I always carried water purification tablets when hiking in the mountains...and lots of canteens. In a pinch, the t shirt, water purification tablets thing works fine...boiling is better. Filters are nice, but expensive. I never worried about taste - just hydration.
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**water**
- Thread starter Rick Terscale
- Start date
For non-evacuation situations, this is great for storing water - Water Bob - $20 and store 100 gallons. http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/CAMP205-1.html
They also sell an inexpensive ceramic filtration system for $30 http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/CAMP352-1.html
They also sell an inexpensive ceramic filtration system for $30 http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/CAMP352-1.html
I loaded up on bottled water from Walmart in the 1 gallon jugs. I figured those would store longer than what I got out of the tap. You can also can water in mason jars if you know how to can. Properly canned, I think it will not go bad for a very long time.
I like a purifier for SHTF or backpacking. The tablets work okay but do nothing for the taste or dirt and other stuff in water.
You can also pick up a pack of swimming pool chlorine and it will last a very long time and purify a lot of water. Google on what concentrations to mix it in. The notes I have at home have me mixing up X amount with a gallon of water and then use that gallon to purify 5 gallons at a time. Home Depot buckets are cheap and great for the job. Watch household bleach, it looses it's power with age.
I like a purifier for SHTF or backpacking. The tablets work okay but do nothing for the taste or dirt and other stuff in water.
You can also pick up a pack of swimming pool chlorine and it will last a very long time and purify a lot of water. Google on what concentrations to mix it in. The notes I have at home have me mixing up X amount with a gallon of water and then use that gallon to purify 5 gallons at a time. Home Depot buckets are cheap and great for the job. Watch household bleach, it looses it's power with age.
Here is my recommendation. Get this pen. It uses a UV light to sterilize the water. It will save tons of time trying to store water and look for wood to boil. Just keep extra batteries.
http://www.steripen.com/
Also, In my experience, you do not have to have all the bad taste of water after boiling if you distill it instead. Basically, you would boil the hell out of it, but collect the water vapor and drink it. You do not have to have some fancy still, just something suspended over the pot that will let the steam condensate on, and then run off into a pot. A piece of heavy plastic works great. Distilled water is the purest form of water outside of reverse osmosis....
http://www.steripen.com/
Also, In my experience, you do not have to have all the bad taste of water after boiling if you distill it instead. Basically, you would boil the hell out of it, but collect the water vapor and drink it. You do not have to have some fancy still, just something suspended over the pot that will let the steam condensate on, and then run off into a pot. A piece of heavy plastic works great. Distilled water is the purest form of water outside of reverse osmosis....
Lots of options. The ceramic filter kits are great for most things but they are not fine enough to filter out e-choli. The steri pens are up to the challenge of killing bacteria and even viruses but they do nothing for taste, odor or filtration. Also the steri pen uses batteries, 4AA last 200(16 oz) treatments, so you are forced to carry a LOT of batteries if you are going to use it much. At 50 gallons per set of batteries it isn't bad but recharging batteries or buying more could be a problem. A combination of filtration and UV or Chlorine disinfection is ideal. Thats why municipalities use multi-stage water purification systems. Distilling is indeed the most efficient one-stage process but it means boiling the water and that can be time consuming.
Here is an EPA pamphlet with a breakdown on page 6 that helps as well as some more useful info:
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/faq/pdfs/fs_healthseries_filtration.pdf
This unit by Katadyn is more expensive than the ceramic filter earlier posted but it is .3 micron, manual pump operated and can make up to 500 gallons on a filter.
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/CAMP175-1.html
Here is an EPA pamphlet with a breakdown on page 6 that helps as well as some more useful info:
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/faq/pdfs/fs_healthseries_filtration.pdf
This unit by Katadyn is more expensive than the ceramic filter earlier posted but it is .3 micron, manual pump operated and can make up to 500 gallons on a filter.
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/CAMP175-1.html
Nothing, absolutely nothing, beats boiling. A high end filter is second best. I would advise against purification tablets or bleach. The chemical route can give you the runs and dehydrate you and then you may die. I personally boil the water and then pour it into my canteen (or rather canteens) and then tie 550 cord to the canteens and pitch it back into the water source to cool the water back down to drinking temp. Be careful not to re-contaminate your water by doing this. You will need to ensure that your canteens are absolutely water tight and then you will have to dry them when they come out of the water before you turn the bottoms up. One last thing, be careful about taking advise from some of the survival shows on TV. Be very weary of the ones that suggest drinking your raw urine in substitution to water. These are the ones that will give you advise that will get you killed. Not saying everything they say is a total croc... but sometimes it is hard to disseminate bad advise from good advice, and if they are mixing the two... well.
Boiling is great for killing bacteria and viruses but does not rid the water of potentially harmful chemicals and metals. The best option is to distill the water. For small qunatities you can male a simple solar still for larger quantities a "moonshine" still.
just so you all know..you dont want to store your bottles water and clean water supplies in a warm place like the attic or the trunk of your car for long periods of time. The plastic will permeate carcenegens into the water which is harmful to drink.
