Question:
A thought occurred to me, perhaps a bad thought. But that's what I'm here to find out.

Has anyone tried a Brita water filter for backpacking? At $5 per filter it would be a steal.

Of course it has no pump and you'd have to wait for it to drip. Perhaps a pump could be improvised. But let's leave that matter out of this.

I'm sure it would clog faster than a filter meant for backpacking. So take two.

The bottom line is probably the particle size that it filters. Does anyone know what this is?

Answer: I don't understand why these threads are so evergreen. Why do people have such problems with using water filters or treatment products appropriate to the conditions they are going to encounter? You check it out in advance, either with the local rangers or in guide books or whatever. Then you take what you need to in order to have the level of safety you are comfortable with.

I can just see the results of this. Hiker A is at the edge of the stream with a proper filter. Pump, pump, pump, filling up a water bottle. Hiker B saunters over.

"What you doing there fellah?" "Filtering some drinking water. Nice day, eh?" "Filtering? With that pump doohicky? Why that thar's way overkill, and far too `spensive. I just pulled a oil filter off muh truck."

At this point, hiker A falls into the lake laughing and drowns. Chalk up another hiker killed by using the wrong filter.