Purewell Outdoor Pump Water Filter Review

Reviewed by

Seb and Michelle

We've tested over 6,500 products in the last 5 years – collaborating with over 4,000 brands and bringing our style of reviews to multiple platforms. Every video, every review and every post has started with a video we shot ourselves after testing these products. More about me →

750ml, One Filter, and a Pouch That Could Save Your Life

Let me tell you everything you need to know about this Sawyer pouch. The setup is this: a soft 750-milliliter Cnoc squeeze pouch that you fill from any water source, plus a Sawyer Micro Squeeze filter that screws directly onto it. You fill the pouch with whatever questionable water you’ve got, attach the filter, squeeze, and out comes clean, drinkable water. That’s it. The whole thing fits in a pocket. You can check the current price on Amazon right here: Sawyer Micro Squeeze with Cnoc Pouch.

What makes this thing stand out isn’t just what it does, it’s where it does it. We’re talking about hiking, camping, any kind of travel where you might not have a choice about your water source. But it really hits differently when you live somewhere like us, in a hurricane-prone zone where clean running water isn’t always guaranteed during storms. You might be in that exact kind of situation, right? You need water, you have a source that may have bacteria, may have microplastics, may even have sediment and dirt in it, and you need something that works right now. This is that thing.

The Two-Piece System and How It Works

So the setup is two parts. The first is the Cnoc 750ml soft squeeze pouch. It holds just under a liter, fills quickly from any source, and collapses flat when empty so it doesn’t take up pack space. The second part is the Sawyer Micro Squeeze filter itself, which is the small cylindrical piece that screws directly onto the pouch’s threaded opening.

All of the filtration lies in that filter. When you fill the pouch with sketchy water and squeeze, the water passes through the filter’s internal membrane before it exits on the other side. Whatever sediment, whatever bacteria, whatever the source was, it gets dealt with inside that little cylinder. The bubbles you see at the outlet during use? That’s not a problem. That’s the filtration system doing its job, working through its different stages. Really cool to see it in action.

The capacity claim on this filter is 100,000 gallons before replacement. 100,000 gallons from one small filter. That’s amazing, and it’s what separates this from cheaper single-use filtration options. You’re not buying replacement cartridges constantly. You buy this once and it goes with you for years of trips.

Two drinking methods work with this setup. You can press down on the pouch and squeeze the water out through the filter outlet. Or you can use it like a straw, put your mouth on the outlet, and just use suction to pull the water through. Both work. And the water? It tastes fantastic.

Squeezing Through Contaminated Water

When we actually ran the filter during the demo, you can see the water flowing through with those little bubbles at the outlet. That’s not air getting in wrong, that’s the filtration process. The water pushes through the membrane stages inside the filter body, and what comes out the other end is clean and drinkable. No boiling, no tablets, no waiting.

The squeeze method is fast and intuitive. Fill the 750ml pouch, screw the filter on tight, flip it outlet-down, and press. Water comes out. You can drink directly from that outlet without any extra cup or container. In a situation where you need water fast and you don’t have extra gear to mess with, that matters more than it sounds.

And then the straw method is useful in a different way. You don’t even need to squeeze at all. Put your mouth to the filter outlet and draw water from the pouch with suction. It flows right through. So even if you’ve got weak hand strength, or your hands are cold, or you’re just tired from a long hike, you’ve got that second option without any modification to the gear.

The water coming out tastes clean. Not filtered-water-bottle flat, not chemically treated. It tastes fantastic, which matters when you’re drinking it all day on a trip.

The Backflush Step Nobody Warns You About

Here’s the friction. The Sawyer Micro Squeeze has a built-in back-flushing system to clean the filter membrane after heavy use. You swap out the standard drinking adapter for a blue cleaning adapter, load a small syringe with clean water, and push clean water backward through the filter in the opposite direction of normal flow. Boom, the filter is cleared and ready to go again.

The problem is obvious the moment you try to demonstrate it: you need clean water to do the backflush. If you’re in the field and you’ve burned through your clean water supply, you can’t back-flush. During the demo there was a moment where the whole process had to pause because there was no clean water in the syringe yet. As we put it, “obviously right now I’m defeating the purpose clearly.” You have to plan around this. Carry a small reserve of clean water specifically for maintenance, or time your backflush for when you’re near a known clean source. The filter’s cleaning system is smart. But it’s not self-contained, and you won’t figure that out until you’re mid-trip if nobody tells you upfront.

The blue adapter and syringe do come in the kit. So the hardware is there. You just need to think ahead about the water supply for that maintenance step.

Learn more

Sawyer Micro Squeeze Water Filter

Get the best price on Amazon →

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Who Should Actually Pack This

Day hikers, weekend campers, and anyone doing multi-day backcountry trips are the obvious fit here. You’re going to encounter water sources that aren’t tap water, and you’re going to want to drink from them without getting sick. This handles that situation in a package that weighs almost nothing and fits in the hip belt pocket of most packs.

But the use case we keep coming back to is emergency preparedness. We live in a zone where hurricanes happen. When they do, clean running water sometimes stops. Having a Sawyer Micro Squeeze in your go-bag means you can pull water from a bucket, a stream, a rain barrel, whatever you’ve got access to, and filter it to drinkable quality right there. That kind of flexibility is worth a lot when infrastructure goes down.

Travelers heading somewhere with unreliable tap water also fall squarely in this category. The 750ml Cnoc pouch paired with this filter is a much lighter solution than carrying large water bottles or a pump-style purifier. You fill, you filter, you drink. The whole kit collapses into almost nothing in your luggage.

This thing is so useful in so many different ways. That’s not a throwaway line. A single piece of gear that covers hiking, camping, hurricanes, travel, and general outdoor safety at a capacity of 100,000 gallons is a serious value-per-use ratio.

Before You Head Out With It

A few things worth knowing before your first use. Get familiar with the two adapters before you need them in the field. The standard blue drinking outlet and the blue backflush adapter look similar, and swapping them under pressure (literally and figuratively) is something to practice at home first. You want the threading motion and the tight-seal step to be automatic before you’re crouching over a river somewhere.

Pre-fill that backflush syringe and store it with your kit. Pack a small amount of clean water specifically for filter maintenance. It doesn’t need to be much, just enough to run a backflush when the filter starts slowing down. This is the one prep step people skip and then regret mid-trip.

Both drinking methods work, but the suction method is worth practicing too. Some people assume you have to squeeze the pouch every time. You don’t. Knowing you can just sip from it like a straw without any squeezing is useful in situations where you want to keep both hands free. Try both methods before you go so neither feels unfamiliar when you actually need a drink.

Check the current price and availability here: Sawyer Micro Squeeze with Cnoc 750ml Pouch on Amazon.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can this filter handle microplastics, not just bacteria?

The Sawyer Micro Squeeze is designed to filter out bacteria and sediment, and microplastics is one of the contaminant types it’s noted to address in the product description. It’s one of the reasons this system stands out beyond just basic bacterial filtration for camping. If microplastic filtration is your primary concern in a specific region, check the product specs on the Amazon listing for the most current filtration claims.

Does the Cnoc pouch hold up to repeated filling and squeezing?

The 750ml Cnoc pouch is a soft-sided squeeze vessel designed for this kind of use. Like any soft-sided bottle, it won’t last forever under aggressive use, but it’s built for repeated fill-and-squeeze cycles. Treat it like any piece of soft gear: don’t leave it in a hot car, don’t let it dry out with debris inside, and rinse it between uses.

Do you need to do anything to the filter before using it the first time?

Most hollow-fiber filters like the Sawyer Micro Squeeze benefit from a quick initial flush before drinking. Fill the pouch with clean water and run it through the filter a couple of times before your first real use. It clears out anything left from the manufacturing process and gets the membrane wet, which is the condition it operates best in.

What happens if the filter freezes?

Freezing is a known risk for hollow-fiber filters. If water trapped inside the membrane freezes, it can crack the fibers and compromise the filtration permanently, with no visible sign of damage. If you’re camping in cold conditions, keep the filter in your sleeping bag at night or in an interior pocket during the day to prevent it from freezing.

Is there a warranty on the Sawyer Micro Squeeze?

Sawyer backs the Micro Squeeze with a lifetime guarantee against manufacturing defects. The specific terms are on their website and on the Amazon product listing. It’s one of the more generous warranties in the outdoor filtration category and worth checking before purchase.

Can you use this filter inline with a hydration bladder hose?

Yes, the Sawyer Micro Squeeze is designed to work inline with most standard hydration reservoir hoses. That setup lets you drink straight from the hose while your reservoir does the holding. It’s a different use case from the squeeze pouch method and expands how you can build your hydration system around the same filter.

Learn more

Sawyer Micro Squeeze Water Filter

Get the best price on Amazon →

This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

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About the reviewer

Seb and Michelle

We've tested over 6,500 products in the last 5 years - collaborating with over 4,000 brands and bringing our style of reviews to multiple platforms. Every video, every review and every post has started with a video we shot ourselves after testing these products.

Read more about me →