First Need® Deluxe

First Need is the only non-chemical portable certified to instantly remove bacteria, Cryptosporidia and viruses to FEDERAL EPA "PURIFICATION" standards.

It's Quick, Easy, and Convenient!

Connects directly to most trail and bike bottles

Big, comfortable handle

Long, non-kink inlet hose

Fastest pumping rate of all - 1.8 quarts/minute

Backwashable with 25% more capacity

Purifies naturally, instantly and ecologically

No chemicals, hold time or double pumping required

Self-cleaning prefilter/adjustable float FREE with unit

Integral sanitary cover and nylon tote bag

Pump or use gravity feed connections - FREE with unit

No brushing, scraping or contact with pathogens

Unsurpassed in removing trail, agricultural and utility sprays, and foul tastes...
water purified with the First Need tastes mountain spring fresh - like water should taste!
With all these benefits and value it's no wonder First Need Deluxe has been the best selling portable for over 15 years worldwide!

TESTIMONIALS

First Need® Purifier Tests Best in Flow Rate

General Ecology's First Need portable water purifier, the first choice of knowledgeable outdoors people, demonstrated its superiority once again in competitive field tests conducted by the well known outdoors magazine Couloir. In the article "Water Purifiers - How to Avoid Giardia Roulette," (April/May 1996 issue), Couloir's equipment editor, Larry Amkraut, rates top selling portable water purification systems.

Amkraut writes:

"For years, the combination of low cost and reliability made the ubiquitous First Need the most popular filter in North America. ...the First Need is easy to use, it costs little, and it was the fastest filter tested...AND it was the only filter that consistently pumped about a quart a minute."

Amkraut should know: he has trekked across the U.S. and beyond. His tests were conducted under field conditions. When Amkraut reviews a product, he'd BETTER be right, as the Couloir audience is comprised of serious outdoor enthusiasts who look to the magazine for dependable safety expertise.

The First Need easily surpasses the competition because it is the only water "purifier" certified to federal standards that requires NO chemicals to remove all three types of waterborne contaminants:

The First Need also accomplishes its purification with a single pass through and no guessing about additional settling times. It's the quality portable system chosen and depended upon by the military and professional outdoors people who demand the very best.

TESTIMONIALS

What to Consider When Selecting a Portable Drinking Water System


Drinking Water Safety

Purifying your drinking water is a necessity. The only reason to carry any drinking water purifier at all is to protect your health against microbiological and chemical contaminants, hopefully, while retaining the refreshingly delicious taste of mountain spring water. Water-related health threats can occur any time you are in contact with water:

Common sense and precaution are necessary to reduce exposure and to enable you to deal with these challenges.

Primary exposure to drinking water contaminants occurs at the following times:

- When collecting raw water for purification...we recommend using a container for your raw water supply whenever possible, and be selective when possible, to choose a source least likely to be badly polluted. Generally, water sources at higher altitudes tend to be less polluted.

- During purification...be careful to prevent dirty water from dripping or flowing into purified water.

- When storing your purifier either at meal or camp sites, or in your carry pack.

- When handling the unit during storage, back washing, brushing, scraping or maintenance functions.

Remember, the primary microorganisms of concern in most wilderness recreation areas are tough, hardy cystic parasites that resist heat and cold... even freezing...drought, chlorine, iodine and just about everything else. And while bacteria are relatively fragile and have very short life cycles, often less than a day, cysts can exist for months. All microorganisms of chief concern are invisibly small and they cannot be seen, smelled, or detected in any quick and easy manner. Accordingly, you should assume that all wilderness supplies are polluted.

Considerations

  1. It is widely known that Giardia and/or Cryptosporidia have been found in water supplies essentially in every country of the world. Therefore, you always should protect against parasitic cysts and you should insist on 100% reduction. When one cyst can infect, 99.9% may not be good enough, especially when there is no known treatment for Cryptosporidia.
  2. There have been essentially no water-borne typhoid, cholera or hepatitis Type A epidemics in the U.S. for the last 50 years, so the likelihood of infection from U.S. wilderness water sources is low.
  3. Pesticides and herbicides, and possibly other chemicals, can be present anywhere downwind or downstream from major agricultural and industrial areas hundreds of miles away. These contaminants concentrate in streams, rivers and lakes and sometimes are intentionally added for weed and aquatic life control. Water Pollution, Biology, P.D. Abel, John Wiley & Sons, 1989.
  4. Asbestos fibers can be found in very high numbers of more than a million fibers per liter in most western and in some eastern wilderness waters. Even though trace amounts of these chemicals may not make you ill, no one wants to drink asbestos fibers if they can easily be avoided.
  5. Micron ratings must be absolute to be meaningful, and precise measurements are essentially impossible to make. Micron ratings pertain only to physical removal or straining of particles, so absolute micron ratings are only one means of evaluation of effectiveness. Removal of pesticides, herbicides, tastes, odors, most colors and solvents require other purification (separation) mechanisms. Some product claims confuse retention ratings by listing the size of microbes killed rather than the actual retentions. For example, .01 microns, the size of some viruses, is stated for some iodine products but actual retention may be 100X bigger at 1.0 microns. Many units, even those with very low micron ratings, have little or no ability to remove anything other than particles.
  6. According to federal regulations "Pesticide" products rely on chemically poisoning organisms (pests) while "Devices" rely on physically removing them. All products carry an EPA Establishment Registration Number. "Pesticide" products also must carry a second EPA registration number for the "Pesticide" being used. So, decide if you want to use a "Device" or a "Pesticide" product for your water purification needs, and be sure to check the label to choose the right type. In certain applications, it may be desirable to use a "Pesticide" to pretreat water. Complete removal of the "Pesticide" is very desirable after enough kill time has elapsed.
  7. Iodine used directly or from iodine resins is not effective against Cryptosporidia and larger pathogens, and most iodine resin based systems require double pass through for effectiveness against viruses , especially at low water temperatures. Some iodine resin systems require 10 minutes of hold or kill time, in addition to double pass through, to achieve 99.99% reduction of viruses. There is no practical way to know if a water source contains pathogens. This means that for consistent virus and perhaps for bacteria reduction, when using iodine resin systems, all water should be pumped through twice, and then held for 10 additional minutes. It is essential that carbon post filters not be used, as they stop pesticidal action. General Ecology's First Need® system removes cysts, bacteria, viruses and viral toxins in a single pass.
  8. All prominent products being marketed today carrying an EPA Establishment Registration number and/or a product registration number are represented to meet all current, pertinent, EPA and other federal regulations. Otherwise they should not be permitted on the market, but EPA registration does not ensure effectiveness.

    So, now that you know why you need to purify and some background, you can more intelligently select the right portable purifier for your individual outdoor recreation needs.

A Water Purifier Should:

  1. Be effective against the target contaminants it's supposed to remove, under essentially any and all conditions to be encountered. This seems self-evident but it isn't always the case. "Pesticide" product effectiveness, in particular, varies and is affected by temperature, concentration, time available, other chemicals in the water (iron, nitrates, phosphates, etc.) and by silt, mud, algae, organics, in some cases by pH, and the condition of the unit. "Device" products typically are not affected, or are little affected by most of these considerations.
  2. Signal when it is working effectively, and, more importantly, perhaps, when it is not working. Again, this seems self-evident. With "Device" products the signal is specific --- if water is coming through it should be safe from particles including cysts, mud, silt, etc., and possibly bacteria, depending upon the absolute micron retention. "Pesticide" units give no signal other than taste, which should be monitored with each use. "Pesticide" units fitted with carbon post filters lack even this signal. Resin systems rely on rapid and intimate interaction between target organisms and iodine in the resins. Iron, mud, and silt can coat the resins reducing or eliminating this interaction. "Devices", annoyingly, can clog, but it's better to know the end of capacity than to continue to rely on a process that will continue to flow long after effectiveness is depleted.
  3. Protect users from concentrations of pathogens accumulated on component surfaces. Our immune systems often, especially in the case of bacteria and viruses, can defend against low level concentrations of bacteria while larger numbers of concentrated pathogens will cause clinical illness. Therefore, concentrations of pathogens should be contained, isolated, and made inaccessible to users. For units requiring brushing, aerosolized residue and backwash effluent present the potential hazards of post purification inoculation and infection, sometimes by secondary transfer - from filter surface to fingers to cookware or clothing and then to mouth, for example.
  4. Remove chemical hazards as well as microorganisms. Even small amounts of some chemicals such as dioxin, for example, can cause health problems and even minute traces can have long term effects.
  5. Remove asbestos and other microfine debris. A known carcinogen when inhaled, asbestos is considered to be a possible carcinogen when ingested. Mud and other debris can host a wide range of microscopic organisms and parasites including cysts, bacteria, and viruses, and can contain traces of pesticides. The largest U.S. waterborne disease outbreak (in Milwaukee, WI) was attributed to debris encrusted Cryptosporidia.
  6. Be convenient to use and versatile. It's desirable to be able to use a unit in pump mode or in gravity assist mode and it should be straight forward to attach it to a trail bottle or other storage bottle.
  7. Be designed to avoid cross-contamination between inlet and outlet fittings and hoses, and should have a sanitary cover to prevent contamination of the outlet, even in campsite and meal preparation areas.
  8. Be field maintainable with easily accessible pump parts. If it can malfunction, it eventually will.
  9. Provide deliciously refreshing drinking water, free of chemical taste, odors, colors and sediment.
  10. Be rugged and intrinsically reliable as to it's basic function, i.e., if it "works" it should produce safe drinking water. It should not be easily damaged by freezing, dropping, tinkering, poking or other general misuse. Preferably, some method of checking integrity should be included or described, to check and assure proper functioning after shipping, dropping or servicing the unit.
  11. Be selected for your particular mode of use. Sometimes weight and compactness, after meeting all of the above requirements, are prime considerations. At other times flow rate, ease of use, ease of maintenance, flexibility of use or other considerations will be more or less important. With the wide selection of products available today you can choose what's best for your intended use.
  12. Be reasonably priced. Cost per liter usually is not a prime consideration, and even convenience of use, while important, should be secondary to effectiveness and dependability.

Finally, you should try to learn about various products you are considering and also about the manufacturers. How long have the products been on the market? Who has used them? Have they been proven effective in preventing waterborne health hazards? What about warranties, test results, customer service and other very important factors? What other markets does the manufacturer serve and who are its customers, (sophisticated users such as medical research teams, airlines, and corporations can't afford mistakes and often evaluate products thoroughly!)? All of these are important factors and probably say more than editorial "choices" and tabulated feature and fluff comparisons about your eventual satisfaction with the systems you select to protect your drinking water health. After all, you are the one responsible for your own drinking water safety and health.

IMPORTANT NOTE:General Ecology's First Need® microfilter carries an absolute rating of 0.4 microns---even finer than public health requirements world wide. This means no waterborne enteric disease bacteria should pass through. Compare this with other products that will state their "average", "approximate", or "nominal" micron retention ratings, or do not specify absolute. Tighter retentions such as 0.2, even when absolute, do not contribute additional safety, only additional effort to operate and reduced capacity.

TESTIMONIALS

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