Pur hiker

[JRR]

I was in a thrift store today, and I saw a pur hiker waterfilter in a bag of miscellaneous stuff - a cheap net hammock, a water bladder, and the filter itself - priced a whopping $3.99, so I snagged it.  This thing looks brand new, the filter cartridge is a bright shiny white.  Looks like it's never been used.  Got home, decide to test it, so I took some food coloring and added it to a pot of water and pumped it into a nalgene bottle.  The water came out purple.  Does anyone know if that means the filter has been compromised?  My First Need filter will filter out the coloring.  I'm wondering if I could clean this thing up and use it, or if I just need to Ebay it.  A new cartridge  is like 35 bucks, and a brand new filter is about 60.

Thoughts?

[Ewker]

I wish I could answer that for you but I can't. I can see everyone who has one running home to test it out with food coloring though   

if your happy with your other water filter then sell it. If not go by a new cartridge.

[Cuffs]

do your test again!  It may be that the cartridge has never been used and you are seeing the charcoal bits floating, which is common until they have been flushed out...