Aquamira Frontier Pro Water Filter

I’ve long carried water purification tablets (iodine) in all of my outdoors, backpacking, survival, and tactical kits. They’re inexpensive and take up minimal space; there’s really no reason why NOT to have them. Iodine tablets are effective against bacteria, viruses and giardia.

With tablets you obviously need to be able to halt your movement, fill a container with water, add the tablets, and give the tablets time to work. I wanted something where if I needed to, I could stop at a water source, dip a hose into the water, and drink relatively clean water. Enter the Aquamira Frontier Pro Water filter:

The Frontier Pro is a compact, non-pumping water filter. Keep in mind that these compact filters are not always effective against bacteria or viruses, so the water source you are intending to drink out of can not be heavily contaminated.

The Frontier Pro is 99.9% effective against giardia and cryptosporidium. Activated Coconut Shell Carbon reduces waterborne chemicals, improves taste, and eliminates offensive odors. A Miraguard antimicrobial coating suppresses the growth of bacteria, algae, fungus, mold, and mildew within the filter media.

The Frontier Pro comes with the filter itself, four extra pre-filters (a fifth is already installed inside the filter), and a water tube.

The latest version of the Frontier Pro has the Universal Quick Connect (UQC) fitting. The UQC fitting allows you to attach directly to any Camelbak, Source, Platypus, or Nalgene water bladders. This way you can fill your water bladder, attach the Frontier Pro directly to the drinking tube, and continue your movement (as seen on the package cover).

The filter body is a series of removable threaded chambers. These chambers can be changed to work with whatever type of water container you choose to use.

In the picture above, you can see the attachment point for the tube. This gives you the ability to attach the tube and filter water directly from a stream or other water source.

The chamber containing the pre-filter can be seen above. It’s clear to see how easy it is to replace the pre-filters as needed.

The drinking end of the Frontier Pro is a simple bite valve, protected by the plastic end cap. The end cap is held in place by rubber retaining bands, making it impossible to lose the cap. You simply pull the cap up and off the bite valve, and allow it to drop on the side of the filter body.

The “Bite Me” valve is a nice touch, shown below.

All in all, the entire Frontier Pro is a tight package easily stowed in a belt or utility pouch in your kit. I simply use two rubber bands to keep the whole package together. 

In addition to its ability to connect to standard water bladders, the Frontier Pro can also be used as a gravity feed water filter, as seen on the package cover. Simply by removing the bite valve and attaching the Frontier Pro to a suspended water container, you now have a gravity feed filtration system. The Frontier Pro’s standard threads also give you the ability the attach the filter onto most disposable water bottles (Arrowhead, Dasani, etc.), also illustrated on the package cover.

There is an adapter available from Aquamira that allows you to thread the Frontier Pro onto any standard home water heater. In an emergency or disaster situation, this will make it possible to simultaneously drain and filter the water from your water heater.

I’ve yet to do a field test on the Frontier Pro, but I will report back once I am able to get some hands-on experience.