Best water purifier 2022: clean water, wherever you roam

We round up the best water purifiers to ensure you always have clean water on your adventures

Although most of the time we're lucky enough to have clean water easily to hand, it's not always that easy in the outdoors. Even if you invest in the best hiking water bottle and make sure it's filled up before you leave home, long days and hot weather can mean you end up water-less halfway through a hike. And that's to say nothing of wild camping adventures and multi-day expeditions.

In cases where a drinking water tap is elusive, you're left you with the options of either going thirsty, or drinking from local water sources. These can range from fast-flowing streams that are probably fine, through to still water and rivers that probably aren't. While there are a few ways to purify water in the wild, perhaps the easiest is to head out armed with one of the best water purifiers. These are designed to make even the most unpalatable pondwater not only safe to drink, but improve the taste so it's almost like you're just drinking from your kitchen tap.

A quick note before we start. This guide is dedicated to the kind of water purifiers you'd take out and about with you. If you're looking for the kind of thing you keep in your fridge and use to remove impurities from your local tap water, you should head to our best water filter jug guide instead.

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A WATER PURIFIER AND A WATER FILTER?

A water filter will be a common sight around the home; it'll take standard tap water and clear out unpleasant smells, often using a replaceable filter containing activated carbon. Some are connected inline with home taps to perform the same job. However, they're not designed to tackle water that isn't safe to drink in the first place – that's where the water purifier comes in. A water purifier will actually clean dirty water, removing nasties such as viruses, protozoa, bacteria and cysts, none of which you really want to be drinking. Many of the best water purifiers will incorporate a carbon water filter too, which will remove any non-dangerous smell and flavour from the purified water.

If you interested in learning more about the best water purifiers of 2022, continue reading the complete article by Mark Mayne here.