Katadyn BeFree AC Water Filter

Filtering or purifying water is one of the great hassles of adventuring. There are loads of methods out there to bring your water to a safely drinkable state, and each has its pros and cons. But things have been improving of late with hollowfibre filters, with one of the more popular being Katadyn’s BeFree soft-flask water filters. They have been around for a few years, but 2025 has seen a range of updates to the BeFree that make it better than ever.

Before getting onto what’s been updated, however, it’s worth noting what’s stayed the same: The removal of cysts, bacteria and protozoa (including cryptosporidium); the convenience of a collapsible flask; swish and shake cleaning; and an excellent flow rate. The last of these comes with a caveat, though, and it involves one of the new features—a secondary activated-carbon (AC) filter. It’s a little grey cylinder made of, you guessed it, activated carbon, that helps improve the taste of the water by removing dissolved substances that might add an odour or flavour taint to the water, chlorine being one of them. There’s a downside, though: The AC filter noticeably detracts from the flow rate. Luckily, it’s optional and easily removable, and weighs virtually nothing when dried out. You can simply use the flask without it, and pop it in only if necessary.

A few other improvements: It now has a large clip-attachment point; the flip-top lid is burlier; and it’s 100ml smaller. Wait! Being smaller is a good thing? In this instance, yes, as reducing it from 600ml to 500ml helps—along with a now-narrower base—make it easier to squeeze into the mesh front pockets of trail-running vests and some hiking packs. This is important; the convenience of a front-mounted filtered-water flask is a really key advantage, as it allows you to access your filtered drinking water on the fly. Note that thanks to the new clip point, you don’t even necessarily need a front pocket to keep the flask up front. Also note there’s a 1L AC BeFree version, but personally, I prefer the 500ml one and just adding water to it as I go.

Thanks to the updates, the BeFree is better than ever. Katadyn’s tag line is “Making water drinking water”. For its AC BeFree filters, though, you could add “Effortlessly” to that.

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