The CamelBak All Clear: Clean water on-the-go

CamelBak All Clear – $179.95

The UV water purification market has been dominated by SteriPEN for the last ten years, since the technology, which has long been used in bulk commercial sterilisation, became small enough to incorporate into a hand-held device. The emergence of the All Clear a couple of years ago marked the first time a viable alternative had been available in Australia, but how does it compare with the SteriPEN? I took one on a two-day paddle down the Nepean River in NSW to find out.

The main difference that CamelBak brings to the process is the inclusion of the bottle, pretty much a necessary part of the operation anyway. While it’s true that the SteriPEN can be inserted into other containers, a glass of water for instance, most users will be processing water in a 750-millilitre bottle, and CamelBak know their bottles. The UV lamp is incorporated into the special cap (a regular cap is included for normal use and a padded pouch to protect the lamp during transport) and the bottle need only be agitated horizontally for 60 seconds to ensure the purification is complete. An LCD screen confirms the success of the operation.

Another point of difference is the use of a rechargeable battery, again integrated into the lamp cap. Although SteriPEN also make a rechargeable unit, the Ultra, the Classic is their flagship model and that uses four AA batteries. A USB cable (supplied) plugs directly into the CamelBak unit and each charge is enough to last 80 cycles, or 60 litres. That’s a good, long hike and can be easily extended with the use of a solar panel or portable battery unit. Also, the lamp is programmed to last 10,000 cycles before automatically shutting down, which seems reasonable. So far, so good.

My main quibble with the All Clear is in the size of the bottle – 750 millilitres is simply not enough to last very long. In my kayak it was very easy to scoop up some water from beside me and drink after a minute’s shake, but on a hike in the backcountry you’d need to be refilling it too often. Of course, you could carry more 750-millilitre bottles, for instance the CamelBak Eddy, and fill them from the All Clear unit, or you could screw the lamp lid onto a wide mouth Nalgene bottle (it is compatible), but then you’d be wasting lamp life by blasting it twice just to make sure. I’d much rather see a one-litre bottle model, perfect for neutralising enough water for a two-litre bladder.

The housing of the lamp is rugged and backed by CamelBak’s lifetime guarantee, whereas the SteriPen is more fragile and breakage/failure is not uncommon. I would expect the All Clear to be, on average, a more durable unit, and given the price (nearly double a SteriPen Classic) I certainly hope this is the case. Only long-term testing would confirm this.

I would certainly recommend considering this as an alternative to the SteriPEN for bushwalking and travel to third world countries. I just hope a one-litre bottle version is on the horizon.