Best filtered water bottles in 2020 to remove bacteria, sediment and more – CNET

Any avid outdoors person knows that a good filtered water bottle is an essential piece of adventure gear. Whether you head out on hikes for a few hours or voyage into backcountry wilderness for days at a time, you never want to find yourself thirsty and without access to clean water. And toting along gallons of bottled water in plastic bottles is not only heavy and expensive — purified bottled water is also an environmental plague.

While many sources of groundwater and tap water are perfectly safe, it's never worth the risk to drink water you're just not certain about. Even if it looks clean, it could be non-potable water contaminated with viruses, bacteria, protozoa or other microorganisms invisible to the human eye. And despite the Safe Drinking Water Act, tap water can still contain contaminants such as lead, chlorine, arsenic, pesticides and even particles from malfunctioning wastewater treatment.