Valuable And Efficient Glen Patrick Coolers
My wife learned the hard way. The cold, clear water of the St. John River in northern Maine looked too refreshing, so she'd lazily dip her cup as we rode the spring torrent. Three weeks later she wasn't feeling so hot. Too bad we didn't know about that not-so-pure tributary stream coming down from Quebec. Many vicious aches and monster pills followed, and now we purify all water before it touches our lips. In my ongoing search for a filter that will keep me healthy without weighing me down, I packed glen Patrick water cooler on a recent trip to the Beartooth Mountains in Montana.
At a mere 5 1/2 inches high, 2 3/4 inches in diameter, and weighing in at only 7 ounces, this water cooler is the answer to a weight freak's prayers. It screws onto the top of a standard water bottle, eliminating the need for bottle adapters and the hassle of dealing with too many hoses. To keep debris out of the filter element when not in use, it has a smart rubber cover that fits over the bottom and dangles unobtrusively from the side when you're Pumping. For further convenience, the hose stores inside a handy compartment at the top of the unit. Yes indeed, for compactness, light weight, and simplicity, this water cooler is hard to beat.
Yet, the glen Patrick water cooler has a few flaws. While pumping it, I frequently pinched the palm of my hand where the pump handle meets the pump chamber. Moreover, after only three days of moderate use in clean alpine lakes, the cartridge clogged and the filter shut down. In separate trials, two other Backpacker editors reported the same clogging problem, in One case after only two days of use.
Also, the pump is attached to the to the pump chamber with a pair of plastic interlocking C-rings about the diameter of a nickel. To remove the handle of the filter (to inspect the pumping mechanism, for instance) you have to unsnap the rings. These tiny, dark-purple plastic pieces are quite easy to lose in flowing rivers and deep pools, as one tester discovered. Once lost, the filter is useless. Our suggestion: When performing maintenance, make sure you're over a clean, flat surface so the rings will show up if dropped. Better yet, Glen Patrick water coolers should eliminate these small, detachable, easily-lost parts.
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