How long to boil water?

[PrairieWalker]

i thought a minute to be good enough, too, until i found out that was what the cdc recommended.
so, i'm now inclined to think 2 minutes is the way to go.

 

[Guy McVer]

i thought a minute to be good enough, too, until i found out that was what the cdc recommended.
so, i'm now inclined to think 2 minutes is the way to go.

 

[Hammer67]

i thought a minute to be good enough, too, until i found out that was what the cdc recommended.
so, i'm now inclined to think 2 minutes is the way to go.

You can cut that time in half if you wear a double mask.

 

[Blues]

You can cut that time in half if you wear a double mask.

We're getting some feedback, so let's try to avoid any politics so the thread can continue unedited. Thanks.

 

[Mikel_24]

I would take boiling as a last resort, low altitude, plenty of fuel AND time, long term solution... in any other situation, purifying tablets (Micropur Forte) + filtering shoud do the trick. I would like to try one of those stery-pen gadgets that generate UV radiation... seems like they kill pretty much anything alive in the water quite quickly.

I don't own (yet) a filter since I usually wander above the tree line and water sources are quite clean. Many times I rely on stablished fountains or seeps that (as stated before) are naturaly filtered. Melting snow is also a quite clean water source (sometimes it gets dirt or debris on it, but that will not kill you).

Boiling is something to do while in camp at night I guess... not on the go. If you also pack light, chances are you will not carry a big pot, so filling water bottles at 1l per batch... is going to take a long time.

Mikel

 

[gadgetgeek]

I would take boiling as a last resort, low altitude, plenty of fuel AND time, long term solution... in any other situation, purifying tablets (Micropur Forte) + filtering shoud do the trick. I would like to try one of those stery-pen gadgets that generate UV radiation... seems like they kill pretty much anything alive in the water quite quickly.

I don't own (yet) a filter since I usually wander above the tree line and water sources are quite clean. Many times I rely on stablished fountains or seeps that (as stated before) are naturaly filtered. Melting snow is also a quite clean water source (sometimes it gets dirt or debris on it, but that will not kill you).

Boiling is something to do while in camp at night I guess... not on the go. If you also pack light, chances are you will not carry a big pot, so filling water bottles at 1l per batch... is going to take a long time.

Mikel

I have one of the UV pens, and generally use it for "clear" but questionable water. An eye-opener for me was hearing from one person that their favorite water seep was in a place no one could get above, then hearing from someone else that the other side of that rock is a huge bolted route and that many climbers will pop a squat on the seep side of the spire.... yeah, I'm not trusting water to be clean.
Obviously battery power and all that, but everything is compromise, and so far I've found it effective, and low maintenance. No boiling filters when I get home after a day hike.

 

[Guy McVer]

I've been looking into the concept of UV sterilization with a focus on the steripen, and I actually like the idea a lot. There are some reservations I have about it, but people seem to have been using it for many years without falling over dead, so I guess it's just me being overly cautious.

On the subject of cyanotoxins, it would seem that distillation might be the only sure way to separate them from the water. This would mean collecting the re-condensed water after it's been evaporated from boiling or by the use of a solar still. It's quite a lot to go through.

As you know, normal filtration or sterilization will filter out or render the cyanobacteria inert, but it's the toxin they leave behind that's the real problem. Cyanotoxins can be destroyed by UV light, but from what I read about it, the intensity of light needed for this would make it too impractical to be used in normal water treatment. That means a steripen won't be able to make cyanotoxin polluted water safe to drink. Sorry.

Activated carbon might work, but it might not. I don't know.