For backpacking, I have a water filter system where I can attach a "dirty water" bag full of water at one end and an empty "clean water" bag at the other, hang it up, and the one turns into the other. It's great when I only want about 2L of water, the amount the "dirty water" bag holds, and that's how much I want for any typical backpacking trip.
When I'm car camping, water may not be nearby and there seem to be fewer and fewer spigots available to fill up a multi-gallon jug. I turn to the water filter system, but the backpacking one becomes quite cumbersome when looking to get 5 gallons (20L) or more through. That's a lot of refills.
So I found a way to scale it up a little.
A bigger supply to fill a bigger jug.
It still has my trusty Hydroblu Versa Flow as the central filtration, but a much larger roll up bag supports the supply of unfiltered water to it. This one holds about 4L. It expects to be used rolled up, but I'd rather be able to pour in a bit more when the bag gets low, so I leave it open. One does have to be careful pouring since spilled water could travel down the outside of the tube and into the otherwise filtered water at the bottom.
These bags come in two styles: with the out port at the bottom or with the out port on the side. The side port design is for silty water. Fill it and wait and whatever is in suspension can settle to the bottom, then the water can be drawn off from above the particulates to filter. I haven't had to deal with water like this and chose not to be prepared for that eventuality.
The hose has a quick disconnect on the bag side, so if filling it directly from the water supply, one doesn't have to have the hose getting in the way. The other end is simply cut and fits onto the end of the filter.
Making the filter stay in place.
The filter would rather be floating around in the clean water or flopping out onto the ground. There's nothing to connect it to a large jug opening. I use a bit of hair elastic to hold it in place. I'd rather not have it in the water.
This system actually goes a bit faster than my backpacking system because there's so much height from the top of the water source to the filter. That's all weight pushing on the water at the filter making it go. As such, it is desirable to have the filter as low as possible.
More "dirty water" bags to keep it going.
The tube needs to have no air in it if I want it all to flow through quickly, and getting it that way takes a touch of fiddling. (Best to just let the water flow through, then attach the filter, then get it pointing into the jug.) I'd rather only do the fiddling once, so I have secondary bags to bring water to it and pour in the open top. There's two labeled dirty to fill and bring to the system. They're not as easy to fill in some water sources as the roll bag. Sometimes one must simply scoop and pour get get them filled.
Handy clean bags too.
The set came as four bags, so I've got some left over to have extra clean water. It might be nice to have them more obviously differentiated than just labeling but no mistakes have been made yet. I will often fill these so I have more time before having to go find water again. I'll also fill the dirty ones to have water for the solar shower.
With this, it'll still be a commitment of an hour or more to get water instead of a quick few minutes at a spigot. A bit of wild water is often easier to find than that spigot. Often tastes better too.
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