Katadyn Steripen Ultra Portable UV Water Purifier – Rechargeable 2200mAh Battery, Eliminates 99.99% Microorganisms, Fast Water Treatment for Hiking, Camping & Travel

I bought the SteriPEN for a different use case than I suspect most other people have. I have a long term sinus condition that requires me to irrigate my nose & sinuses frequently, two or three times per day. My ENT doc made it clear that using plain tap water may have germs that cause infection and is unsafe for nasal irrigation. Unfortunately, that meant that it was necessary to boil water in advance & store it in sterilized containers, or else buy gallon containers of distilled water. My wife and I travel fairly frequently, so we had to take water with us---a hassle if you travel by car, and impossible if you travel by plane.Then one day, after months of this, it occurred to me that UV sterilization might be an option to replace boiled or distilled water. I shopped on Amazon, and found the SteriPEN products and read both the product descriptions and user reviews. The SteriPEN Ultra USB Rechargeable seemed like a really great fit. Before I purchased the SteriPEN, though, I talked to my ENT about whether it would be safe to use to sterilize the water I use for nasal irrigation. He 'blessed' the idea with no hesitation. I ordered the unit from Amazon and have been using it now for several weeks with no ill effects. It has proved to be a huge help to me--no sterilized glass jars, no gallon plastic jugs--in the convenience of preparing the water I use to make my irrigation solution. I use the SteriPEN on its 'half liter' setting to sterilize two cups of water at a time; I get the water from the tap & in less than a minute I've got water that I can safely use to irrigate with. The battery charge lasts a long time--weeks, not days--and when its time to recharge I just plug it in the USB on my computer and let it sit overnight.One thing I want to make clear: in the literature that comes with the product, the manufacturer says clearly that the SteriPEN is NOT a sterilizer. I think this is something their lawyers made them say, because if the unit doesn't sterilize, why would anyone buy the product. But be that as it may, for the record let me state that I didn't rely on their literature or advertising for my use of their product. I thought up this usage on my own, and I ran it by my doctor and got his OK. So, if you think you might want to use it for an application similar to the one I have described here, I urge you to get your doctor's approval before proceeding.I'm very happy with this product. It really works well for me, has excellent build quality, and hopefully will last a long time.

(Problem below) I recently went to Peru on a study abroad trip and this gave me confidence when drinking water. (I also now use it on US water. It is scary what is still in the water we drink in the US and this may not help much with our problems, but it makes me feel better :/ ) I took Typhoid pills to avoid any food-related problems, but having this for drinking water, tooth brush water, or even a little water to wash your face, is key. I absolutely loved it and, as I was on a trip of almost 30 students where almost all of them had a SteriPen of almost all the different makes and sizes, I really love this specific style (Ultra). The super small one I remember was hard to put in some containers and because the light could only penetrate so deep, they didn't feel as secure as I did.***The only problem I did have was it not working occasionally. It's strange, but sometimes I would try to purify water (by the rules) several times, and it would never work. I had to borrow other people's SteriPens, because I thought mine was broke! Another student with the same model (Ultra) found that hers did the same and that the only way to make it work was to run it under cold water, then put it back in the glass/cup/bottle. Quite annoying*** ALL OTHER MODELS OF THE STERIPEN WORKED PERFECTLY!I chose this (after doing thorough research on all the models), because I liked that it was USB run and didn't need batteries which frankly causes a lot of waste in our world. However, it's inability to always work is a serious problem. I don't want to scare people from running away from this make and certainly not the SteriPen in general, but its good to know. Also, NO other make or model of the SteriPen had ANY problems. The only issue I had is isolated to the Ultra model. ALL OTHER MODELS WORK PERFECTLY!!!

I bought this back in 2021 and it's been working well with my weenie weekend warrior backpacking/kayak camping/bikepacking trips. Works better than anything I've tried prior. I still keep water sanitizing pills just in case however.I used the Sawyer Squeeze Micro but had issues with cloggage after only a handful of trips.I had much better luck with the Sawyer Squeeze Mini but I had one freeze on a particularly cold trip and crack making it difficult to know if the filter was working or not. This made me leery of filters in general. You can never 100% trust whether or not your filter is working.I then tried the Kayadyn BeFree to good effect. It's much easier to clean out and it has better flow rate but the BeFree started to let small specs of sand through and if sand is getting through bacteria certainly is as well.The "Steripen Ultra" zaps bacteria, viruses, protosoa but the downside is that it can run out of batteries and it does nothing to filter dirty water. I feel this an acceptable compromise.