The Eco Vessel Aqua Vessel Ultra Lite filled with murky stream water

EcoVessel Aqua Vessel Ultra Lite filter water bottle
£24.95
Made from: Tritan plastic
Colours: boulder blue, khaki, violet
Capacity: 750ml
Dimensions: 24cm tall; 7.6cm diameter at base
Country of manufacture: China

You’ve been working hard pushing up that hill.

It has been warm work and your water is running low but you need to rehydrate.

How safe is that mountain stream? Can you refill without risking a jippy tummy?

It’s a perennial problem for outdoor fans, especially on longer outings and there are various solutions. You can, of course, risk it – after checking there are no decaying sheep upstream – and many of us are still going strong despite regular top-ups from becks and streams.

Boiling will get rid of virtually all the nasties, but who carries a stove all the time? Ultra-violet devices and expensive filters can also treat water.

EcoVessel has a low-price solution to some of the most common nasties that can lurk in water sources: parasites such as cryptosporidium and giardia.

The £24.95 Aqua Vessel is a 750ml plastic drinking bottle, which contains no BPA, a chemical that has been linked with health worries, with water delivered to its drinking spout via a MiraGuard filter.

The MiraGuard claims to kill 99.9 per cent of the two parasites which can cause problems for outdoor enthusiasts.

It also reduces – though doesn’t claim to remove completely – toxic chemicals such as DDT and arsenic, heavy metals including led, mercury, copper and aluminium, along with microscopic pathogens, chlorine, sediment and dirt.

It has an activated coconut shell carbon filter that sits inside the bottle and means water drawn from the spout passes through the filter.

The bottle is filled with water from a Yorkshire Dales stream

MiraGuard doesn’t protect from food-borne or disease-causing bacteria, viruses, germs or other disease-causing organisms.

We gave the Aqua Vessel a quick outing to test it after being supplied with the bottle by EcoVessel.

It’s simple to use. Unscrew the cap, fill the bottle – in our case with very brown water laden with peat and possibly iron after heavy rain – and put the top back on.

You then use the Aqua Vessel like a hydration system by sucking on the spout. Tipping the bottle up to drink isn’t an option as there’s a small hole in the lid to allow air in as water is withdrawn.

The water tasted fine, with a good neutral taste and no taint from the peat or any other elements that might have been present.

The MiraGuard filter sits in the bottle and water is drawn through it up the drinking straw

Analysis of water that had been through the MiraGuard filter showed a much clearer liquid, devoid of the suspended particles of peat – which are harmless but a little off-putting.

Each filter is claimed to treat more than 450 litres before it needs replacing.

And, more than a week on from our test, there is not sign of any ill effects from our Yorkshire Dales fell water.

A simple solution for walkers and outdoor fans worried about using water from streams on the hills.

More details are on the EcoVessel website.