Tedco Tornado Tube, Multi Color

Like others have said, it really is a simple little gadget, but tons of fun. From ages 3 to 43, you just can't stop playing around with the setup. Spinning it at different speeds, getting the water rotating sideways then tipping it up, and watching the size and shape of the resulting whirlpool effect. A couple of notes: Tried playing around with 20oz bottles first, worked for creating the whirlpool, but the openings are slightly different and could not get a good seal so there were water leaks. Used plumber's teflon tape when putting it on two 2-liter bottles and that worked like a charm. Filled it with about a tablespoon of multicolored glitter. About half of it floats and half sinks. Then added some red food coloring to get a rich red color. Now flip it up and give it a good few seconds of swirl! It's great to watch the whirlpool form, and watch the floating glitter oscillate up and down the funnel as it tries to decide whether buoyancy or gravity wins!

Product is a wonderful educational toy

I received the product in reasonable time. I'm sure the friend I bought it for will be very happy to receive it.

I wanted a way to couple my Sawyer water filter to a bottle of some kind. I keep the Sawyer in my camping bag and have used it to drink out of streams. The Sawyer also comes with bag that you can fill from a creek or stream and then screw into the inlet. You filter the water in real-time as you drink, allowing you to carry a water supply with you if you're moving away from the stream. This is OK, but I don't like carrying water in the bag because it isn't as robust as a bottle. What I really wanted was to fill the bag and then filter it into a separate bottle. The outlet of the Sawyer uses the same thread type as a standard PET soda bottle. I found that this Tornado Tube is designed to join 2 soda bottle together, but it also allows me to put one on the outlet of my Sawyer. The setup goes like this: Fill the Sawyer bag with water, attach it to the inlet of the filter, then use this adapter to screw the outlet of the filter to an empty soda bottle. Hang the whole mess up from a tree and wait a while. The water will gravity feed through the filter and (eventually) fill your soda bottle with potable water. This is not a solution for short hikes. In fact, it's almost always more convenient to just carry more water with you than to rely on this contraption. Where this shines is as an emergency setup for conditions where you've run out of water and can stop moving long enough to let the filter do its magic. The weight penalty is close to zero but it adds a LOT of capability to the Sawyer filter. The main downside is that it's SLOW. This setup really only works in limited circumstances, like when you just want to top off your water supply and have some time to do it. I suppose it's possible to set up the filter and then carry it in your backpack or whatever so that it filters water as you hike, but it seems a little too cumbersome and fragile for that. It's really an almost-last-ditch option to get you potable water. You also need to have a PET bottle with you. I carry an empty 1 liter bottle in my bag, but unless you're hiking in a remote area, you can often find discarded PET bottles everywhere. Using someone else's trash to filter your drinking water doesn't sound appealing (and finding trash everywhere doesn't improve your opinion of the human race), but this is the sort of setup that you'd only use in an emergency where the alternative is potentially much worse. Look, if you really need a steady supply of water, almost any other option is better than this. One of those pump-style filters will fill a water bottle WAY faster. Water purification tabs are cheap, fast, and convenient. Even boiling can be a better option depending on your needs and equipment. The Sawyer is good to have in your bag because it's compact, requires almost no maintenance, and is ready to go in an emergency. This adapter takes up about as much room in your bag as a Bic lighter but adds flexibility to your water filtration kit that could be useful in an emergency.

Leaks at connection. Not worth the money.