Sawyer O-Ring Replacement - Top Bibb Gasket
I have recommended this to so many hikers and every time I'm on trail I seem to find someone with a leaky filter so I figured I would put it online for the world to see.
Lots of people have problems with the OEM O-Ring that comes on a Sawyer water filter. After extended use or over torquing one they will deform and start leaking on you. When it gets bad enough they fall out of your filter never to be seen again.
Sawyer hooks it up and will send replacements if you email them, however, it kind of sucks to have this happen while hiking with no backup. They sent me 2 replacements free of charge. Took two weeks to get to my door. I have found what seems to be a permanent, reliable, solution years ago. I've even heard of people gluing in their Sawyer OEM ring lol. Supposedly it works well, but adhesives + drinking water = questions raised.
If you're on trail then usually you can find the gasket to a garden house that works for a while but will also crush and deform.
I've been using what's called a Top Bibb Gasket for Faucet Repair. It's made of a harder material than both the OEM O-ring and the ring for hoses. It's a very flush and snug fit. To be honest, it's actually kinda difficult to remove these from sawyers once you put them in. They fit perfectly. The Bibb Gasket is very well made. IT's a PERFECT 1" diameter and fits precisely into the recess on the filter for an O-Ring. I use the 3/32" height one and that is the depth of the recess on the filter. It fits perfectly like it was made for it.
I handed out a few on the Appalachian Trail to people with leaky filters and when I saw them later on up the trail they all told me they were having zero issues with the Bibb Gasket.
My own personal experience is about 5 years on the same gasket in going on 4 sawyer filters. I have taken it out of each filter and installed it in the next. It still looks brand new. It's never fallen out. It's never leaked. It shows no deforming, crushing, pitting, etc.
They cost 99 cents at the hardware store.
I have used it extensively as well. On the LT/Cohos/AT I used the smartwater as a dirty bottle with Sawyer attached. I filtered every drop of my water and therefore was purging the filter on the bottle multiples times a day. I've definitely removed and installed the Sawyer onto a bottle thousands of times with zero issues to report. To me this is a permanent solution. My filter always has a nice secure, positive, seal with whatever bottle or bladder I'm using as well. I've used smartwater, lifewater, evernew, and sawyer bags.
Here's a picture of the item description from Aces Hardware. This is where I bought mine.
https://imgur.com/yIYemDQ
I also posted a video online on the Youtube. "Timmy Wentzell" if you prefer to watch a video instead. I install my original bibb gasket on a Sawyer mini I just got and show how the O-ring still looks new.
Idk why Sawyer hasn't just upgraded their O-Ring with the amount of replacements they send out.
Someone told me that they tried this with a sawyer micro and it leaked. After talking to them more, it seems like the recess that the oring sits in on the filter is deeper on the on the micro. Therefore, a thicker bibb gasket would be needed. However I haven't confirmed this and took this persons word. Could be a fluke. I don't see why Sawyer would change something like that across their filters, unless they were trying to improve the issues people have the with the oring on the newer Micro.
