28 Camping Items To Bring On Your Next Trip That Reviewers Say Are Absolute Lifesavers

Practical necessities and extras for making the most of the great outdoors.

‍

9. A Sawyer Squeeze water filtration system that blows any other system out of the — say it with me — water. It's adaptable and easy to use in almost any situation, planned or not. I've encountered some pretty sad excuses for water sources and have still been able to get liquid into the bag to be filtered and safely consumed.

‍

The set comes with one squeeze screw-on water filter, two 32-ounce collapsible pouches, one replaceable pop-up drinking spout, and one syringe filter cleaner. It weighs three ounces. It removes bacteria such as salmonella, cholera, and E. coli, as well as protozoa such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium.

I adore this water filter for its ease of use, adaptability, small size, and zero wait time. Just fill the bag, screw on the filter, and roll the bag to squeeze the filtered water into your bottle. You don't need to wait for it to be done like with water treatment pills or gravity systems, and there's no funky taste — just fresh, clean, crisp water. If even the bag-filling situation sounds like it would take too much time, you can also screw the filter DIRECTLY ONTO A WATER BOTTLE and drink straight from it. Game changing. Either way, it's a quick, lightweight system that I completely recommend.

Note: if you’re immunocompromised, be sure to read all the package instructions to make sure it’s safe for you.

Promising review: "Compact, easy to use lifesaver. There's really not anything to dislike about this water filter. It's small enough and light enough to just be thrown in my pack before heading out, whether I'll be hiking, fishing, camping, or just swimming at a lake. It fits perfectly on the Smartwater water bottles, but be warned. Drinking out of them with the filter on leaves no way for air to enter so they crumple down like at elevation. I simply unscrew the filter a bit after drinking but I could see it annoying some people. As far as I know there's no issues with filtration, I mean I'm not sick yet. ;)" —Amazon Customer

Get it from Amazon for $45.99.

Continue Reading the list of Camping Essentials by Buzzfeed here.