Here is what I think of the Katadyn BeFree, after having used it for 2 months solid on the GR11 in Spain.

Having done the GR11 back in 2016, I knew that the water along the trail was clean, fresh and delicious for most of the time. I did not want to spend a lot of money on a filtration system, knowing I would not need it often. The Katadyn BeFree seemed an excellent choice, and a very affordable one at that.

The reviews I read about the Katadyn BeFree were mixed to say the least. I am only interested with genuine and “Verified Purchase” Reviews. The “positive” reviews did however highly over weigh the “negative” reviews.

I went ahead and ordered my Katadyn BeFree 1.0L online, and was pretty excited when I actually received it. It is lightweight, and very packable, I was looking forward to using it..

Once in the Spanish Pyrenees I finally started using it.. I immediately LOVED it,.. people complained about smells and bad tastes, but I did not have either, the water tasted great. People also complained about bad water flow caused by the filter.. I did not experience this at all, the flow was great!.. Mmmm or was it?

The water in the Spanish Pyrenees Mountains is clean, and I did not have to use my BeFree on a daily basis, but after about 30 fills, the water flow did start slowing down, still nothing major, but I did have to suck a lot harder to get my fill. Then after about another 20 fills I was actually squeezing the BeFree pretty hard. It was at this point that I came across another issue lots of other people had complained about… “Pinhole[s] I would have never known, was it not that I squeezed my BeFree for a drink, and got a squirt of water right in my face.. It was a tiny.. tiny hole, that didn’t even leak, unless you squeezed the bottle.. I was worried that the hole would get bigger, but luckily that never happened. And in all honesty after 900 km crossing the Spanish Pyrenees, I was still managing to get water from my BeFree.