Disclaimer: Itehil sent this product to us for free for a review. That does not affect our opinion about the product. In this article, we list both what we like and dislike. Read more about this here.
What Is the Itehil Self-Pumping Water Filtration System?
Access to clean drinking water is one of the biggest challenges when you’re off-grid, camping, or in an emergency. A water filtration system is a good thing to have in those moments, and Itehil believes it has the perfect product for it.
The Itehil water filtration system has a built-in pump powered by rechargeable batteries, and two filters that supposedly remove 99.999% of the things you don’t want in your drinking water.
According to Itehil, it can filter water from freshwater sources like springs, lakes, ponds, rivers, even urine! I haven’t tried to filter urine yet, but during my tests I have used the filtration system on water from the tap, rain, lakes, and coffee.
This review is written after using the Itehil filtration system for two weeks. We are going to keep testing it and will update the article if it stops working or our opinions change.
Disclaimer
I am not knowledgeable enough to tell you if filtering dirty water is enough to make it safe to drink. I bet we have all heard different opinions on this.
This review is going to be about how the product is to use, not a scientific paper on how clean the water coming out of it is.
Key Features
Filters
There are two replaceable filters.
The first one is a hybrid filter, which removes large particles like sediment and rust. It also has an activated carbon layer, which removes chlorine and organic compounds, making the water taste better.
The second filter is for getting rid of the finer stuff, a so-called Reverse Osmosis (RO) membranes filter. This filter removes things you can only see under a microscope, and can remove things like limescale and heavy metals.
It took me a second to understand how to install the filters, but easy once you get the hang of it. Align the arrow on top of the filter with the unlocked symbol on the filtration system, push it down, and turn it to the locked position. If it’s hard to turn, you can use the tool included.
Itehil recommends changing out these filters every 600-800 gallons. But it depends on what type of water you have been filtering. The cleaner the water, the longer the filters should last.
When you have changed a filter, it’s important to push the filter reset button and let the pump do its initial flushing.
Since these filters are proprietary, I recommend buying a couple of extras just in case Itehil stops making them. To me, that’s a big con with a product that costs this much. The RO filter can be purchased here, and the hybrid filter here.
The filters are not suitable for seawater filtration.
Self-Priming Water Pump
The self-priming water pump, powered by the built-in batteries, will pump water into the filters and out the other side.
It pumps 500 ml (17 fl oz) of water per minute.
On the inlet hose, there is a pre-filter to prevent larger debris from entering the filters. It seems to do a good job of not clogging up the filters.
Built-in Batteries
Two rechargeable 6,000mAh batteries are built-in and charged with an included USB C cable. These do not seem to be user-replaceable.
A small light by the control buttons will blink while it’s charging and stay lit when fully charged.
The pump can filter 9 gallons of water on a full charge, and it takes a little over an hour to charge.
In my test, it filled a 1,5 liter bottle with filtered water in a little over four minutes. How long it takes to get a gallon of filtered water depends on how dirty the water source is.
I could run the pump for about 75 minutes on a full charge, which I think is more than acceptable. It might not run as long when filtering really dirty water, but that’s something I hope to test later on.
Setup and Ease of Use
On one end, you will find the water inlet where you connect the long inlet hose (about 12 ft long).
On the other end, there are two outlets. One is for the clean filtered water (white hose, about 42 inches long), and one for the dirty waste water (blue hose, about 62 inches long). They are easy to connect and disconnect.
The outlet hoses are not as flexible as I would like, but if you can stick it down into a jug, they will stay in place.
The first time you run it, or after you have changed the filters, let the pump run with access to water for at least 35 minutes. Then, when you turn it on a second time, it will wash through the filters for about 30 seconds before it’s ready to use.
To start the pump, hold the off/on button for three seconds. To turn it off, push the button once. Remove the inlet water hose from water and let it run for about 30 seconds to clear out the water inside the filters.
I like that the pump isn’t loud. It’s actually one of the quietest water pumps I have ever heard. Nothing compared to our portable water pump or the RV pump. I could hear the vibration from the surface I put it on more than the pump itself.
The built-in handles on top of the unit make it easy to carry and transport. It’s relatively lightweight at only 13 lbs.
Conclusion & Thoughts
Overall, we have been impressed by the Itehil water filtration system. We haven’t run into any of the issues I have read about this unit online, but we will update this article if we run into any issues.
The dirtiest water we have filtered with this system has been from a freshwater lake, and that water comes out looking and tasting great. It was only from the lake we could see and smell an obvious difference between the waste and filtered water.
As I mentioned in the beginning, I don’t trust these water filtration systems for dirty ponds, but if I was in a life or death situation, I would definitely use it.
I can see this product being useful even at some RV campgrounds with questionable water. Being able to remove chlorine and odd smells from the water with a portable filtration system is great. I am going to buy some more filters to have, just in case.
The downsides with a portable pump like this is that it isn’t quick. If we had to use it to filter all the water we use, it would run constantly and we would go through a lot of filters.
Another downside is the proprietary filters. Itehil could stop making the filters tomorrow, and you would be left with a filtration system without new filters.
I see this as a useful tool to have in emergencies, or on camping trips where you are going to be camping near a lake and don’t want to bring a bunch of water with you. As long as you have a way to recharge the batteries, like a solar panel, you’re going to get filtered water from any freshwater source.
