there is a trade off between flow rate, filtering level, and amount of filtering material. You can increase the flow rate by either lowering the filtering level (0.2 micron vs 0.1 micron) or you can increase the amount of filtering material (causes the filter to weigh more). The Sawyer filters 0.1 micron at 1.7L/min and weighs 3 oz. This straw filters at 0.1 micron, 0.5L/min and weighs 2oz; it clearly has less filtering material to have a lower flow rate. The original lifestraw filtered at 0.2 micron, an unknown flow rate since you have to suck through it, and weighs 1.6oz. There are other backpacking filters out there, most of them filter at 0.2 microns, advertise a higher flow rate and weigh 2oz; they are sacrificing water safety for higher flow rates and achieving higher flow rates with more filtering material. The Sawyer is the only filter with a lifetime longevity.

Is this a well known brand? I'm unfamiliar.

Edit: not well known. some apologists in the comments claiming they are all the same...which is a weird claim for safety equipment.
the business address is a residential house. always a little sketch.
the name is hard to pin down. one nearby company does provide filtration for lab equipment but doesn't list this item on their website.
YMMV/Buyer Beware ...which for any safety/emergency equipment is an immediate pass for me.

I see it's being promoted by a Paid SD Staff Influencer...is this an affiliate? paid advert? any vetting/communication with the company to clear up the concerns?? it's been pushed to Frontpage now

The LifeStraw brand claims NSF Certified, these don't.

https://www.nsf.org/knowledge-lib...tification [nsf.org]

I looked this up, sharing in case it help anyone else.

NSF stands for National Sanitation Foundation. It tests for pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals, microbial contaminants, and 280 banned substances. NSF-certified water filtration products are said to ensure safe and quality drinking water.
SGS is a Swiss multinational company that provides inspection, testing, verification, and certification services. In 2021, SGS was accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to provide third-party certification of NSF/ANSI standards for food service and commercial appliance equipment products.