That 12-volt pump I trusted left us dry 6 miles in

Last month near Mount Shasta, my group stopped for water refills and the pump just stopped pushing after maybe 2 minutes. I had read tons of reviews saying it was reliable for years, but nobody mentioned that cold temps can make the internal seal stiffen up. We had to ration our bottles the rest of the loop, which took 7 hours instead of 5. Has anyone else had a water filter or pump fail right when you needed it most, and what did you switch to?

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the_joel19d ago

Honestly, my buddy Carl had a squeeze filter freeze up on us near Lassen last November, and we ended up melting snow with a tiny camp stove for an hour. That whole time I kept thinking how stupid it was that we trusted a single piece of gear for all our water. We all switched to gravity systems with a backup chemical tablet kit, and now I never leave without those drops, even if the pump looks fine.