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3) “I froze the filter, is it still good”? The simple answer is no. There is no way to know if the fibers were damaged when frozen. The test to find out is very expensive and far greater than the value of the filter. Therefore, it is best to replace the filter. The instructions clearly states that freezing the filter after wetting voids the warranty. If a filter has never been used then freezing will not affect the fibers. But once water is introduced to the filter, it will never completely dry out.

ALMAL wrote:Don't give up on that yet. It froze Friday night. I used it Saturday and Sunday...

hikeaz wrote:I imagine that some food coloring in the 'before' water might tell the tale, at least for the most part.

flagscott wrote:Anyone know a good way to test for a busted filter?

flagscott wrote:

hikeaz wrote:I imagine that some food coloring in the 'before' water might tell the tale, at least for the most part.

I think you'd need a compound a lot bigger than food coloring to test a filter. Yellow #5 dye (I choose this one at random) is about 2 nm long, too small to be stopped by any filter. I suspect other colorings won't be much better.

Anyone know a good way to test for a busted filter?

hikeaz wrote:After reading what you wrote about the size of dye, I went 'fishing'....... https://youtu.be/fZLWlfiwBbg - sometimes a picture is worth a thousand conjectures.

Folks.....I spoke to the DESIGN team at Sawyer and this is what they say: "The sawyer filters are barrier filters. We literally filter out the pathogens (viruses, bacteria, cysts, etc.). We do NOT remove disolved solids from the water. The blue dye you are using is a disolved solid. It will pass through the pores of the membrane. As it passes through the fibers it will dye the fibers and in so doing remove some of the dye from the water. This will only occur in the first few ounces that pass through the filter. Then it will stop removing the dye. In fact if you then run clear water through the filter it will give up some of the dye back into the clear water turning it light blue. The blue dye removal is NOT an indication of if the filter is working. Our technolgy does not "wear out" like other filters where you need to test to see if it's working. With ours, it's simple - if water is passing through, it's good." I even gave them THIS VIDEO LINK and they REVIEWED it and this is what they say: "If you look closely at video it is not clear, it has a blue tint. If he kept squeezing more water through it would be the same color as the water going in. Once the void volume of the filter is dispelled there is nothing to remove the dye, other than the small amount that attach to the fibers (like dying your cloths.) And that will diminish very quickly."

Tough_Boots wrote:

flagscott wrote:Anyone know a good way to test for a busted filter?

Unless you have your own labratory, its probably cheaper and faster just to buy a new one.

DESIGN team at Sawyer wrote:Our technolgy does not "wear out" like other filters where you need to test to see if it's working. With ours, it's simple - if water is passing through, it's good."

flagscott wrote:Folks.....I spoke to the DESIGN team at Sawyer and this is what they say: "The sawyer filters are barrier filters. We literally filter out the pathogens (viruses, bacteria, cysts, etc.).