ProView – Grayl Geopress Water Purifier

On more than one (non-commercial) occasion, I’ve gotten on the river, clipped two-liter water bottles to my boat, and then finished them promptly within the first hour or so on the water. Then I am a living testament to “water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.” Often this predicament goes hand in hand with a sole sleeve of Pringles, a Clif Bar, and maybe a few beers. In every state I’ve boated in I find that I’m more thirsty on the water than doing most of the other sports I engage in – especially right before any hard stretches of whitewater.

Enter, the Grayl!

My first test of the Grayl was on a day trip R-2ing Brown’s Canyon on the Arkansas River in Colorado. It was a particularly warm June morning and knowing I had the Grayl with me, I promptly finished my other water bottles at the put-in while we waited for our shuttle and I filled the Grayl. I took a sip before carabineer-ing it to my boat and the water was crisp and refreshing with no weird taste. Throughout the day I refilled a few more times and was so happy to quench my pre-rapid dry mouth and share my water with my co-captain.

After our day on the Arkansas River, my husband was convinced that the Grayl was a new boating must-have and purchased the Ultralight purifier for himself for kayaking and rafting in addition to convincing two other friends that they needed Grayls site-unseen. After another trip down Gunnison Gorge which requires a one-mile dusty, steep hike down to the river with all of your gear, we easily convinced another set of friends to order one after my husband and I each carried only our empty Grayl’s down the trail while they carried several full water bottles. We also recommended it to a friend doing graduate school research in Africa – she purchased one before she left.

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In addition to loving them on single-day trips, we really got to take advantage of them on a week-long trip rafting down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho. One of the most annoying chores on multi-day trips is pumping water for your group, but because three of the eight of us had Grayls and were able to just dunk our water bottles in the river instead of taking liters from the water jugs, we almost eliminated the need to pump and were able to save most of our water for meals.  The variety of colors is also great especially if you have a crew of folks like us with Grayls so that you can better tell who each bottle belongs to.

Ease of Use

The Grayl works like a french press, however, you are pushing water through a serious filter, so it does take some effort. I found that it was much easier to press the water on something stable like the ground or a cooler and was challenging when I tried to do it on the rubber of a raft or my thigh. It also takes longer than pressing coffee (unless you are much more patient making coffee than I am), but even still is so much faster than pumping.

Room For Improvement

As a note, the one drawback we found was in the Ultralight Purifier that my husband purchased because it doesn’t have any sort of tether for the lid, so there were some precarious moments where it was almost lost in the river and times it did drop in and then we had to sanitize it. Some sort of bungee tether would improve the design on the smaller one so you don’t have to worry about losing the top.

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Final Word

The Grayl isn’t the lightest or smallest water filtering system but is incredibly convenient and now a staple on the river for my family and many of my friends. It is easy to use, easy to clip to your boat or your pack, and safe. I would (and do) recommend this water bottle wholeheartedly.

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